‘The Rollercoaster Tycoon’ Movie Might Not Be All That Awful

By  · Published on May 28th, 2010

Katey Rich over at Cinema Blend recently talked plot details with producer and prospective director of the RollerCoaster Tycoon movie, Harald Zwart (Agent Cody Banks, The Pink Panther 2, The Karate Kid).

RollerCoaster Tycoon,a ’99 theme park sim published by Hasbro Interactive, puts the PC gamer in the position of creating and maintaining all aspects of their own park. The popular title earned 180 million at its initial release, and went on to produce two sequels.

By itself there really isn’t much in the way of a movie, but Zwart explains, “…we had a pitch; a story. It’s basically a theme park come to life. We had a story woven into the theme park of the RollerCoaster Tycoon, and that’s what we sold to Sony, and that’s what we’re hoping to make into a movie.”

Using the Night at the Museum template, the theme park comes to life after hours, leaving whomever is left behind to whatever shenanigans will get the most laughs out of the kiddos filling seats.

I was never going to care much for the concept of the film no matter the direction that was taken, as I am certainly not the demographic Zwart and company are aiming for, but my initial reaction in thinking Sony was really scraping the bottom of the video game IP barrel may have been misplaced.

Kids love theme parks – and who hasn’t wanted to find themselves alone in one with full access to all of the rides sans mind-numbing lines? I’m not entirely sure I’d be keen on animatronic forest critters chatting me up, or dealing with the possible mood swings of a Ferris wheel, but I’m sure whatever silly situations arise will be good times for young audiences in attendance.

What do you think? Good idea or bad idea?