Universal Pictures Wins Rights To Asteroids

A four-studio bidding war has ended and Universal Pictures has won the film rights to the classic Atari video game "Asteroids." Asteroids was originally released as an arcade game in 1979. In the game, players control a triangular spaceship as they attempt to shoot and destroy masses of rock and an occasional flying saucer while avoiding running into either obstruction.

Unlike today’s games, Asteroids lacks a story line or fancy world-building mythology so Universal Pictures must create a plot from scratch. The studio isn’t new to this process: It’s currently in the middle of creating plots for several popular board games from Hasbro including Battleship and Candyland.


Or maybe it might look a little more like this...

Matthew Lopez will write the script for the adaptation of the game to the big screen. Lopez came from Disney's writing program. He has worked on recent movies such as "Bedtime Stories" and "Race to Witch Mountain." He also wrote the most recent draft of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," which is currently being produced and stars Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel.