Hollywood studios are clearly doing their best to stay away from any video games, and apparently the next “Oregon Trail” movie is on the way.
It may have been forgotten by the wider gaming audience these days, but it’s hard to deny that the original Oregon Trail was an iconic game. Literally everyone who played this game died from something stupid, usually from dysentery, and honestly it’s arguably one of the early comedy games – what’s funnier than having your car break down Something because you didn’t think of stocking up on enough feed for your cattle three towns ago! Whether or not that’s a particularly compelling narrative, well, I’d lean toward the latter, but according to The Hollywood Reporter , it’s more than enough to turn the classic game into a movie.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, the movie has landed at Apple, the same computer manufacturer that produced the 1985 version (the one you probably think of when you recall “The Oregon Trail”). Apparently, the film is still in the early stages of development, with directing duo Will Speck and Josh Gordon set to direct. If you remember Will Ferrell and Jon Heder working together, you may know them better for the 2007 film Blades of Glory, but they also worked on the Marvel animated series Hit- Monkey”. Benji Pasek and Justin Paul will compose the film’s score, and sources tell The Hollywood Reporter there will be some Barbie-inspired original music. The two also wrote “Dear Evan Hansen,” so whether that’s a win or not is up to you.
Kenny and Keith Lucas wrote the script with Max Reisman, and Caroline Fraser produced with Kevin K. Varfe for HarperCollins (best known as publisher , but apparently also the copyright holder of The Oregon Trail).
Who knows what this game will become, there are plenty of other weird game adaptations in the works, so Hollywood will eventually realize it can’t milk every game out there.
