Newly formed film production company CP Productions announced their plan to bring several new and classic games to the big screen. Their first film project is none other than Williams Electronics’ classic arcade game Joust. Prepare to furrow those raised eyebrows because the film premise is even more ridiculous.
Michael Cerenzie, co-founder of CP Productions, describes the proposed film as "Gladiator meets Mad Max". The film will be set 25 years into the future and will feature a suspended Las Vegas in mid-air. Production should be finished by June 2008. According to the article, "several A-list directors are already interested…", that certainly makes me cringe a little.
Cerenzie said, "Joust is an arcade game that’s as old as Pac-Man and has global awareness. We took one element of the game and the brand itself and built a whole new world around it for the film. We’ve updated the game into a commercial, tent pole movie."
If the movie doesn’t have over-the-top jousting, I’m going to be angry. While standard jousting on horses (or an ostrich for the game’s sake) is boring, I expect jousting on dragons, or on flying surfboards over volcanoes, underwater or in space with random explosions going off.
Joust was originally released in 1982 by Williams Electronics. The gameplay consisted of jousting enemy knights while riding an ostrich along with collecting dropped eggs for extra points. If the eggs aren’t collected, an additional and stronger knight will hatch. If you want to relive the classic game, you can play it here.
In 1988, the parent company of Williams Electronics acquired Midway and Bally’s pinball division. To this day, Midway Games owns the copyrights and trademarks to a variety of Williams’ video game library. You can blame Midway if this movie tanks.
[Via GameDaily BIZ]
