LATEST NEWS

Fanboys Writer Ernie Cline Penning Thundercade Next

by Alex Billington
April 9, 2008
Source: Variety

After putting together an (apparently) brilliant script for Fanboys, all about Star Wars nerds, self-proclaimed geek Ernie Cline has written a script about gamers, both old and new. Titled Thundercade, the movie centers on a videogame junkie who faces a midlife crisis when he discovers a young punk has beaten the world record he has held since his teens. Determined to reclaim his place in gaming history, he and two friends escape their 9-to-5 lives for a shot to win Thundercade, the world's ultimate gaming championship. Already sounds awesome and they haven't even hired a director yet!

The first bit of good news - Lakeshore Entertainment is producing, which means we can expect The Weinstein Company not to screw this one up. If you're not familiar with the story behind Fanboys, make sure to go read up on it. Lakeshore typically distributes their movies through Lionsgate or MGM, although any distributor could sign a deal - hopefully it's not the Weinstein's! Dan Farah of Farah Films and Cline developed the film from concept to script and I don't think either will let it fall into the wrong hands. Lakeshore plans to fast-tack this into production the moment they get a director attached.

Cline, a "self-described vidgame addict who owns six different game consoles", describes his inspiration:

"Having spent countless hours playing Xbox with my nephew and listening to him trash-talk me, I fell in love with the idea of pitting older classic arcade-era gamers from the '80s against teenagers -- the Atari 2600 generation vs. the Xbox 360 generation."

I absolutely LOVE that idea for a movie. I'm sure its got the same geek-fueled passion that Fanboys has (before it was torn apart), which is what I've heard makes Fanboys such a great Star Wars parody. Being a gamer myself and hearing about that idea, I can't help but smile a big geeky smile in anticipation. And if you're not confident in Cline's knowledge of the video game universe, just check out his official website - ernestcline.com. Seen below is Ernie playing some arcade games himself "back in the day."

Tweet Pin It

Related categories: Movie News