The first casting announcements for Chris Columbus’ next project PIXELS have been announced today with actors Josh Gad and Kevin James in early talks to star. The story is centred on 4 champion arcade gamers tasked with saving the world when aliens attack using 80’s video games as their weapons; easily the best movie synopsis we’ve read in a while.
Not too much is known about PIXELS just yet, other than it is aiming for a 2016 release and the screenplay is being penned by Timothy Dowling (ROLE MODELS) and Tim Herlihy (GROWN UPS 2) and is based on a short by Patrick Jean. There’s rumours circulating that Adam Sandler may also play one of the gamers but officially his involvement is currently on the production side only.
Gad, as adorable snowman Olaf, might just have been our favourite thing about Disney’s gargantuan hit FROZEN where he got to show off his vocal talents that he first debuted on Broadway as one of the leads in The Book Of Mormon. He’s also proved his comic talents in movies THE INTERNSHIP, THANKS FOR SHARING and LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS and whilst we don’t yet know the genre of PIXELS perhaps he can combine his vocal and comic abilities once more. Kevin James is a comedy stalwart with lead roles in HITCH, I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY, PAUL BLART: MALL COP and GROWN UPS.
Films centred around video games have been successful in recent history with WRECK-IT RALPH, TRON:LEGACY and SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD all performing well. Never one to let a good idea go, the next few years sees a whole host of video game spin off movies being produced by Hollywood including NEED FOR SPEED with Aaron Paul, due for release in the UK next month, ASSASSIN’S CREED in 2015 which will star Michael Fassbender and no less than 3 big movies coming our way in 2016 – ANGRY BIRDS, MASS EFFECT and the Ben Foster/Dominic Cooper fest WARCRAFT.
Looks like if you’re not a video game themed movie fan you may want to avoid the cinemas for the next few years! All joking aside, we can’t wait to hear more about PIXELS as it moves into production later this year.
Source: Deadline
