Brand-based movies are big business in Hollywood right about now. From Air to Blackberry, and from The Beanie Bubble to Flamin' Hot to Unfrosted, there's something about getting the inside track on the stories behind the world's biggest enterprises that studios just can't get enough of. And now, per Deadline's reporting, it looks like Steven Spielberg and Judd Apatow are the latest lining up to drink the company pic Kool-Aid — or rather sup the soda-y stuff. The cinema juggernauts are teaming up to respectively produce and direct Sony's upcoming Cola Wars, a new movie that's set to pop the can on Pepsi's efforts to dethrone Coke as the kings of cola back in the late 70s to mid 80s.
Acapulco co-creator and writer Jason Shuman is tooling up to pen Cola Wars alongside Cars 2 and 3 scribe Ben Queen, with the initial pitch for the movie having been enough to see Sony open their coffers to the tune of $1 million for the project. For those who didn't live through The (Other) Great War, fizzing tensions between Pepsi and Coca-Cola reached bubbling point in the 1980s, with Pepsi carrying out unscientific taste-test ad skirmishes to try and usurp their carbonated competitors, and the red-and-white branded giant retaliating in kind by unleashing Diet Coke and reformulating their black beverage as the short-lived New Coke (much to consumers' chagrin). Along the way, there were ill-fated celebrity endorsements (Michael Jackson being set on fire lost Pepsi some points), strategies, and counter strategies galore, all ripe for the cinematic picking.
As Deadline's article states, Cola Wars is still in very early development at this point, and so it's unlikely Apatow and Spielberg will get this one in the, er, can anytime soon. But with a blockbuster take on the branding battle of the century on the cards, two of Hollywood's finest at the helm, and Sony stumping up the big bucks to make this one happen, there's plenty to get excited about. Will Cola Wars be a sparkling success? Or is it destined to leave audiences feeling flat? We guess we'll just have to wait and Pep-see.