What’s old is new again in the latest trailer for Chris Columbus’ Pixels, which sees Adam Sandler and his gang of friends witness the earth come under siege from the very video game character they grew up with.
From Donkey Kong to Q*Bert, Pac-Man to Space Invaders, the clip is as bombastic as it is nostalgic, with a hoard of extraterrestrials misinterpreting our intergalactic search for intelligent life. Now, having travelled light years to find us, the aliens declare war on humanity leaving President Will Cooper (Paul Blart: Mall Cop star Kevin James) to call upon his childhood friends in order to prevent mass extinction at the hands of, well, malevolent pixels.
And so, it isn’t long before Cooper is joined by the greatest video game champs of the ’80s, replete with all of the old stereotypes one would expect from the generation. Alongside Adam Sandler’s Sam Brenner – world champion of Pac-Man – is Peter Dinklage’s Eddie Plant, whose skills in Donkey Kong are as impressive as his mullet, and Centipede king Ludlow Lamonsoff (Josh Gad). Whipping the would-be world savers into shape is Michelle Monaghan.
All of this takes inspiration from Patrick Jean’s rather excellent short film, and it’ll be interesting to see how the concept fares when it’s expanded into a full-length feature. Jane Krakowski, Brian Cox and Sean Bean round out the cast.
Pixels will arrive seeking world domination on August 12.
When intergalactic aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper (James) has to call on his childhood best friend, ’80s video game champion Sam Brenner (Sandler), now a home theater installer, to lead a team of old-school arcaders (Dinklage and Gad) to defeat the aliens and save the planet.
