Asteroids Movie Rights Licensed By Universal

The license to make movies based upon video games has become increasingly popular in recent years. Almost inexplicably, it has become Asteroids' turn to be optioned for film, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Captain Picard reacts to the Asteroid movie news.

Universal apparently won a bidding war with three other studios for the movie rights to the thirty-year-old Atari franchise. Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Constantine, Doom, Transformers, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) will produce, while Matthew Lopez (Bedtime Stories, Race to Witch Mountain) has been tapped to write the script. Universal Senior VP of production Jeff Kirschenbaum will oversee the Asteroids project.

Now, Asteroids might be one of the more recognizable game franchises in the Western world, given that most everyone has played it in one form or another; however, the lack of any plot or action that could be easily turned into a movie leaves us scratching our heads over this news. We suppose it at least leaves the doors wide open for a very creative script, since there's no specific video game lore that the writers will have to strictly adhere to.