New Line has announced plans for a film adaptation of the classic 1978 Taito arcade game “Space Invaders”.
Essentially the first ‘shooter’ video game ever invented, The game featured several descending rows of aliens firing lasers at the hero, a horizontally sliding laser cannon at the bottom of the screen which tried to destroy them.
The aim of the player was to kill them all before they reached the lowest level. The problem was the more that died, the faster the subsequent creatures moved. Beyond that though there was no real mythology or story behind the game which gives any filmmaker a certain amount of freedom.
Warner Bros. Pictures picked up the rights to the property back in 2014 with Akiva Goldsman, Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell to produce. They’re still attached but the project has now moved to New Line where upcoming “Mortal Kombat” film reboot scribe Greg Russo has been hired to pen the script.
Russo has become a go-to guy for game-to-film adaptations and is also working on Constantin Film’s “Resident Evil” reboot along with F. Gary Gray’s “Saints Row” film.
