'King Of Kong' Director Seth Gordon, 'Just Go With It' Scribe Tim Dowling Sign On For Video Game-Inspired 'Pixels'

It's been a while since we've gotten a real update on the video game-inspired Pixels, but it's moving ahead slowly but surely. While no director has been announced at this time, King of Kong helmer Seth Gordon's signed on to executive produce and possibly direct, and while no star has been locked in at this point, Adam Sandler is eyeing it as a potential star vehicle. (No surprise, considering the film is being produced by Sandler's company Happy Madison.)

Meanwhile, Happy Madison and Sony have just tapped Sandler's Just Go With It scribe Tim Dowling to rewrite the Pixels script as an action-comedy tentpole in the vein of Ghostbusters. Dowling takes over for frequent Sandler collaborator Tim Herlihy, who began working on the script in 2010. More details after the jump.

Pixels started out as a 2010 short written and directed by Patrick Jean, which sees '80s arcade characters like Space Invaders and Pac-Man attacking (where else?) New York City. The film quickly caught the attention of Sandler's Happy Madison, which made a deal to adapt it into a feature with Sony. Later that same year, they hired Herlihy to expand the two-minute short into "a Ghostbusters-style action comedy," but it seems whatever Herlihy did wasn't big enough.Variety reports that although Herlihy's script fit Happy Madison's sense of humor, the studio felt it wasn't "tentpole-sized" enough and hired Dowling to broaden the scope. While Dowling's most recent credits — last year's Just Go With It and this year's This Means War — were panned by critics, he was also one of the scribes behind the funny Role Models and the endearing George Lucas in Love.

Also according to the trade, Pixels will center around a group of expert gamers who are recruited by the government to help fend off attacks from video game characters. That's where Gordon comes in. As the director of King of Kong, Gordon knows a thing or two about veteran gamers, and he was brought on to lend that expertise to the film. Currently, he's just set to produce, but the project is being developed with the possibility of Gordon as director in mind. Gordon's most recent feature was last year's Horrible Bosses, and he recently wrapped Identity Theft with Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy.