Interest

Pac-Man Reality TV Show in Development

The entertainment news site Deadline reports that Merv Griffin Entertainment (MGE) intends to create a North American reality television show based on Pac-Man, a Japanese video game created by Namco in 1980 and released in North America by Midway in the same year.

Roy Bank, the show's executive producer who is also MGE's president of TV, said that the idea is "to take what Pac-Man is and bring it to life" and to bring "the world's biggest game of tag" to television as a "big, crazy Wipeout-type event." The project will be the second television series based on the game; the first was produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1982 and aired on ABC.

Pac-Man celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2010; a Pac-Man Championship Edition DX game was released this past November. Film producer Avi Arad (X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man) was involved as an executive advisor in Namco Bandai's efforts to adapt the Pac-Man for television as recently as last year.

Image © Namco Bandai Games Inc.

Thanks to Daniel Zelter for the tip.