With the Sonic the Hedgehog movies making big bucks at the box office and a new Super Mario Bros. film coming to theaters this winter, another classic video game character wants to get in on the fun. Per The Hollywood Reporter, it has been announced that a new live-action movie based on Pac-Man is now in development. The project is a collaboration between Bandai Namco Entertainment and Wayfarer Studios. It will be produced by Justin Baldoni, Manu Gargi, and Andrew Calof of Wayfarer Studios alongside Chuck Williams and Tim Kwok for Lightbeam Entertainment.
It is noted that the movie will be live-action, but nothing has been revealed about the plot. The story is said to be based on an original pitch by Williams. While described as live-action, it's still possible that this could be a live-action/animation hybrid with a CGI Pac-Man fleeing from ghosts in the real world. However, it's unclear at this time if that's the case or if the plan is to reimagine Pac-Man as a human being. In any case, it will take some creativity on Williams' part to tell a compelling Pac-Man story as a feature film.
Pac-Man has gotten animated adaptations, including an animated series from Hanna-Barbera that aired on television in the early 1980s. A CG-animated series dubbed Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures aired on Disney XD in 2013 as well. The character has also been featured on the big screen with special appearances in movies like Pixels, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Wreck-It Ralph, and Ralph Breaks the Internet. There have been attempts for many years for an official Pac-Man movie to be made, but it's never come to fruition.
Pac-Man Joins Many Upcoming Video Game Adaptations
The success of movies like Sonic the Hedgehog, Uncharted, Mortal Kombat, and Detective Pikachu have only inspired more video game adaptations to be made. While the previous Super Mario Bros. movie is infamous, Nintendo has a new animated movie on the way that's coming to theaters in December featuring Chris Pratt as the voice of Mario. Upcoming adaptations are also in the works on the small screen as well, including a Twisted Metal series at Peacock and a Last of Us series at HBO. Perhaps it was just a matter of time until Pac-Man entered this realm.
Originally released in Japan in 1980 as Puck Man, Pac-Man is one of the most well-known video games of all time, having since been ported to a variety of consoles following its debut on arcade machines. The simple game has players taking on the role of Pac-Man, tasked with eating every dot in the corridors of a maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. While Pac-Man is mostly defenseless, he can temporarily gain the ability to "eat" ghosts if he reaches a special "Power Pellet," briefly putting the ghosts out of commission.
A release date has not yet been announced for the live-action Pac-Man movie, but with the project announced, more news should hopefully be soon forthcoming.