New Line planning Space Invaders movie from Mortal Kombat writer Greg Russo

July 12th 2019, 4:30pm

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

While video game movies certainly have a negative stigma attached to them, recent releases like TOMB RAIDER, RAMPAGE, and this summer’s adorable DETECTIVE PIKACHU have started to turn the tide with not terribly reviewed outings that did well at the box office. Studios are clearly taking that as their own cue to press “Start” on any properties they can, and now New Line is ready to crack a sleeve of quarters and jump into a movie version of the hit 1978 arcade game from Taito, “Space Invaders.”

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Deadline got the exclusive that Warner Bros. bought the movie rights to the game several years ago, and New Line will be handling the project with Greg Russo set to write the script. Russo already made his presence known in the video game adaptation arena with a new take on MORTAL KOMBAT, which is being produced by James Wan, directed by Simon McQuoid and with THE RAID’s Joe Taslim recently cast as Sub-Zero. Akiva Goldsman will be producing SPACE INVADERS through his Weed Road Pictures alongside Safehouse Pictures' Joby Harold and Tory Tunnell.

No details have been revealed about where the studio plans to take a “Space Invaders” movie, but the premise does lend itself rather bluntly to a space invasion flick a la INDEPENDENCE DAY. The entire concept makes players steer an arcade stick and mash buttons as they blast alien forces out of the sky, which they must do until they save the world and have permanent wrist damage, or until they are overcome by invading forces and, well, still have permanent wrist damage.

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INVADERS is just one of the many video game movies being planned at the moment, with adaptations of UNCHARTED, GEARS OF WAR, THE LAST OF US, MONSTER HUNTER, CALL OF DUTY, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, and more RESIDENT EVIL movies (from Russo, coincidentally) in some phase of development. DETECTIVE PIKACHU is the most recent movie, which has made over $140 million domestically and over $400 million worldwide, and with a 67% Rotten Tomatoes score, is the best-reviewed video game movie of all time.

Like RAMPAGE, a "Space Invaders" movie has a simple enough story to build off of and get wild with, which is hopefully what Russo and everyone else decides to cook up. If it's just going to be like another alien invasion flick, or worse, the movie PIXELS, than why in the world would they even go down this road? You can only blow so many aliens out of the sky, you know. This is very early in development and it seems Russo has his plate full with a bunch of gaming-related movies, so there will be a ton more to learn about this project going forward.