In today’s edition of IP adaptation news giving me a fullꦑ-blown migraine, it turns out that is going to, inexplicably, be adapting iconic educational game The Oregon Trail into an action-comedy movie with musical numbers, a la 2023’s blockbuster hit .
According to , comedy duo Will Speck and Josh Gordon will be directing and producing the film, while the EGOT winning composing duo behind𝕴 La La Land will provide original music. Kenny and Keith Lucas, the co-writers and co-producers behind Judas and the Black Messiah (lots of duos involved in this one, huh?) will work alongside Max Reisman on the screenplay.
The Oregon Trail Doesn’t Need An Adaption
You’re probably already familiar with The Oregon Trail or have at least heard of it even if you’ve never played it. While it was initially developed to teach American eighth graders about the difficult, bleak reality of life on the Oregon Trail in the 19th century, the game has since been rereleased and remade nearly 30 times since 1971. (You can even play it on Apple Arcade now.) The iconic game over screen saying “You have died of dysente💫ry” is instantly recognisable by older gamers. And for good measure, referencing The Oregon Trail.
A musical The Oregon Trail is 🔯not, and I wouldn’t describe it as a particularly funny game either, even if it was, at times, fun. This interpretation of the game is a little bizarre, and while I generally apprecia🌸te an irreverent, weird take when it comes to adaptations, I’m instinctively pretty sour about the fact that The Oregon Trail is getting an adaptation at all.
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When 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:w🌠e originally reported on the adaptation in 2022, Speck and Gordon had already been shopping the pitch around. Gordon said that the game “always had this dark band of humor running through it, because your chances of dying from everything from dysent😼ery to a cut to anything was... Basically, every move you ended up dying.”
I see the vision, in theory. It’s an adaptation that capitalises on the very real player frustration of it being so easy to die. But it also feels like an incredibly dated concept. In the same way that ๊168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the upcom📖ing Minecraft movie is targeting kids, The Oregon Trail wil🌳l be geared at older people – mostly Americans – who actually understand the references. That isn’t a huge proportion of the modern moviegoing audience.
Hollywood Doesn’t Understand What Makes The Oregon Trail So Special
It’s also a game about colonisation, and Native Americans have denounced the game as being insensitive and racist. Newer versions of the game have worked to address this difference in perspective, consulting with Indigenous scholars and adding new 🦩characters and storylines, but I’m not sure the movie will go s𒐪o far as to acknowledge that part of the game’s history and perception.
We won’t know what the final version of this film will look like until it hits th♋eatres. Leaning into the fact that The Oregon Trail was a video game will alienate many viewers who weren’t old enough to have played it, but not doing that makes it more akin to a Les Miserables about colonisers. The nod to Barbie implies that it’ll be a fairly meta, self-aware film, but still. The Oregon Trail?
To be fair, this is still a more original idea than 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the shodd🦋y Like a Dragon TV adaptation, so it’s got that going for it, and far be it from me to write a film off before we’ve even so much as seen a trailer. But seriously. I know studios love IP and all,▨ but we’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
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