Grab your carts and oxen and prepare to ford a river: a film adaptation of the popular elementary school computer game Oregon Trail is in development at Apple.
The studio obtained the presentation of the film, still in early development, with Will Speck and Josh Gordon attached to direct and produce. EGOT winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will provide the original music and produce it via their Ampersand production banner. The sources say The Hollywood journalist that the film will feature a couple of original musical numbers in the vein of Barbie.
The Lucas brothers (Judas and the Black Messiahh) and Max Reisman will write the script for the game which is supposed to imitate the times of 19th century pioneers, following a covered wagon train heading west. Created in 1971, the game achieved cult status among American schoolchildren in the 1990s as one of the first educational computer games allowed in schools – and for its hilariously dark plots filled with broken arms, typhus and dysentery.
Caroline Fraser will produce for HarperCollins Productions (HarperCollins owns the rights to the video game franchise) alongside Kevin K. Vafi.
Speck, Gordon, Pasek and Paul recently worked together on a Sony film Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. Speck and Gordon, repped by CAA and Sloane Offer, are also behind the films Blades of Glory AND Christmas party in the office.
Pasek and Paul recently won an Emmy for their work on the final season of Only murders in the building. They are represented by CAA, Kraft-Engel Management and Schreck Rose.
The Lucas Bros., which received an Oscar nomination for its screenplay Judas and the Black Messiahare represented by Fourth Wall Management, UTA and Hansen Jacobson. Reisman is repped by Fourth Wall Management, UTA and Jackoway Austen.