Asteroids to Bombard the Big Screen

July 02, 2009

That little mostly black image you see there is the jist of Atari's Asteroids videogame. A little triangle spins around in a circle shooting incoming Asteroids and the occasional spaceship wanting nothing more than to collide with the triangle.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Universal beat out three other studios vying for the rights to turn Asteroids into a feature-length film. The other studios were not disclosed.

Asteroids will be produced by a man no stranger to tapping into 80s nostalgia, Lorenzo di Bonaventura. In addition to wrapping up GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, di Bonaventura's other upcoming projects include films based on the board games Battleship and Candyland.

Matthew Lopez will pen the script that will have to include an original plot due to the game's lack thereof. His recent work includes Bedtime Stories and Race to Witch Mountain, along with the shooting draft of The Sorcerer's Apprentice starring Nicholas Cage and currently in production. He might want to rent The Last Starfighter on Blu-ray Disc this fall for some inspiration.