In news no one saw coming, the Hollywood Reporter revealed that a live-action Pac-Man movie is in the works. Yes, you heard 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 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 the last character 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 Tomb Raider 2 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 what A-List celebrities will voice Pac-Man and the ghosts?