What I’m sure you all wanted to see on the big screen is arriving soon: cholera, dysentery, typhoid, measles, and the ever-so-elusive fever. What could possibly be the premise of such an action-packed film to have all these threats? It’s none other than the Oregon Trail. A new film inspired by the iconic PC game is currently in development at Apple Original Films. We first learned about this via Variety.
The Lucas Brothers and their writing partner, Max Reisman, are penning the action/comedy film. The Lucas Brothers are most well-known for writing the Academy Award-nominated script for Judas and the Black Messiah. La La Land songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are producing the movie through their Ampersand production banner.
Will Speck and Josh Gordon are slated to direct and have producing credits. The filmmaking duo generally works on comedy films such as their prior work, Blades of Glory and The Switch. Kevin K. Vafi, who produced Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, Speck, and Gordon’s previous film, will produce the Oregon Trail film as well.
Book publisher HarperCollins owns the video game franchise, with Caroline Fraser producing under HarperCollins Productions. Fraser also produced Carmen Sandiego on Netflix.
As the film is still early in development, news on actors, possible plot, and runtime are all up in the air. The Oregon Trail is a computer game from 1974 whose 1985 iteration is the most popular on the Apple II. It wouldn’t be hard to assume that Apple is trying to market its nostalgia more. As we become more digital, we crave the analog.
Oregon Trail was educational for students to learn about the actual Oregon Trail that 19th-century emigrants would use to get to present-day Oregon. Many games have come from the original, including the recent ones developed by Gameloft on Apple devices, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation.
To experience the nostalgia before the movie releases, the game is available to play on the latest Apple devices through Apple Arcade.
Hopefully, the famous phrase won’t be used against you: “You have died of dysentery.”