Exclusive! MovieSet learns the next Uwe Boll videogame movie!

I totally know that we have been going postal (pun intended) in our Uwe Boll coverage but you've gotta understand that this is MovieSet's mandate: we give you complete access to how a movie gets made. Mr. Boll (after reading the blog his lawyers instructed me that I should refer to him as "Mr. Boll") has been very cool with the MovieSet gang traipsing all over the set of his latest film, the untitled "Jail" one, as well as granting us the exclusive broadcast of Verne Troyer's Mini-Indy video clips promoting the May 23rd release of "Postal". The guy has been good to us...which made it all the more difficult for me to break this story...but today's news has to be reported.

MovieSet can exclusively report to you the news that Uwe Boll has secretly acquired the film rights to yet another videogame property. The director of "House of the Dead", "Alone in the Dark", "BloodRayne", "BloodRayne II", "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" and the upcoming "Far Cry" and "Postal" films is the world's most prolific adapter of videogames into movies and he will be continuing to hold on to that mantle when filming begins later this year on the film version of the greatest of all videogames, the legendary arcade game called "Pong".

MovieSet has learned that Boll's "Pong" film will take the basic premise of the 1972 coin-op that sparked the videogame revolution and adapt it into a feature format. Since the "Pong" game featured two lines and a single ball that traveled back and forth unendingly, understandably there will be some changes made to turn the game into a movie. Instead of two lines and a ball, the movie will cast two actors and an actress. According to a MovieSet source that spoke to us on condition of anonymity, Boll wants to create an analogy using the two lines and ball to represent a love triangle between two men and a woman. The film that is being looked to as a template for Boll's "Pong" is Michael Bay's 2001 "Pearl Harbor" which saw a romantic triangle between the characters played by Josh Hartnett, Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale. Similarly to "Pearl Harbor" which used the backdrop of the Japanese 1941 sneak attack on Hawaii as the film's drama which propelled the love story, Boll wants to create a similar milieu for "Pong" using the controversial Beijing Olympics as a backdrop. The two actors will be professional table tennis players, one American, the other from a country at ideological odds with America (think North Korea or an Islamic country), both competing for the affection of a woman who cannot commit to either athlete because she is one of the judges at the Olympic games. Also factoring into the storyline will be a subplot involving a brewing scandal that could threaten to not just disrupt the Olympic games itself but jeopardize the state of peace between China and the west. The three main characters at the center of this storm will be torn between their emotions, their personal drive to win no matter what the cost and the escalating state of international tension that could engulf the world in a war. "It's 'Titanic' meets 'The Hunt For Red October' at the Olympics," our source told us. "Scary stuff and when you factor in the videogame, the world better look out. This is scary stuff."

The idea is that Boll wants to make "Pong: The Movie" directly after wrapping the presently filming "Jail" movie. Again, according to our source, storyboarding and pre-vis is already taking place so that the film's intense action sequences can be planned for in advance. Casting isn't expected to happen until after the project is announced at the Cannes Film Festival to attract maximum international exposure and lucrative investment dollars. While it's still in the early days, word is that Boll wants to be as faithful to the source material as humanly possible and therefore cast two tall, thinner actors to play the two love-struck ping pong'ers. Similarly, the hope is to find a full-figured actress that isn't afraid to add a little more weight to her frame to play the part of the back-and-forth love interest. Names that are being kept in mind include Queen Latifah, Jennifer Love Hewitt and a younger Jennifer Connelly back in the days before "A Beautiful Mind".

Finally, one other item was conveyed by our source: Boll envisions a trilogy of "Pong" movies. The director has employed a similar tactic with almost all of his videogame movie franchises; sequels to "BloodRayne", "Alone in the Dark" and "Dungeon Siege" are already in various stages of development or in the can. By selling the concept of a "Pong" trilogy of films Boll can potentially attract more investors and pre-sell the films to international markets. Already there has been talk of moving ahead with a sequel, tentatively titled "Pong 2: Breakout", right after filming of the first film is wrapped. The third film could be timed to coincide with a new videogame version of "Pong", updated for 21st century gamers and their gaming consoles, sometime in 2010. Ball meets Boll? We're told that that tagline is already being considered by the producers and director to play up to the audience and Uwe Boll's videogame reputation.

I contacted a representative for Uwe Boll who told us that the director would be unavailable to comment because he was out of the country attending a "sporting/business event" connected to his recent appearance in last month's "GQ" pictoral. When asked directly about whether Uwe was planning on making a movie out of "Pong" for his next film project or that he may be planning on making a teaser trailer to play in front of "Postal" for "Pong: The Movie", the rep was silent before issuing "We have no comment at this time."

MovieSet will continue to follow this story and hopefully be able to have an official comment from Uwe Boll once he returns.