YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

Paramount Pictures has snapped up a pitch titled "Atari," with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star.

Written by Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman, project is a biopic about entrepreneur Nolan Bushnell, the creator of Atari and one of the founding fathers of the vidgame industry.

DiCaprio will produce via his Appian Way shingle.

Although Bushnell's life rights had long been pursued by various suitors, Hecker and Craig Sherman convinced the gaming pioneer that they could do his unique story justice. Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded Atari Inc. in 1972 and were instrumental in bringing arcade games, home vidgame consoles and home computers to the masses. Among the company's contributions was PONG and the Atari 2600.

Hecker most recently wrote and directed "Bart Got a Room," which was a hit at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

Hecker and Sherman are repped by Original Artists.

The best thing about this idea is its not a video game adaptation. Its a film that will most likely fall under a video game-related film, but it probably won't bomb as much as others. 9I really don't see how they could fuck up this film. I've been thinking about it, and as long as there's no insane car chases or anything even remotely resembling an action sequence, this could work, sans the fact that Nolan Bushnell looks nothing like DiCaprio. My first choice would be Sean Connery, but then they couldn't have any women in the film without being slapped around. Of course, then then they'd have to make a "Punch the bitch for god's sake!" joke, and nobody wants that.*





We all want it. So bad.