SAN DIEGO (TNA) - Could the key to setting the world record on Donkey Kong actually be tied to the Canadian prog-rock band Rush?

Seth Gordon thinks so.

And Gordon should know. After all, he's the director of "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," a new documentary about the strange cross-country rivalry between Billy Mitchell, named Gamer of the Year by Time way back in the last millennium, and Steve Wiebe, a mid-mannered high-school science teacher from Redmond, Washington, who has his eyes set on Mitchell's long-standing record.

So, where does Rush fit into all this?

Steve Wiebe practices to be the best Donkey Kong player in the world.

Well, in the film, Gordon catches Wiebe in his son's room, wailing away on his Costco children's drum kit, doing an extraordinarily spot-on rendition of "The Rhythm Method," one of the signature solos from Rush's Peart, widely recognized as one of the globe's top skin-beaters.

"I think that figures in a really interesting way with his ability to beat one of the two guys in the world who can play Donkey Kong on a totally elite level," says the director.

Wiebe's entire approach to the game is technical, taking a grease pencil to the screen to sort out exactly when and where the barrels will fall, where the springs will bounce, and basically, how that giant monkey will try to kill him.

That obsessive-compulsive attention to detail is a standard quality in Wiebe, whose own mother says in the film that she thinks her son might be slightly autistic.

Either way, when Wiebe was just 9-years-old, he sat down and figured out that solo. On his own. That doesn't just happen, says Gordon.

"DVDs are sold that teach you how to play that solo, but he figured it out when he was nine," he says.

"He broke it down into patterns that you have to execute in order, and the way to beat Kong is by recognizing the patterns that are executing randomly, and navigating your way through it, grouping everything so you can maximize the points and get a million and the killscreen."

In the film, Wiebe is shown playing Donkey Kong for two-and-a-half-hour stretches, eventually reaching the level where the machine can no longer function, so it just automatically kills his character. That level, noted with awe by the classic arcade game faithful, is the killscreen.

He scores more than a million points on two occasions, something that – prior to his world record quest – had never been done before.

"I think that Rush was an example of the thing that makes him uniquely able to play this game the way he does," says Gordon. "It’s sort of his Jedi pattern recognition gift."

Part of what makes "King of Kong" so sweet and odd is Wiebe's triumph over adversity. The guy began working towards the world record after he was laid off – the same day he closed on his house. He's a nice, hard-luck guy – An arcade version of Rocky.

In fact, producer Ed Cunningham said the team's approach to the entire film wasn't that far off.

"We literally saw this as a sports film," Cunningham says. "We studied 'Pumping Iron.' The attempt to break a world record on Joust or Donkey Kong is no less important than a guy trying to break 80 on the golf course on the weekend, yet that guy’s not lampooned for spending all of Friday afternoon trying to book two tee times over the weekend, and blowing off his job is considered socially acceptable."

"The story that we ultimately hoped to find was, best case, two people who are very good at a particular game, hopefully one that everyone knows, that are competing to break a world record. If you asked us what our dream was, that would have been it."

And because the characters in "King of Kong" are such characters, the documentary has that stranger-than-fiction feel. Somewhere along the way, the film manages to be a celebration of the human spirit, and an examination of a bustling subculture inhabited primarily by very strange man-children. All of which is probably why New Line has decided to remake it into a full-blown feature, already in the pre-production phase.

"I’ll direct the remake," says Gordon. Cunningham will also be on hand for the fictional version, which Gordon says will stay true to, well, the truth.

"It’s going to be based on the doc very literally," he says. "Even some of the dialogue is going to stay the same. Basically, we’re going to portray that same narrative with actors that are better known."

Which leaves one important question for Steve Wiebe: Who will play him on the big screen?

"Mark Hamill, Ralph Macchio are the top two," he says. "I’m kidding."

No matter who ends up in the role, Wiebe's happy about at least one thing.

"I haven't had any lawsuits from Neil yet," he says.

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