quote: Engadget

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'Space Invaders' movie is closer to becoming a reality

The writer behind the 'Mortal Kombat' reboot is involved.

Warner Bros. bought the movie rights to Space Invaders years ago, and now it looks ready to do something with the classic alien-blasting franchise. Deadline reports that Warner's New Line Cinema is advancing production on the film, with Mortal Kombat reboot writer Greg Russo handling the script. There's no release window yet, although the lack of detail suggests you'll be waiting a while.

It's safe to presume the story will be more sophisticated than fending off waves of slowly marching alien hordes. Whether or not it's any good is another story. Hollywood still has a poor track record for movie adaptations of games, and nostalgia trips centered on classic titles tend to fare badly. There's also the question of age -- a large chunk of the audience didn't even exist when Taito released Space Invaders in 1978. The simplicity should allow some artistic freedom, though, so we wouldn't rule out a pleasant surprise.

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The Source
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 07-14-2019, 01:35 AM:
 
Just off the top of my head, here's a story suggestion (copyrighted 2019 by your's truly, Bobby Henderson), set the movie in the 1979-1980 time frame. Center it around a Soba Shop restaurant in Japan where every dining table is actually a table-top Space Invaders game. FYI, I personally saw this kind of thing during my childhood when my Dad was stationed in Japan. The movie will have a mix of interesting Japanese characters. And then there's some American characters us "Gaijin" Americans can relate to since they're either American military personnel, wives or American kids from one of the nearby Army, Navy or Marine Corps bases. It can kind of work like a Japanese-American re-boot of Clerks or Mallrats, all without having to pay Kevin Smith anything!! Isn't that great!? Work in a lot of retro late-1970's cultural shit, like the movie Alien or Disco dying and the arrival of New Wave. The concept I'm suggesting is bound to be 1000% times more interesting than the bullshit they'll probably vomit onto theater screens everywhere.

Space Invaders was kind of a tiresome game. But that last invader could be a bitch to hit, especially with those slow-ass 1980's era computing systems. I loved coin-op games like Defender and Robotron: 2084 infinitely more than freaking Space Invaders. Even Pac-Man was more interesting. Still, anyone who was alive in 1980 probably could remember that "thump thump thump thump" march of the Space Invaders.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-14-2019, 12:50 PM:
 
Agreed on all counts. I was pretty good at Defender; it was and still is my favorite video game. I was pretty good at Missile Command too, it's my close second fave.

Space Invaders is dull as dishwater compared to either of those. A movie based on that game would rank just below Angry Birds on my excitement meter.
 

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Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 07-14-2019, 02:06 PM:
 

 

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Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 07-16-2019, 12:37 AM:
 
Ah, yes... Defender. That game actually had an engaging and addicting game-play and pretty great graphics for the time. Still, barely anything there to fuel the backstory of a movie.

There is a lot of cool stuff you could do with some 70s or 80s retro culture, especially if you make it a bit more international and include e.g. Japanese culture at the time.

The problem is, Space Invaders has as much background story as Pong: Zilch. And it resonates with the younger movie-going generation like a wooden spoon...

So, what we'll probably get is another "Battleship", where the story is lame and we get some gimmicky references to one of the lamest video games of the late 1970s.

Hollywood seems to be bad at judging their own track record of big-budget train-wrecks. When was the last really successful video-game based release?

The irony is that many recent video games have much more engaging story lines than your average Hollywood blockbuster now dares to bring to the table. If you really need to get your story material from video games, why not from the likes of Bioshock, Half-Life, What Remains of Edith Finch, Portal and many more... or if you want to go retro, some of the old LucasFilm Games/LucasArts classics like Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island... you know, stuff that comes with characters and story...
 

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Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 07-16-2019, 03:49 PM:
 
I thought Starship Troopers was a Space Invaders adoption already.

- Carsten
 

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 07-17-2019, 10:16 PM:
 
Hire Roland Emmerich to write and direct.

I mean, it's going to be awful anyway, why not guarantee it's as awful as possible.
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-23-2019, 05:10 PM:
 
I like Leo's idea.... I see a remake in the near future....
 

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