Arcade games have been getting some love in Hollywood lately, whether it's more generically as in Tron: Legacy or Disney's upcoming animated film Wreck-It Ralph. Now, one of Hollywood's hottest action directors has decided to try his hands at adapting a classic.
Ruben Fleischer, who made landed on a lot of directing shortlists after 2009's Zombieland became a big hit, and has shoot-'em-up mob flick Ganster Squad in theaters this coming January, has endeavored to make the '80s arcade game Spy Hunter into a movie for Warner Bros.
This isn't the first time that the 1983 Bally Midway game has aspired to the big screen. Vulture mentions a 2004 effort that went through the ringer for a few years that would've teamed director John Woo with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and also a Paul W.S. Anderson-helmed take that the director passed on for a similar "driving cars and shooting guns" film in 2007's Death Race.
For those unfamiliar, Spy Hunter is an upright driving game that featured a wheel and acceleration pedal. Players become a spy in an armored sports car driving down a highway shooting at enemy cars and avoiding civilians, all to the tune of Henry Mancini's theme from Peter Gunn.
That type of needless carnage sounds perfect for Fleischer's tastes. All of his films have featured driving and/or chase scenes and plenty of gunfire.
Although a 2010 script exists written by Chad St. John, Fleischer plans on bringing in new screenwriters to tackle the adaptation.
