If you’re of a certain age, you remember the grade school video game The Oregon Trail. The 8-bit game was a staple of many classrooms, starting as a text-based game in the 1970s, and in it you could create a family trying to traverse the land we now call the United States in a covered wagon. The going was tough—so many rivers to ford!—and death from things like typhoid and dysentery was commonplace.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Apple was developing a feature adaptation of the classic game. Directing duo Will Speck and Josh Gordon, whose credits include Blades of Glory and The Switch are on board. Artists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen) are also attached to create some musical-level songs for the production.
The plot of the film isn’t known yet, though chances are good at least one person will suffer a broken bone, typhoid and/or dysentery, perhaps while attempting to ford a river. There might even be some attempted hunting of buffalo, deer, and rabbits, if we’re lucky. The Lucas Bros., who wrote the screenplay for Judas and the Black Messiah, will be penning the script, so the ball is in their court for what gems from the game make their way into the film. Given the musical component, it also seems like the movie will attempt to be in the vein of Barbie, perhaps with the same existential motif weaved through it.
The project is still in its early days, so no news yet on casting, much less when we’ll see those covered wagons once again.
