“You Have Died of Dysentery” – Get Ready to Explore the ‘Oregon Trail’ in Musical Based on Classic PC Game
Get ready to party like it’s 1848.
Apple Original Films is developing Oregon Trail, an action/comedy feature, based on the educational computer game first developed by Don Rawitsch way back in 1971 in Minnesota and now owned by HarperCollins.
Oregon Trail the musical will be produced by EGOT winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, under their Ampersand production banner. Pasek and Paul are writing original music for the film La La Land, the stage musical Dear Evan Hansen and recently won an Emmy for the music they wrote for Only Murders in the Building on Hulu.
Will Speck and Josh Gordon will both direct and produce, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Speck and Gordon directed and produced the 2022 Lyle, Lyle Crocodile movie with music from Pasek and Paul, and directed Distant, which came out this year.
The script will be written by The Lucas Brothers (Babes, Judas and the Black Messiah) and Max Reisman, and will stick with the basic storyline of the game, following some pioneers on a covered wagon trail headed westward.
The game Oregon trail has been published for many platforms since its debut in a Minnesota classroom. In 2021, Apple Arcade launched an official successor and modern twist to The Oregon Trail. The game remains a global phenomenon with high ratings, and is now available to play on Apple Arcade.
The original core gameplay concepts of The Oregon Trail are still part of every subsequent version, including the initial supply purchase, occasional food hunting, buying more supplies at forts, always having to manage your inventory of supplies, travel being slowed down due to weather and some other of the game’s frequent misfortunes, and finally, finishing the game by dying or (less likely) successfully reaching Oregon.
The dark, dangerous and sometimes funny world of The Oregon Trail is responsible for making memes like “you have died of dysentery” popular. The meme alludes to one of the chief reasons some players don’t make it to the end of the trail.
Caroline Fraser will produce Oregon Trail for HarperCollins Productions. No premiere date has been set for the film.
