The folks at Hasbro are actively continuing to try and get their properties done in theatrical form, with Transformers obviously being the most successful as this years entry, the final from Michael Bay, has hit the #4 slot on biggest grossing movies ever. Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner is looking at getting things going again, and it’s hard to imagine that Paramount and others would turn down the potential for a new installemtn. The toy giant is in active discussions with Paramount, director Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg with hopes to have news to share in the next quarter.
But what else is going on out there for Hasbro on the movie side? With today’s third-quarter earnings conference call, Goldner is working throug ha number of projects, one of which has me hugely interested with what it could do. “We continue to actively develop a number of additional Hasbro films with great partners and writers, including Micronauts, Ouija, Candyland, Risk, Stretch Armstrong, Clue and Monopoly,” he said.
Micronauts. Please. Finish off my childhood dreams and give me a Micronauts movie. Preferably a full 3D CG one. Or even better, a TV series. Not all things must go theatrical. Still, with word that J.J. Abrams is working on Micronauts for Paramount, I’ll be happy to see what they come up with.
With Universal having dropped Ouija recently, citing budget concerns even while finishing up the big budget Battleship movie, Goldner likened it to the same thing Disney’s doing with The Lone Ranger. “[It’s] the same process we have gone through on the Ouija brand,” with bringing the budget down and going for a new meeting to try and get it all rolling again.
Amusingly, and definitely appropriate, when asked if they’d start producing their own movies, “No, we would not employ…a Marvel strategy,” Goldner said.
Just keep Michael “the destroy all childhood franchises with juvenile humor and racism” Bay away from it.