Director/producer Chris Columbus (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) steps back behind the camera for the first time since directing 2010’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief with Sony Picture Entertainment’s Pixels, an action comedy inspired by old-school video games. The cast is led by Adam Sandler and features Kevin James, Josh Gad, Michelle Monaghan, and Game of Thrones‘ Peter Dinklage, with Sony targeting a summer 2015 release date.
According to the studio, filming will take place this June.
Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling wrote the script (Pixel‘s based on Patrick Jean’s short film – watch it below) and Sandler, Columbus, Allen Covert, Michael Barnathan, and Mark Radcliffe are producing. Herlihy, Barry Bernardi, Jack Giarraputo, Heather Parry and Seth Gordon are on board as executive producers.
“By combining the visceral power of 80’s arcade games with state-of-the-art visual effects, Pixels will take the audience to a place they’ve never been before,” explained Columbus.
“Working together, Adam Sandler and Chris Columbus have created a story that will deliver truly unique action, comedy and special effects, and bring back beloved arcade game characters in a delightfully original manner. Pixels is the perfect showcase for Adam’s brand of all-audience comedy,” stated Columbia Pictures President Doug Belgrad.
The Plot:
In the film, when aliens misinterpret video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper has to call on his childhood best friend, ’80s video game champion Jules Brenner, now a home theater installer, to lead a team of old-school arcaders to defeat the aliens and save the planet.
