Leonardo DiCaprio to star in 'Atari'

Posted Monday, June 9, 2008 at 2:38 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Leonardo DiCaprio is set to produce and star in a biopic of Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell is considered a founder of the video game industry for helping to create Pong and the popular Atari 2600 system.

Paramount Pictures picked up the film, tentatively titled Atari, from a pitch written by Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman. DiCaprio's company Appian Way is producing.

In addition to Atari, Bushnell helped found the Chuck E. Cheese pizza and arcade restaurants. As a result, he is despised by parents across the country who must attend countless birthday parties, eat lousy pizza, and play incredibly hard games to earn prizes worth a nickel -- all while sitting next to a big, fat animatronic rat.