Sydney Sweeney To Star In Michael Bay's OutRun Based On The 1986 Arcade Game

The iconic 1986 Sega arcade cabinet game "OutRun," which spawned a dozen sequels and spinoffs, is making its way to the silver screen as a Michael Bay-directed film featuring America's current acting superstar, Sydney Sweeney. According to Deadline, Universal Pictures is looking to make waves in the video-game-to-feature-film space, which has seen recent successes with "A Minecraft Movie," "Super Mario Brothers," and the "Sonic The Hedgehog" trilogy. The film is still in the pre-production stages, so it's difficult to say how scriptwriter Jayson Rothwell will develop a plot from the iconic racing game's on-screen action, or when the film will be released. I hope it's demonstrably better than the 2014 adaptation of Need For Speed. 

The game was Sega's most popular selling arcade cabinet of the 1980s. "OutRun" was so popular in the late 1980s, in fact, that it is credited with pulling the arcade industry out of its early-80s nosedive, and is considered among the best games of all time.  Car enthusiasts of a certain age will absolutely remember spinning the wheel and slamming the throttle on an "OutRun," "Turbo OutRun," "OutRunners," or "OutRun 2" cabinet. It stands to reason that enough people are familiar with, and nostalgic for, the title that it will help draw in a large crowd to theaters, currently in an industry-wide downturn. Can OutRun revive moviegoing the way it revived arcades? 

"OutRun" is probably most famous for its star car, the Ferrari Testarossa Spyder, a car which didn't exist at the time, though both Pininfarina and Ferrari built one-off specials. Presumably the prancing horse brand will be prominently featured in the film. Will Universal (or Ferrari) greenlight the production cutting the roof off of a Testarossa for the film, or will they make use of a modern Ferrari Spider? The Italian supercar manufacturer currently produces four open-top machines, the SF90 Spider, the 296 GTS, the 12Cilindri Spider, and the Roma Spider. In the context of the game-turned-film, perhaps the 12Cilindri makes the most sense.

A whole lot of Americans are refraining from visiting movie theaters lately as streaming has become the norm. Very few films manage to break through the zeitgeist and become mega hits, while some of the greatest movies are shuffled off screen in favor of major intellectual properties. Is Outrun enough of a recognizable IP to draw theater audiences, or will the studio rely largely on the draw of Bay and Sweeney to get butts in seats? It'll be interesting to see how this production continues, and if it'll be even half as cocaine-fueled as Jerry Bruckheimer's popular 1980s NASCAR drama "Days Of Thunder." Sweeney, a car enthusiast in her own right, is probably best known for her run on HBO's Euphoria or 2023's poorly-reviewed romantic comedy Anyone But You. 

Even if it's terrible, I'll probably be in the front row on opening weekend. I did pay money to see 2007's Redline, after all.