Hollywood's Toy Ploy (Copied From Magazine)

[SavageAmusement]

I read this in my entertainment magazine this morning, thought some here would find it interesting...hope this is a good place for it.

[quote]quote:
He-Man, Voltron, Bratz slated for adaptation

In this summer's "Transformers," a truckload of Furby dolls gets blown sky-high by one of the film's giant robots.

It's meant as a sight gag, set up by toymaker Hasbro, which introduced the chatty little creatures, as well as the Transformers line, to the masses.

But Hollywood is hardly treating toys as a joke these days.

The next few years will see everything from He-Man to G.I. Joe to possibly Monopoly show up on the bigscreen. As the film biz runs out of original ideas, nothing, it seems, is too much of a stretch.

In the last two decades, Hollywood has gone through several crazes: U.S. adaptations of French comedies, remakes of vintage pics, film versions of old TV series, and adaptations of videogames and comicbooks. Now studios and high-profile producers are buying up rights to dolls, action figures and games, hoping their lasting popularity can prop up the next studio tentpoles.

As the thinking goes, the instant recognition of popular toys can only help an opening weekend. But everyone involved is also nervous. Studios are banking millions on just a brand name, while toymakers are risking their crown jewels to work in an entirely new format, knowing that a bomb can cut into their sales.

Toy sensations of the 1980s such as He-Man and Voltron are aiming to tap into a wave of nostalgia for the Reagan decade. The generation who grew up with these toys are now in positions of power in Hollywood, and the hope is that that same age-group, a key moviegoing demo, will embrace the bigscreen adaptations.

Given the success of the recent "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie ($91.3 million worldwide) and the buzz around "Transformers," there are high hopes for producers and studios.

Consider some projects in development:

* Warner Bros. is mulling a CGI-animated film version of "Thundercats," produced by Paula Weinstein ("Blood Diamond"), about a group of feline-looking warriors who have names like Lion-O, Panthro and Tygra.

* Warners and Joel Silver recently announced plans to make Mattel's "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" as a live-action feature in the vein of "300." (The toy character, loosely modeled on "Conan the Barbarian," was first turned into a film in 1987.)

* Paramount has "G.I. Joe" in the works with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura (who's also behind "Transformers"). The Hasbro character was spun off as "Action Man" outside the U.S., and the film would team up both characters.

* For girls, there's the "Bratz" movie that Lionsgate will release in August, and "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery," from HBO Films and Picturehouse, starring Abigail Breslin. The latter's based on Mattel's American Girl dolls.

* Avi Arad, who is producing "Bratz," is also behind a live-action movie version of the black-and-white animatronic robot "Robosapien," from Wow Wee Ltd. A former toy designer, Arad will also create a new robot that will appear in the film and on store shelves. Crystal Sky Pictures is producing.

* Mark Gordon has his own giant robot movie with "Voltron" that Justin Marks ("He-Man") is penning.

The toys worked because they weren't just things to play with. They were big businesses, backed by Saturday morning cartoons and comicbooks that generated interest around the properties and were essentially commercials to drive sales, much to the dismay of children's television advocates.

As a result, the toys became popular consumer brands. Brands that are now turning companies like Hasbro and Mattel into the next Marvel -- at least, that's the hope of William Morris.

After snagging the toymaker away from CAA as a client (WMA reps director Michael Bay, producer Tom DeSanto and General Motors, whose vehicles play many of the robot