In news no one saw coming, HR reported that a live-action Pac-Man movie is in the works. Yes, you read that right. The film is in collaboration between Bandai Namco Entertainment and production company Wayfarer Studios. Wayfarer Studios is a small independent studio that has worked on smaller films like the drama Five Feet Apart.
The live-action Pac-Man movie will come off the heels of the Detective Pikachu motion picture and the two Sonic the Hedgehog films. The Sonic live-action films proved to be a hit, potentially ushering in a new era of video game-based films starting with Pac-Man. While Pac-Man seems like one of the last characters you would have thought of getting his own film, Pac-Man is a video game icon and is recognizable throughout the world. People all over know the yellow circle of Pac-Man, and that brand recognition is more than enough to justify making a Pac-Man movie. If Sega could make Sonic a success in live-action, then Bandai Namco can make Pac-Man work.
Pac-Man isn’t the strangest video game to get the motion picture greenlit. There have been talks about making Tetris an epic live-action film series for years. There are other video game-based films in the pipeline, including several Sonic the Hedgehog spin-offs and sequels. There are also films based on Metal Gear Solid, Five Nights at Freddy’s, and a new Tomb Raider in various degrees of production. The Pac-Man movie may beat them to the punch and get a release before the other video game films.
Pac-Man was one of the first arcade video games to achieve international success. The first game has you play as a yellow ball who needs to eat yellow pellets in a maze while being chased by four ghosts—Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. We should expect to see the ghosts make their way into the movie. Now the question on everyone’s mind is, which A-List celebrities will voice Pac-Man and the ghosts?
