You hear that, dear reader? That is the sound of inevitability... It is the sound of our surprise at any video game getting poached as a possible movie dying the minute we learned Warners had optioned Space Invaders.
Yes, one of – if not the – original arcade classics is currently the subject of fevered negotiations by the studio and a cabal of powerful producers (including The Day After Tomorrow’s Mark Gordon and Paranormal Activity’s Jason Blum) to nab the rights from Taito, the Japanese manufacturer.
Since the game, which first launched in 1978, doesn’t exactly feature the most complicated concept – invading aliens slowly descend from the sky as you try to hold them off with your blocky tank – whoever makes the film would basically be able to take any script with alien nasties and retro-fit it with the name.
Maybe this could lead to the next generation of film watching – forget 3D… How about you get to shoot alien ships from the comfort of your cinema seat?