Aaron Sorkin to Adapt Popular Ragdoll-Based Browser Video Game QWOP
Potentially The Greatest Story Ever Told
Stemming from the success of The Last of Us, networks are greenlighting just about any video game adaptation. In anticipation of this gold rush, award-winning screenplay author Aaron Sorkin has begun to adapt the popular ragdoll game QWOP.
QWOP tells the tragic tale of a track and field star who loses control of his leg muscles. It's up to players to use the Q, W, O, and P buttons to help the athlete get to the finish line.
Users furiously try to control the athlete's thighs and knees through a combination of long and short holds on each of the buttons. The goal is to get the runner to take consistent, powerful strides 100 meters to the finish line.
The game is extremely difficult and frustrating, if you can imagine. It is also quite addicting.
Despite the stupid simplicity of the game, it is quite popular, with over 30 million plays on its host website alone. Users can also download an Iphone app and there is even a two-player version.
In 2013, an Indian man made it into the Guiness Book of World Records for the fastest successful run, getting his man to the finish line in 51 seconds.
The game was so popular for a while that people were posting videos of their success and failures online. It seems like the fails are sometimes more popular than the videos with longer runs, due to the ridiculous contortions the protagonist can make.
Sorkin thinks there is something to the amount of times you fail in the game before you even get good enough to get him a few meters. And right when you think that you have it down, you fail, sometimes in spectacular fashion.
"It's your classic tale of a man who has worked very hard and sacrificed a lot for this moment, only for a tragic stroke of fate to take it all away from him right before it matters most," said Sorkin. "I'm naturally drawn to writing stories such as these."
"It's your classic tale of a man who has worked very hard and sacrificed a lot for this moment, only for a tragic stroke of fate to take it all away from him right before it matters most," said Sorkin. "I'm naturally drawn to writing stories such as these."
He starts to get emotional. “This is a character with so much at stake,” he manages to say before his voice cracks.
Sorkin says that he was inspired to write the game after sitting through the 2021 Academy Awards where he was nominated for The Trial of the Chicago 7. When it was announced that he had won, Sorkin's legs felt like they would not work. He could barely get to the stage and at one point, got into a split and even began "knee hopping" to get to his award.
"The next day, my producer sent me a link, saying my movements reminded him of a game that his son had been playing. Underneath the link was a blurb from a commencement speech that I gave at Syracuse University in 2012:
"The world doesn't care how many times you fall down as long as it's one fewer than the number of times you get back up."
He continued, "So I click on the link and it's for a video game called QWOP. From there on in, I've been obsessively trying to adapt it for the screen."
Sorkin's script will focus on important moments from the runner's life that gets him to the point of competition; all of the inspiring moments, the training sessions, the difficult setbacks that might forge a professional athlete into becoming a champion.
But what happens when you forget how to do the one thing you've been training your whole life for? Sorkin says that his show will focus heavily on the athlete attempting to relearn the act of running in real time.
"We have a whole sequence planned where the runner will try to use his thighs and calves as if it were his first time. The resulting scenes will be long, painful, and possibly even difficult to watch (Sorkin is teasing a moment where the runner tries so hard he flips upside down and crashes on his head), but these are the necessary stories I am compelled to tell."
If anyone can make the ridiculous story successful, it is Sorkin. Remember, this is the guy who made Steve Jobs somehow work.
But is there interest from the studios?
Sorkin clears his throat before answering. "At the time, no. Quibi was set to greehlight it, but then you know what happened there. Then, Peacock was interested in it for a while, but they are focusing on the new season of Vanderpump Rules, so I get it."
"But I'm confident the right network will come along. Just like the masochistic player who spends an hour getting his runner 5 meters in the game, I'm going to dedicate the rest of my life to getting his project made."
"It's like the hurdle at the 50 meter point in the game. Instead of trying to jump over it, you just need to crash through, and that's what I intend to do."