Pac-Man Live-Action Movie in the Works From ‘Jane the Virgin’ Actor Justin Baldoni

Rebecca Rubin

“Jane the Virgin” actor Justin Baldoni is hoping to bring the exploits of Pac-Man to a movie theater near you.

Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios is backing a live-action film based on the popular arcade game, along with Bandai Namco Entertainment, the Japanese video game publisher that created Pac-Man, as well as Ace Combat, Galaga and Tekken.

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Pac-Man was introduced in the United States in the 1980s and has continued to launch new consoles and mobile games in the following decades. In 2005, Guinness World Records honored it as the “most successful coin-operated game machine.”

The ubiquitous video game, in which a starving Pac-Man chomps his way through a maze while attempting to evade deadly ghosts, has previously served as inspiration for television, with a 1980s animated TV series of the same name that ran on ABC and a 2013 cartoon show “Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures” that played on Disney XD in the United States.

But until now, Pac-Man has only been a highlighter-yellow face on a pixilated screen. Details for the live-action movie version, including but not limited to the plot and the character’s physical iteration, remain vague.

Pac-Man isn’t the only game that’s currently getting the big-screen treatment. The toy company Mattel is presently in development on live-action movies about the card game Uno, Matchbox cars and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em.

The untitled Pac-Man movie is based on a story by Chuck Williams, who has experience with adapting video games for the big screen as a producer on Paramount’s box office hit “Sonic the Hedgehog.”

Baldoni, Manu Gargi and Andrew Calof will produce on behalf of Wayfarer Studios, and Williams and Tim Kwok will produce through Lightbeam Entertainment.

Wayfarer Studios, which Baldoni founded with Steve Sarowitz, has backed the 2020 musical coming-of-age story “Clouds” with Sabrina Carpenter. Baldoni, best-known for playing hunky hotel owner Rafael Solano in the long-running CW series “Jane the Virgin,” also directed the 2019 YA romantic drama “Five Feet Apart” starring Cole Sprouse.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news about the live-action Pac-Man movie.

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