List of canceled Pac-Man TV and film projects

This page details various canceled feature films and television programs based on Pac-Man. Very little information on any of these projects have surfaced, and it is rather difficult to differentiate the various proposals from each other.
== Film ==
=== Pac-Man (canceled 1980s film) ===
A Pac-Man movie was planned to release in 1984, but was ultimately never produced. The film was mentioned in several advertisements; on a 1983 Pac-Man flyer from Bally Midway (intended for licensees), there is a bullet point reading "Hollywood! A full-length feature film starring Pac-Man will be released in the spring of '84.". One issue of "Cash Box" states that the film deal was being negotiated with Hanna-Barbera;"Cash Box" (November 20, 1982), pg 56 this would imply the 1984 film would have been animated. However, no further information is known about the 80s Pac-Man film; with other known mentions of scrapped Pac-Man films seemingly being related to the 2000s project seen below.
=== Pac-Man (canceled 2000s film) ===
Another Pac-Man film began production in 2002, simply dubbed "PAC MAN: THE MOVIE"."Crystal Sky gets Pac-Man fever, buys film rights" (November 11th, 2002) The film was to be live-action, with its production company being Crystal Sky. Masaya Nakamura, the founder of Namco, was reportedly closely involved with the film's production."Crystal Sky, Namco & Gaga are game again" (2004) While Crystal Sky did eventually produce a movie based on Namco's Tekken (released in 2009), the Pac-Man project never surfaced. The film's writers (Hal Haberman and Gil Kenan) were reportedly "[...] in final stages of polishing the screenplay" before the film's cancelation.https://web.archive.org/web/20051105053028/http://www.crystal-sky.com/films.htm
In an interview with Toru Iwatani from 2015, Iwatani states that "[...] there was a plan to produce a live action PacMan film in the US, but it never happened";https://geekculture.co/interview-with-toru-iwatani-creator-of-pac-man/ this was seemingly referring to the Crystal Sky project.
== Television ==
=== Pac-Man game show ===
A Pac-Man game show was being worked on in late 1982, but it never surfaced. There is only one known mention of it, with no further details provided.
=== Pac-Man reality TV show ===
In early 2011, a Pac-Man "reality TV show" was announced, being produced by Merv Griffin Entertainment. This show was seemingly another game show, being described as a "big, crazy Wipeout-type event with a lot of energy".https://deadline.com/2011/01/pac-man-reality-series-in-the-works-96347/ Curiously, a Frogger TV series would be produced in 2021 with effectively the same concept.
== Trivia ==
*The 2001 book "Arcade Fever" mentions a "canceled" Ms. Pac-Man film; it seems this was just a joke, however, as it is accompanied by a picture of Pink Flamingos.
*While not directly film or TV-related, a Pac-Man "arena show" was once planned, with an estimated date of Fall 1983. It was described as being "[...] kind of like the Ice Capades, but not on ice", and was also stated to be a "musical revue". It does not seem that any arena shows were ever produced or performed.
== References ==
Category:TV series
Category:Film