Pixels | |
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Directed by | Chris Columbus |
Screenplay by |
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Story by | Tim Herlihy |
Based on | Pixels by Patrick Jean |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Amir Mokri |
Edited by | Hughes Winborne |
Music by | Henry Jackman |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Sony Pictures Releasing |
Release date |
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Running time | 106 minutes[2] |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Budget | $88–129 million[4][5] |
Box office | $244.9 million[6] |
Pixels is a 2015 science fiction comedy film[7] directed by Chris Columbus and written by Tim Herlihy and Timothy Dowling. Loosely adapted from the 2010 short film Pixels by Patrick Jean (who serves as an executive producer on the film), the film stars Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan, Peter Dinklage, Josh Gad and Brian Cox. Combining animated video game characters and visual effects, the film involves an alien force misinterpreting video feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war, to which they respond by attacking Earth with technological recreations of icons from the games. The President of the United States assembles a team of former arcade champions to lead the planet's defense.
Following the success of Patrick Jean's short film Pixels, Sandler pursued a feature adaptation, initially hiring Tim Herlihy to draft the screenplay in 2010. After initial drafts were poorly received, Sandler and Herlihy reworked the concept to feature James as the U.S. President, a unique twist that led to Tim Dowling's involvement for further revisions in 2012. Columbus, drawn to the script's originality and its nostalgic nod to 1980s arcade culture, signed on to direct in 2013. Production began in 2014 with a $110 million budget, filming in Toronto, which was transformed to resemble New York and Washington, D.C. Visual effects were led by Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks, creating characters out of voxel-based pixels to emulate 1980s game graphics, with CRT-style imperfections.
Columbia Pictures theatrically released Pixels in the United States on July 24, 2015. It grossed $245 million on an $88–129 million budget and received negative reviews. It was nominated for the 36th Golden Raspberry Awards including Worst Picture.
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