14 DAY TRIAL // Crystal Sky Pictures is not your typical Hollywood production house that aims to get big stars, throw in some computer generated graphics and then execute an aggressive marketing campaign to guarantee the success of a movie. No, they know that the public is in search of heroes, of icons and examples that can be followed, so they chose to make a movie that's based on the biggest hero the gaming world has ever seen: a little yellow, mouthed blob called Pac-Man.
Crystal Sky Pictures is announcing that it has received some 200 million in financing for its productions, from Grosvenor Park. The deal is conditioned by Crystal Sky making five movies using the money received - one of the projects just happens to feature Pac-Man.
The other projects are also pretty much gaming related. A movie adaptation of the classic Castlevania is the most advanced of the projects, with Paul Anderson of the Resident Evil fame doing the writing, while Sylvain White is set to direct the movie. A Hard Boiled 2 movie is also in advanced pre-production phase, although further details are not known, and other video gaming franchises are being looked at to provide the intellectual property for other productions.
Sure, Pac-Man does not have much of a backstory, if you think about it, and his acting abilities are surely not extraordinary. He also has the dubious distinction of being extremely old and maybe even a bit irrelevant to some of the people that play videogames at the moment. But, if done right, a Pac-Man movie could draw in huge nostalgia-fuelled crowds of gamers.
There's also word from Halcyon Company that they've snapped up the rights to use the novels and short stories of Philip K. Dick as inspiration for movies and for two videogames. I hope they make a cool, classic adventure game out of Blade Runner. And the game must have electric sheep mini-games somewhere in it.