Sony is looking to make a family feature, along with Mattel Films, out of the View-Master range of toys. More here.
You can thank Barbie for this. Ever since the billion dollar success of Greta Gerwig’s 2023 movie, movie studios have been scouring the toy aisles to find fresh fodder for feature films. Sony has worked its way through an old Argos catalogue, thumbed its way to the Mattel section, stuck a pin in the page and…. We’re getting a View-Master movie.
The View-Master is a toy that basically shows you still images, and we first heard that there might be a feature inspired by it around five years ago. In fact, this idea has been through a couple of studios, with both MGM and Paramount spending some time considering the idea.
Sony though is the one that’s bitten, and it announced the project yesterday. It’s calling the new film a “four-quadrant family adventure film”. Chortle.
In fairness too, the idea of a film based around the View-Master does at least offer some creative opportunities. After all, there’s something a little Doctor Who-like about the idea you can put any disc of pictures in the device and be transported away to a different story.
Still, outside of the assorted producers, we don’t know who the creatives are who are going to wrestle and click this to the screen. A writer or director hasn’t been announced. Instead, that Escape Artists is going to produce the film, along with Mattel Films.
Todd Black of Escape Artists has given a bit of a boilerplate rent-a-quote about the movie, declaring that “teaming up with Robbie Brenner and Mattel Films gives us the chance to honor that legacy while creating an entirely new adventure for today’s audience. We can’t wait to bring this treasured toy’s sense of exploration to the big screen.”
Which tells us pretty much precisely sod all. If they were bold, they could do a good horror movie out of this. Looks like they’re going the family route though.
More as we hear it…
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