The Best Classic Video Game Is Being Turned Into A Movie Musical
The Oregon Trail is being adapted into a movie musical.
According to a report by Collider, The Oregon Trail will be made into a movie musical with directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon onboard to help develop the video game’s concept into a fully fledged filmmaking experience. The pair of directors have been responsible for hit films like The Switch starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman, as well as Office Christmas Party starring the same duo. Developing the new movie with the directing team will be composers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, notable for their award-winning contributions to successful projects like Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land, and The Greatest Showman that starred Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams.
For many children who grew up in the United States, playing a video game by the name of The Oregon Trail has seemed to be a rite of passage of sorts before entering higher education. The game that depicts 19th century pioneer life is getting an upgrade as a new movie musical will be adapted from the classic game’s basic concepts and nostalgic storylines aimed at a younger generation of learners. Much like Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg did with their recently released movie, Uncharted, the makers of The Oregon Trail may be looking to appeal to the American masses by creating a movie based on the video game itself, hinting at a new way to tell the story of pioneers through the use of song.
The Oregon Trail was created in 1971 by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger, aimed at teaching middle school aged students about the 19th century and the Oregon Trail, a route that stretched from Kansas to the valleys of Oregon. As a player in the game, one can choose to be a wagon leader and they are responsible for keeping their family safe while traversing the often unpredictable elements that real pioneers had to experience while emigrating across the United States. The game takes place in 1848 and takes players from Independence, Missouri to the Willamette Valley in Oregon by way of a covered wagon.
With high-profile filmmakers and composers behind the new movie being developed from The Oregon Trail, audiences should expect to feel a bit of nostalgia when the film eventually debuts. No casting for the film has been announced yet, but the movie will most likely have similar appeal to that of Jungle Cruise with Dwayne Johnson or Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp, two blockbuster films that were aimed at capturing the essence of the Disneyland rides they were based on. The Oregon Trail is infamous for events in the game where every character could seemingly die from any number of issues along the trail, including the popular, “You have died of dysentery” line given to most players at some point.
It seems that the team behind developing The Oregon Trail is in on the fun of the game itself, armed with the knowledge that the game has a dark sense of humor behind it. Hiring two Broadway fixtures like Pasek and Paul means that the movie will undoubtedly include large musical numbers balanced with a bit of humility, as many of their projects tend to reflect. As for directors Gordon and Speck, their newest film Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile opens in theaters today.
