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    A series of games based on the 1979 space shooter, where the player must destroy asteroids whilst avoiding being hit.

    Roland Emmerich Is No Longer Interested In Exploring the Many Cinematic Possibilites of 'Asteroids'

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    alex

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    Edited By alex

    Director Roland Emmerich, the man who so famously blew up the "earf" via alien invasion in Independence Day, via global warming/cooling in The Day After Tomorrow, via Mayan prophecy in 2012, and via...uh...Shakespearean conspiracy in the upcoming film Anonymous, has finally found a premise unworthy of his explodey importance.

    The sheer cinematicness of it all...it's staggering.
    The sheer cinematicness of it all...it's staggering.

    Specifically, he has apparently decided to drop any plans to turn Asteroids, the classic arcade game that featured a powerful space cruiser (in the form of a triangle) blowing up an ever-increasing onslaught of massive asteroids (in the form of various misshapen circles) into a film (presumably in the form of something featuring actors, and dialogue.)

    The idea of an Asteroids movie has been kicking around since Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the famous producer most recently known for somehow turning a live action G.I. Joe into even more of a cartoon than the cartoon it was based on, picked up the rights back in 2009 and started saying highly infuriating things like this to IGN:

    "It's funny because people say there's nothing in the game, but that's not entirely right" he explained. "I was attracted to Asteroids, plain and simple, because I think what it tells you is that there's going to be this big thing in space."

    "We've crafted a really strong, deep mythology for the thing. Without divulging too much about it, it's two lead characters - two brothers - who have to go through a seminal experience to figure out their relationship, against this huge backdrop."

    But what of the title's point-and-shoot gameplay? "Well you'd better have some guys in spaceships blowing stuff up" he continued "or else you haven't honoured the fun of Asteroids."

    While "a big thing in space" and "blowing stuff up" sounds like the sort of thing that Emmerich might jump on, given his love of big things and blowing them up, evidently Emmerich has been telling folks at the Toronto International Film Festival that he's no longer involved. Said Emmerich:

    I was very honored that they wanted to have me as a director, and I kind of liked the script very much, but at that time I was writing with my writing partner Harold Kloser a new script called Singularity and I opted for that.

    Singularity is also a sci-fi film, albeit one that's had little discussion among Hollywood circles at this point. While it's equally likely that Emmerich didn't want to throw his hat into the "giant asteroid" genre of films, which already achieved undeniable perfection in 1998 with Michael Bay'sArmageddon, it is at least nice to hear a director, even one of such generally...consistent talents as Emmerich, opt for an original project over another needless video game movie.

    Not that that will stop Asteroids from happening, of course. Maybe after he gets done turning Battleship into the most absurd waste of $200 million anyone has ever seen, Peter Berg can give it the old college try.

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    alex

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    #1  Edited By alex

    Director Roland Emmerich, the man who so famously blew up the "earf" via alien invasion in Independence Day, via global warming/cooling in The Day After Tomorrow, via Mayan prophecy in 2012, and via...uh...Shakespearean conspiracy in the upcoming film Anonymous, has finally found a premise unworthy of his explodey importance.

    The sheer cinematicness of it all...it's staggering.
    The sheer cinematicness of it all...it's staggering.

    Specifically, he has apparently decided to drop any plans to turn Asteroids, the classic arcade game that featured a powerful space cruiser (in the form of a triangle) blowing up an ever-increasing onslaught of massive asteroids (in the form of various misshapen circles) into a film (presumably in the form of something featuring actors, and dialogue.)

    The idea of an Asteroids movie has been kicking around since Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the famous producer most recently known for somehow turning a live action G.I. Joe into even more of a cartoon than the cartoon it was based on, picked up the rights back in 2009 and started saying highly infuriating things like this to IGN:

    "It's funny because people say there's nothing in the game, but that's not entirely right" he explained. "I was attracted to Asteroids, plain and simple, because I think what it tells you is that there's going to be this big thing in space."

    "We've crafted a really strong, deep mythology for the thing. Without divulging too much about it, it's two lead characters - two brothers - who have to go through a seminal experience to figure out their relationship, against this huge backdrop."

    But what of the title's point-and-shoot gameplay? "Well you'd better have some guys in spaceships blowing stuff up" he continued "or else you haven't honoured the fun of Asteroids."

    While "a big thing in space" and "blowing stuff up" sounds like the sort of thing that Emmerich might jump on, given his love of big things and blowing them up, evidently Emmerich has been telling folks at the Toronto International Film Festival that he's no longer involved. Said Emmerich:

    I was very honored that they wanted to have me as a director, and I kind of liked the script very much, but at that time I was writing with my writing partner Harold Kloser a new script called Singularity and I opted for that.

    Singularity is also a sci-fi film, albeit one that's had little discussion among Hollywood circles at this point. While it's equally likely that Emmerich didn't want to throw his hat into the "giant asteroid" genre of films, which already achieved undeniable perfection in 1998 with Michael Bay'sArmageddon, it is at least nice to hear a director, even one of such generally...consistent talents as Emmerich, opt for an original project over another needless video game movie.

    Not that that will stop Asteroids from happening, of course. Maybe after he gets done turning Battleship into the most absurd waste of $200 million anyone has ever seen, Peter Berg can give it the old college try.

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    DarkShaper

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    #2  Edited By DarkShaper

    I dont even

    edit: fucking finally!

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    Sinful

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    #3  Edited By Sinful

    i seee

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    thatdutchguy

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    #4  Edited By thatdutchguy

    poop

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    Hizang

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    #5  Edited By Hizang

    I remember Jeff and Ryan talking about this in a podcast before Giant Bomb was even live.

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    PatVB

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    #6  Edited By PatVB

    At last, out long national nightmare is over. At least until someone else picks up the project.

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    Cypher

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    #7  Edited By Cypher

    Don't you mean "Lorenzo DiBonaventura"?

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    MariachiMacabre

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    #8  Edited By MariachiMacabre

    Goddammit, are Alex's articles entertaining.

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    Hangnail

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    #9  Edited By Hangnail

    Is it just me does Alex get to tackle all the fun articles while Patrick just sits in the corner handling the more depressing material?

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    probablytuna

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    #10  Edited By probablytuna

    The premise sounds so dumb, much like the upcoming Battlship movie.

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    MisterMouse

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    #11  Edited By MisterMouse

    maybe it is smart on his part... but it is not enough to stop the movie from happening.

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    jacksukeru

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    #12  Edited By jacksukeru

    I think an actual Asteroids movie would need to be really dumb to work. Like, really, really dumb.

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    MikkaQ

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    #13  Edited By MikkaQ

    Anything to keep this in development hell, I am all for.

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    MjHealy

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    #14  Edited By MjHealy

    The only enjoyment I could/ever ger out of this movie is the Bombcast segment where they try to give this movie a plot.

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    Subjugation

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    #15  Edited By Subjugation

    I was going to come in here to say that this had already been done in the form of Armageddon but Alex beat me to it. Touche good sir.

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    Crake

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    #16  Edited By Crake

    Now we will never know

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    SlightConfuse

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    #17  Edited By SlightConfuse

    they are making a battleship movie, man i can't wait for that

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    moondogg

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    #18  Edited By moondogg

    I've still never seen Armegeddon, or the other one deep imapct isn't it? Video Games!

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    selbie

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    #19  Edited By selbie

    Roids...heh

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    Jedted

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    #20  Edited By Jedted

    "DirectorRoland Emmerich, the man who so famously blew up the "earf"..."

    ...And who launched a major science fiction franchise.

    I remember him saying that after "2012" he wasn't gonna do another disaster/survival movie(atleast not for awhile). That may be the genre he's most well known for but that's deffinatly not the only one he can make, that Shakespear movie actually sounds pretty interesting.

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    kollay

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    #21  Edited By kollay

    Well, thank goodness, right?

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    Cubical

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    #22  Edited By Cubical

    The only crap video game movie like this that needs to be made is tetris the movie anyway now this guy is free to fucking make it.

    And Alex is the man So he gets to make all the stuff on the news site that is worth anything with the right points of view to say how crap or how lame 99.9% of the video game world is with 200% honesty like a dildo shaped missle of truth flying into your ass . That other guy who writes the news what ever his name is just some young clueless punk so he gets all the boring news.

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    MeatSim

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    #23  Edited By MeatSim

    Yea we didn't need another bad video game movie.

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