Atari signs deal with Universal to turn 10 classic games into films

Atari has signed a deal with Universal Pictures and production company Entertainment 360 giving the studio rights to adapt 10 classic Atari games into films, with the first script already bought.

TL;DR

• Atari has partnered with Universal Pictures and Entertainment 360 on a 10-title film deal.
• The games covered include Asteroids, Adventure, Berzerk, Breakout, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong and Yars’ Revenge.
• Universal has already bought an original screenplay from Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe, though the specific game it adapts hasn’t been confirmed.
• Guymon Casady of Entertainment 360 will produce, following Universal’s box office success with the Super Mario Bros. films.

What the deal covers

According to Deadline, which broke the story, Atari has handed Universal Pictures the rights to develop 10 of its best-known arcade titles for the big screen. The list includes Asteroids, Adventure, Berzerk, Breakout, Centipede, Crystal Castles, Millipede, Missile Command, Pong and Yars’ Revenge.

Universal has already bought the first project from the partnership: a feature film based on unspecified Atari IP, to be produced by Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady from a screenplay by Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe. Both writers will also serve as producers on the project.

Why now?

The move follows Universal’s box office success with its Super Mario Bros. films and mirrors Hollywood’s broader appetite for video game IP, alongside recent hits like Sonic the Hedgehog and A Minecraft Movie. According to Deadline, Reilly previously worked as a longtime executive at Universal, while Hampe’s recent screenplay credits include “Hellboy” and “Jungle Cruise.”

Atari chairman and chief executive Wade Rosen said the company was building on more than 50 years of brand recognition. “For more than five decades, Atari has created games and worlds that have remained part of popular culture long after their original release,” Rosen said. “We are excited to work with Universal and Entertainment 360 to bring the spirit of our iconic brand and games to a new medium,” he added, according to Deadline.

Casady struck a similar note, according to Engadget, saying the appeal of Atari’s catalogue lies in how open-ended the games are, with Reilly and Hampe seeing an opportunity to build an original, large-scale adventure around that spirit.

A rocky history of Atari movie attempts

This isn’t the first time Hollywood has circled Atari’s back catalogue. Previous attempts to adapt games like Missile Command, Centipede and Asteroids have been announced in the past, though their outcomes have remained unclear. It is not yet known which of the 10 titles will headline the first release, though industry chatter points to Asteroids or Adventure as likely candidates given the ambition for a blockbuster-scale story.

UK box office context

No UK release date, certificate or streaming platform has been set, as the project remains at screenplay stage. For scale, though, the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film — one of the video game adaptations Universal is chasing comparisons to — earned £19,301,130 at the UK box office in its opening run, according to Film Distributors Association figures cited by Wikipedia. Source: FDA Yearbook 2021

What happens next

Universal has not commented publicly beyond the Deadline report, and Atari is represented by IAG and Vanderkloot Law in the deal. Reaction online has been mixed, with some fans questioning how thin arcade-era games like Pong or Centipede can sustain feature-length stories, and others intrigued by the possibility of an Atari cinematic universe.