May 15, 2015 is already quickly proving to be a very popular release date. The weekend is positioned only two weeks after Joss Whedon's The Avengers: The Age of Ultron - which is expected to do some serious damage at the box office - but still studios see the date as a good time to release some pretty big movies. Universal Pictures has already slated the Elizabeth Banks-directed Pitch Perfect 2 for that date and Warner Bros. has long had a flag planted with Mad Max: Fury Road, but now Sony is getting in on the game as well. The studio has announced that they will be releasing the blockbuster action adventure comedy Pixels for that date.
Based on a script by screenwriters Tim Herlihy and Tim Dowling and set to be directed by Chris Columbus, Pixels begins when an alien race gets a hold of video feeds from classic 80s video games and interprets them as a declaration of war. Training using the game footage they have, the aliens decide to invade Earth, and the President has no choice but to turn to his childhood best friends and enlist a team of champion arcade video game players to help stop the extraterrestrial forces from destroying our planet. The movie is based on a short by filmmaker Patrick Jean that came out in 2010, which you can watch in its entirety below:
Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison started developing the film four years ago, and in that time they have also gathered together a strong cast of comedy veterans. Kevin James, who has worked with Sandler on many different projects, will be playing the President of the United States in Pixels, while Sandler and Josh Gad will be playing his friends. Games of Thrones' Peter Dinklage is attached to play one of the players they enlist, who is described as "a loudmouth gamer champion who is an expert at Donkey Kong and Space Invaders." The Hollywood Reporter adds that Michelle Monaghan is also on-board, and while we assume she will be the female lead we have no idea what part she is actually playing in the story.
Pixels is scheduled to start production this month, and it will be a pretty big event for Columbus seeing as he hasn't directed a feature since 2010's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. I don't expect that he will have too much trouble getting back in the mode of family-friendly entertainment given that he is the guy who brought us the first two Home Alones, the first two Harry Potters, Adventures in Babysitting, and Mrs. Doubtfire.
