“You have died of dysentery” is a phrase that fans of the videogame The Oregon Trail will be familiar with — but is it destined to be a song lyric, too? That’s the question raised by the news that a musical movie based on The Oregon Trail is in the works.
Originally created in 1971, The Oregon Trail is a simulation of the pioneer days when people traveled to newly stolen — ahem, “acquired” — U.S. territories via the titular trail that stretched from Missouri to Oregon. The 19th-century pioneers had succumbed to all manners of trial and tribulations — yes, including dysentery — which is simulated in the game as you take on the role of a leader of a covered wagon caravan.
Now the directing duo behind Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile — Josh Gordon and Will Speck — have confirmed to Collider that their next project would be an adaptation of the classic computer game. Being educational in nature, Gordon noted that it was one of the few games that were allowed at his school growing up, which many students played during their free period at the computer lab.
It was Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — admitted fanatics for the game — who originally came up with the idea of turning it into a movie musical.
“We were talking about what we could cook up next, because we really want to do another musical. They mentioned that, and we now have the rights to it, and we’re putting it together alongside them and some other exciting people,” Speck said.
Gordon explained he hopes the movie will match the darkly comedic tone of the game, in which you can die “from everything from dysentery to a cut […] Basically, every move you ended up dying.”
The marriage of comedy with a musical would also go hand-in-hand with “making a big historical westward expansion epic that’s also about dying from dysentery,” Gordon said.
While The Oregon Trail movie is currently in active development, and we don’t yet have a firm release date for it, you can check out Gordon and Speck’s new family film, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, in theaters on Oct. 7.
