Wayfarer Studios and Bandai Namco Entertainment have partnered to develop a live-action Pac-Man film based on the classic arcade game franchise, Deadline can confirm.Released by the Japanese video game company Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. (formerly Namco) back in 1980, Pac-Man has a player controlling the yellow orb of the same name, as he winds through a maze in an effort to chomp up dots, while being chased around by four differently colored ghosts.
The character has previously spurred the creation of two television series—the Saturday morning cartoon Pac-Man from Hanna-Barbera, which aired on ABC from 1982-1983, and the CG animated series Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, which debuted on Disney XD in 2013.
The new Pac-Man pic stems from an original concept from Lightbeam Entertainment’s Chuck Williams (Sonic the Hedgehog), who will produce with Tim Kwok for Lightbeam, along with Justin Baldoni, Manu Gargi and Andrew Calof on behalf of Wayfarer Studios.
A subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings, which launched following Namco’s 2005 merger with the toy manufacturer and distributor Bandai, Bandai Namco is home to such iconic games as Pac-Man and Tekken, among numerous others.
Recently announcing a $125M investment to boost further strategic growth, Wayfarer Studios is best known for producing the 2020 Disney+ original film Clouds directed by Baldoni, which was the global platform’s first-ever narrative acquisition. Other upcoming projects from the company founded by Baldoni and Steve Sarowitz include the Michael Chiklis football drama The Senior and the Claire Ayoub-directed dramedy Empire Waist. (Deadline)