Justin Baldoni’s ‘Pac-Man’ Movie in Doubt Amid Blake Lively Legal Battle
In August, Justin Baldoni believed Pac-Man, the yellow, pellet-eating protagonist of the 1980s arcade game, could be the hero he needed to help change the messy narrative surrounding the release of It Ends with Us.
For weeks, rumors of a feud between director/star Baldoni and his co-star Blake Lively had dominated entertainment news headlines, and he was looking for a way to turn the page. According to a text he sent his PR team on Aug. 18, Baldoni suggested sharing the news that he would next direct a Pac-Man movie, something he hoped would help him “move towards the future.”
But Pac-Man, which Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios were developing since 2022, may no longer be in his future. It is among at least a trio of projects that are now in doubt as friction with Lively turned from Internet curiosity into a full-fledged legal war.
In recent days, sources close to Baldoni have said he has “lost three jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars” amid the legal fracas, which began when Lively filed a complaint Dec. 21 accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends with Us and launching a post-release smear campaign. Baldoni and Wayfarer were subsequently dropped by WME, which Wayfarer relied on to help package both their own projects and find third-party films to finance as an executive producer.
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Aside from Pac-Man, it is unclear what other projects were lost, and it’s possible once the dust settles, the adaptation of the seminal ’80s video game could happen at a later date for Baldoni. But insiders close to the situation tell THR that virtually every partner doing business with Wayfarer is “having a conversation.” The outfit has deep pockets at a time when many indie financing companies have fallen by the wayside, or are facing tough times, but Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds, whom Baldoni is taking to court in his own suit, wield tremendous clout in Hollywood, so it’s unclear how much collateral damage there will be for Wayfarer.
Bandai Namco, the video game company behind Pac-Man, did not respond to a request for comment on the project, which had Thor: Ragnarok scribe Christopher Yost penning the script.
Co-founded by Baldoni and billionaire Steve Sarowitz, Wayfarer is led by CEO Jamey Heath. (Wayfarer went through several iterations before being rebranded as Wayfarer Studios in 2020.) All three men are close acquaintances and members of the Baha’i faith. Insiders say Sarowitz, who invested $125 million in the company in 2021, is determined to use whatever resources are needed to clear both Baldoni and Wayfarer.
Wayfarer has developed, financed and produced projects from the ground floor, including the $51 million grossing It Ends with Us, and also has invested in a number of outside projects, such Alcon’s Garfield movie (the series is distributed by Sony).
Wayfarer has a number of projects in the can, including Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great, which Tristar and Sony Pictures Classics are backing. It also has the Rainn Wilson action-comedy Code 3 that debuted at TIFF last year and does not yet have a domestic distributor.
Wayfarer is giving the Michael Chiklis-led sports drama The Senior a theatrical release on March 7, though it’s unclear who is distributing, while the company also has the queer romance A Nice Indian Boy starring Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff, which got strong reviews out of South by Southwest last year and screened at Palm Springs this month. It does not yet have a distributor.
Wayfarer has a number of books adaptations in development, including Sam Tschida’s Errands & Espionage, about a divorcee recruited for the CIA; and Kirsty Greenwood’s The Love Of My Afterlife, about a woman who meets the love of her life in the afterlife waiting room.
No new projects have materialized for Wayfarer amid the Lively battle, though the company is said to be interested in pursuing a new deal of some sort, as a show of good faith that people would still like to do business with them.
