Apple Turns The Oregon Trail Game Into Movie
In an effort to cash in on the recent wave of Gen X and Millennial nostalgia-rich movies, Apple has announced that it is developing a film based on the video game The Oregon Trail, and you can bet that it’s going to take a team effort to get this movie across the finish line.
From The Duo Behind Blades Of Glory
From experiencing the bad luck of multiple broken wagon wheels in the blink of an eye to suffering an iconic yet miserable death due to dysentery, playing The Oregon Trail has become a sobering first life lesson to million of young students over the years, teaching us that the world isn’t fair and it doesn’t care how prepared you are. From the minds of Josh Gordon and Will Speck, the film has been reported to be closely following the award-winning formula of Barbie, complete with pioneer-themed musical numbers.
Gordon and Speck are no strangers when it comes to developing popular projects together, previously teaming up to work on films such as Blades of Glory and Office Christmas Party. They are also responsible for creating the Hulu original series Hit-Monkey, based on the popular Marvel comic book character. With The Oregon Trail, Gordon and Speck can be expected to inject their brand of outlandish comedy to contrast the death-ridden journey of 19th-century pioneers trying their best to dodge venous snakes and consuming tainted meat.
While The Oregon Trail is still in the early stages of development, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have been brought on board to write and produce original music for the project. The film will showcase several elaborate musical numbers, utilizing Pasek and Paul’s skills as a critically-acclaimed songwriting tandem. Pasek and Paul are among the exclusive EGOT club, artists who have won at least one Emmy, Grammy, Tony, and Oscar.
To round out the project, The Oregon Trail will feature a script penned by Kenny and Keith Lucas, also known as The Lucas Brothers, as well as Max Reisman. The Lucas Brothers began their career as a stand-up comedy duo, before quickly gaining internet popularity, paving the way for a transition to acting in several TV shows. In 2021, The Lucas Brothers received an Academy Award nomination for Judas and the Black Messiah, a biopic based on the life and death of Fred Hampton.
Five Decades Of The Oregon Trail
Created in 1971, The Oregon Trail was first developed by Don Rawitsch, a senior at Carleton College who taught an eighth-grade history class as a student teacher. In an effort to teach his students about the brutal and unforgiving realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the real-life Oregon Trail, the original game was designed to simulate the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon’s Willamette Valley circa 1848.
Attempting to highlight just how difficult the journey along the Oregon Trail truly was, Rawitsch included several aspects into his game that would realistically depict the challenges that these pioneers faced.
While the look and feel of The Oregon Trail video game has certainly changed over the last several decades, the core objective and options of the game have remained relatively unchanged. The gameplay offers players the chance to stock up on supplies, occasionally hunt for food, manage the limited inventory of supplies, and fight to overcome frequent misfortunes while attempting to successfully reach Oregon.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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