We’ve recently seen a renewed flurry of interest in short films – directors like District 9’s Neill Blomkamp have gotten work from their short films (and in Blomkamp’s case, even adapted them into their first features). We now add Patrick Jean to the list of directors making the leap, who is currently working to turn his fun short Pixels into a movie with Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison company.
The short (which you can run your eyes over below) has a neat little high concept, in that video game characters including Pac Man and Donkey Kong invade the real world and start turning New York into blocks. Sent viral with a little help from the Tweeting likes of Edgar Wright, it’s become a minor sensation.
While it’s early days for the film version, the plan apparently is to expand the idea into a comedy with video game characters causing chaos in the real world. Sounds like just the sort of pic Sandler does once in a while, though we’re betting that unless they can secure the rights to some famous game icons (tricky, since most are owned by studios and on their way to becoming films themselves) the eventual release will need some original virtual menaces.
Happy Madison is talking to Sony about setting up the project, but nothing is in place just yet. Meanwhile… enjoy the short.