After “District 9” proved such a huge sleeper hit last year, the studios more than ever have their eye on the short film world, in the hope of finding the next hot director. Already this year a huge stir was caused by Carl Erik Rinsch’s sci-fi short “The Gift,” which made the Ridley Scott protege a contender to helm “X-Men: First Class,” as well as sparking rumors that a feature version of the short might be made (although no deal has materialized).
Around the same time, a short entitled “Pixels” started making the rounds online, and is also causing a huge stir. Helmed by French director Patrick Jean, it’s a FX-heavy clip, scored with a song by Naive New Beaters, and features a swarm of pixellated 8-bit video game icons, including the likes of Donkey Kong and Pacman, causing havoc and devastation in New York City. Now, Deadline report that Adam Sandler’s production company Happy Madison are in negotiations to develop a feature version of the short, in the form of a “Ghostbusters” style adventure comedy in, you guessed it, 3D.
The company are in discussions with Columbia about setting the project up there. There’s no word if Jean will helm the big-screen version, but we imagine he’s a contender. Similarly, it’s not hard to imagine that Sandler would star in the film. While the clip is charming and ingenious, it’s also pretty one-joke, and we can’t imagine a feature length version adding anything new and vital to the original (which you can watch below). At least there’s the possibility of seeing Rob Schneider getting eaten by Pacman, and we suppose it was only a matter of time before we got a cinematic version of the bullshit borrowed 8-bit nostalgia that you can’t escape on hipster t-shirts.