Cola Wars | Sony pays seven figure sum for Coke Vs Pepsi pitch

Coca Cola and Pepsi
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The battle between Coca-Cola and Pepsi is heading to cinemas, as Sony pays seven figures for movie pitch on the subject.


As Hollywoodā€™s tectonic plates continue to rearrange themselves in the wake of a disruptive few years, one type of film that seems to be rising to prominence is that of the product movie. In the last year or so weā€™ve seen Tetris, Air, Flaminā€™ Hot (the Cheetos origin story) and Barbie all land with varying degrees of impact upon our shared cultural consciousness.

Obviously, Barbie is something of a special case, distinguishable from the other films as it treats its product in an entirely distinct fashion and found great success doing so. The other films on that list told a more straightforward story about the origin of an iconic product and as weā€™ve already predicted, they wonā€™t be the last to do so.

According to Deadline, Sony has paid north of a million dollars for a pitch (not a script mind you, a pitch) to bag the rights to The Cola Wars, a drama that will recount the fierce battle between industry titan Coca Cola and cool new upstart, Pepsi throughout the 1980s.

Hereā€™s the overview: the film will explore ā€˜the true story of Pepsi’s attempt to challenge Coca-Cola’s century-long reign as the world’s top cola, sparking the unforgettable “Cola Wars” of the mid-1980s. This behind-the-scenes account, from Michael Jackson’s fiery mishap to the New Coke debacle, tells the ultimate underdog tale of history’s most iconic second-place contender vying for the No. 1 spot.ā€™

Read more: Barbie review | Crikey, they pulled it off

Jason Shuman and Ben Queen will be drafting the script. Shuman is the writer and co-creator of Appleā€™s Acapulco whilst Queen penned Cars 2 and Cars 3 for Pixar. No director has been attached yet.

In fairness, this story does have some memorable moments to recount. Michael Jackson, then the worldā€™s most famous person getting set ablaze whilst making a fizzy drinks ad was a huge deal at the time, while Coca Colaā€™s disastrous attempt to rebrand to ā€˜New Cokeā€™ still lingers in the public consciousness decades on. Should the story move into the 1990s, there were some memorable moments there too such as Pepsiā€™s controversial Harrier Jump Jet ā€˜giveawayā€™ which was recounted in the Netflix documentary, Pepsi, Whereā€™s My Jet?

Of the wave of product movies that weā€™ve seen so far, Barbie is the most successful with Tetris being a fun watch too, perhaps because neither film fell into the trap of blindly venerating its subject material. Likewise the under-seen Blackberry.

Hopefully, The Cola Wars will take a page from this playbook and give us a film that doesnā€™t feel like stealth advertising or brand synergy. Given that Antoine Fuqua is already making a Michael Jackson film, it also means we could see two different filmmakers offer up their cinematic interpretation of the one-time King of Pop getting set on fire.

Weā€™ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.

Read more: Blackberry | One of 2023ā€™s best, most overlooked films deserves your attention

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