Atari’s Centipede Slithers to Big Screen! Somebody Call Tom Six!

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You’ve gotta give it to movie studios! They’re bound and determined to capitalize on any and every adaptation they can! Deadline reports that Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films has closed a deal to partner with Atari to produce and finance two feature films based on Centipede and Missile Command, the classic arcade game properties. Has no one learned anything since Pixels?

Randall Emmett and George Furla will produce, and Atari, Stephen Belafonte, Wayne Marc Godfrey, and Robert Jones will be executive producers on the film projects.

Both of the shooter games launched in 1980 during what was considered a golden age of video arcade games. In Centipede, players battled against a pestilence fusillade that included the title critters, spiders, scorpions, and fleas. In Missile Command, players had to protect six California cities from a barrage of ballistic missiles. These both seem to be the type of branded sci-fi properties film companies covet; the challenge for the producers will be to create a narrative arc while keeping the exhilaration of blowing stuff up intact.

Atari CEO Fred Chesnais said the company was “thrilled to partner with Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films to develop feature films based on two of our most beloved titles. Centipede and Missile Command are part of Atari’s unparalleled and rich library of popular games and we cannot wait to see the movies come to life.

Emmett called the games “immensely popular titles [that] have been enjoyed by generations of gamers worldwide. We look forward to a very successful partnership and to bringing Centipede and Missile Command to the big screen.

If done as a fun, cheesy sci-fi flick about giant attacking insects, Centipede could work. What say you?

Centipede

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