Universal takes a shot at ‘Asteroids’

When you think of the hottest movie options out there, ones being bid on heavily in a battle between four major studios, which option comes to mind? Did you immediately think of the classic Atari game ‘Asteroids’ or where you just as surprised as I was?

Universal Pictures ultimately came out on top in this bidding war, claiming the feature film adaptation rights as their prize. Matthew Lopez will write the screenplay, the story of which could go just about anywhere. In case you’ve forgotten the game, story was not necessarily the driving element in it’s success.

Lopez emerged from Disney’s writing program, having worked on ‘Bedtime Stories’ and ‘Race to Witch Mountain’. He most recently wrote a draft for ‘The Sorcerers Apprentice’. So, I can let him slide on ‘Bedtime Stories’ but, with ‘Race to Witch Mountain’ under his belt, I am not expecting much from this film… actually, I wasn’t expecting much to begin with now that I think about it.

It gets better folks. Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing. Yeah, even though it hasn’t hit theaters yet, his most recent project is ‘G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra’. Not a good sign, if you ask me. So, if we’re lucky we’ll get to watch 90 minutes of a little spaceship blowing hollow asteroids into skinny white blast lines on the big screen… cross your fingers!

[source: Hollywood Reporter]