The biggest leap ever made between a narratively barren brand and a successful Hollywood film has got to be The Lego Movie, which Warner Bros. somehow fashioned into a raucously fun time at the cineplex for all ages and sensibilities. Even Universal's megaflop Battleship had more "story" for its filmmakers to work with.
Now the studio that made colorful plastic bricks into a $467 million worldwide box office smash is hoping to do it again with Space Invaders, the classic video game that was just a couple of pixels better than Pong.
Jeff Sneider at TheWrap reported Friday that Warner Bros. has acquired feature films rights to the standup arcade game, and has attached some pedigreed producers to somehow turn a left-right joystick and a "fire" button into a feature film. They include Akiva Goldsman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I Am Legend), Joby Harold (executive producer of Edge of Tomorrow) and Tory Tunnell (Trumbo).
No telling whether Space Invaders will ever actually become a movie -- intellectual property of all stripes is in the pipeline all over Hollywood that will never see the light of day. But hey, if you can do it with tiny plastic bricks, you can do it with anything.
Besides, isn't every third Hollywood movie some version of Space Invaders these days?