The Oregon Trail, one of the longest-standing video game franchises, is headed for a Hollywood adaptation.
Apple is producing the film, which will be directed by Will Speck, with Josh Gordon as producer. The screenplay is being crafted by Max Reisman in collaboration with siblings Kenny and Keith Lucas (*Judas and the Black Messiah*).
Reports indicate that the film will include musical elements “in the vein of Barbie,” with songs composed by Emmy winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Only Murders in the Building).
Speck, Gordon, Pasek, and Paul recently worked together on the film Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile. No actors have been announced for the project yet.
The Oregon Trail originally debuted as an educational, text-based adventure in 1971, created by Don Rawitsch, Paul Dillenberger, and Bill Heinemann for a student-teaching project.
Although it wasn’t commercially released at the time, in 1974, the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) hired Rawitsch to develop OREGON, a version made available on MECC’s timeshare system.
In 1985, R. Philip Bouchard, John Krenz, and Charolyn Kapplinger revamped the game for the Apple II, which was then adapted for PC and Mac.
Since then, the franchise has expanded through numerous sequels and spin-offs, with the latest version developed by Gameloft, now available on PS5 and Switch.
