RUMOR: A Young Guns Pinball is Coming Soon from Barrels of Fun

So I'm sitting at my desk this morning, wondering what I'm going to write for the This Week in Pinball newsletter tomorrow. I'm trying to get back into my regular writing routine after a holiday season lull and a corresponding slow period in interesting pinball news developments.

As I was downing my second cup of coffee while binge browsing Pinside, I get a new email notification. The subject line says "Coming Soon".

It reads:

Hey mister, can you help me?
I'm a loner on the run
I'm just looking for tomorrow…At Barrels of Fun

The text is colored grey. It's from a weird email address. The spam lights are flashing red.

But I sit with it. Why is Barrels of Fun referenced so specifically? Who would go through the trouble of spamming that? Why is the phrasing so, professional? A spammer wouldn't write lines of copy like this.

Off to Google I go!

Hey mister, can you help me?
I'm a loner on the run
I'm just looking for tomorrow
And I ain't gonna hurt no one

-Jon Bon Jovi, Justice In The Barrel, 1990

Now the phrasing makes sense. It's from an actual Jon Bon Jovi song, a song also happens to be from the 1990 soundtrack to the film Young Guns II.

I think to myself, Is Barrels of Fun working on a Young Guns game? No way... that's so obscure! It hasn't surfaced in any of the rumor mills...

I start digging into it a little more.

A Western theme is great for pinball.

Young Guns is a cult-classic 1980s/1990s film franchise.

The second film does have a bunch of Jon Bon Jovi music attached, including Blaze of Glory. Reminds me of Labyrinth.

A third film is in the works, filming kicked off last fall.

Sure does check a lot of boxes for a company like Barrels of Fun. That email is way too specific to be spam!

In my research I also learned that the production company that owns the rights to the films, Morgan Creek Entertainment, also controls the rights to at the very least, Jon Bon Jovi's Blaze of Glory. There