CBS All Access is picking up documentary “Console Wars,” based on the book by Blake J. Harris, the streaming service revealed during the Television Critics Association press tour Thursday. The CBS Interactive SVOD is also planning a scripted series based on the source material, which retells the Nintendo vs. Sega race in the 1990s.
The film is in partnership with Legendary Television Studios and is produced by Doug Blush. It is directed by Harris and Jonah Tulis and is being executive produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey Pictures and Scott Rudin Productions.
CBS All Access and Point Grey are developing the scripted series together. Mike Rosolio is writing and Jordan Vogt-Roberts will direct.
Tulis, Harris and Circle of Confusion’s Julian Rosenberg will produce both the doc and the TV series, with Point Grey’s President James Weaver executive producing and Josh Fagen overseeing the projects for the banner.
The adaptation of Harris’ “Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation” has been in the works since before the book was even published more than half a decade ago.
In 2014, Sony Pictures and Rudin acquired the rights to the then-upcoming book and set Rogen and Goldberg to co-write and direct the behind-the-scenes tale of Nintendo’s battle with upstart video game maker Sega.
Rudin was going to produce that film with Rogen and Goldberg, while Harris was set to executive produce and co-direct a documentary on the same topic.