It's All Transformers' Fault

When Hasbro and Universal first teamed up to announce they were making a movie based on the popular toyline Transformers, I'm sure many were skeptical. How could a movie based on toys possibly be successful in the cut throat Hollywood industry? I mean sure there were comic books, a plethora of TV shows, and video games to back them up but still they were just toys. Well, as history shows us, it was very successful, spawning its own sequel and starting a toy/board game movie revolution.

Studios are now clamoring to tie up the rights to toy lines and board games after the success of the Transformers movie. We've already seen the theatrical release of another popular toyline, G.I Joe, which did not garner the same success as Transformers but was still a successful enough that it won't deter any other companies from making toy and board game movies. Currently in the pipeline are: a Monopoly movie to be directed by Ridley Scott, a Battleship movie to be directed by Peter Berg, an Ouija film developed by Michael Bay's studio and aiming for a 2011 release (are there any explosions in Ouija?), and also Magic: The Gathering, Candyland, and Stretch Armstrong all from Hasbro. Hasbro have also hit the news again recently with reports that they are set to make a Risk movie and a Micronauts movie. These are only the two latest game/toy adaptations to be announced; as you can see they are very much part of a trend.

Micronauts was originally produced by a Japanese toy company and were small interchangeable toys based on vehicles, robots and action figures. They spawned a comic book series which gave the toys some back story- something about a murderous dictator who is trying to take over the Microverse and the Micronauts assemble to stop him. JJ Abrams, of Star Trek, Lost and Alias fame, is supposedly in talks to produce the film. Meanwhile, it is in fact Columbia Pictures and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment that are looking to bring the popular game of world domination through military conquest, Risk, to the big screen and will look to make it an action-packed, uniquely exciting movie with a thrilling story.

Hasbro aren't the only one getting in on the action. Mattel are currently developing movies based on their own toy lines. Movies like Major Matt Mason, which will star Tom Hanks, are being produced.  Also on their way to theaters are a Warner Bros. Hot Wheels movie (which they've promised will not feature talking cars ala Knight Rider), and a He-Man and the Masters of the Universe movie, which Sony acquired the rights to from Warner Bros.

Finally the last toy based movies this writer knows about are a Lego movie and a View Master movie. The View Master movie is being developed over at DreamWorks and has attached Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci of Transformers fame to develop it. It also just begs the question of why? Meanwhile, the Lego movie is being developed over at Warner Bros. with Dan Lin, who produced The Box and Sherlock Holmes and will combine live action with animation.

Many of these films have been dubbed family adventures or family comedies which makes sense given Hasbro's Family Game Night campaign and the long history of people playing with board games or toys together. However, aside from this link, the reason most of these movies are getting made is because of Transformers's box office success and the lowered risk of using tried-and-true known brands with established fan bases. Movies are becoming increasingly more expensive to make, therefore more risky, and when several high budget movies are released at once, studios want to try and get some sort of assurance that their film will make back its money. One way to do this is to make a film that already has an established fan base in the hopes that the fans will turn out in droves to see it. It's a long standing Hollywood tradition and is the reason why we see books, TV shows and video games made into movies. Toys and board games are just the latest medium to get caught in the Hollywood web, for better or worse.

I'm skeptical of many of these projects. I cannot envisage how exactly they will transfer over to a live action movie and keep the integrity of the source material intact or how they will manage with relatively no source material. These hurdles make the projects actually very high risk ventures for the studios involved. At least they are attracting some rather A-list producers, directors, actors and writers from the get-go. Video game movies struggled from the beginning of production because studios relied too much on the brand and didn't back them up with quality support. The toy and board game movies seem to be faring better from the start and this will go a long way in giving the movies a chance of actually being good.

It will be interesting to see just how many of these projects do end up getting made (many have been circulating for years between writers and studios) and how they actually end up. As always, the focus will also be on what else they could possibly make into a live action movie, MASK? Slinky? Play-Doh? Jack-In-The-Box? Rock'em Sock'em Robots? Zoids? Okay I actually wouldn't mind seeing a MASK or Zoids movie.  They would be pretty damn cool; just imagine Jack-In-The-Box as some crazy ass horror film- it'd be freaky. What movies do you think should or shouldn't be made? Head on over to the forums and discuss.