It’s no secret that many Hasbro products are being fashioned as a new tentpole production – seeing how the list includes next year’s Battleship movie and the all-but-assured Transformers 4, among others. Hence why there’s good reason to listen to what CEO Brian Goldner has to say, in terms of updates on the company’s many cinematic projects.
Goldner has made it clear that Hasbro is not aiming to employ “the Marvel strategy” and start producing its own movies anytime soon. However, long-rumored film adaptations based on its products – like the Taylor Lautner-starring Stretch Armstrong and a Micronauts movie co-developed by J.J. Abrams – reportedly do feature the company’s head executives in a significant creative capacity.
The big news from Goldner concerns Hasbro being “in active discussions” with Paramount about a fourth Transformers movie – ones that also involves franchise staples like director Michael Bay and producer Steven Spielberg. Previous reports indicated the film will not be a reboot; rather, it is being designed as the beginning of a new trilogy, similar to previously-released blockbuster “fourquels” like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides or Fast and Furious.
While Bay has previously indicated that Transformers: Dark of the Moon would be the last entry in the giant robots series that featured him as director, there’s no guarantee he won’t change his mind and sign on for Transformer 4 – or, at the least, still serve in a producer role.
Considering that Dark of the Moon has (to date) grossed nearly $1.12 billion in theaters worldwide, it’s no wonder that Paramount would be interested in bringing Bay back. The man’s Transformers movies have more than their fair share of detractors, but there’s no denying: as far as the box office is concerned, Bay is 3-for-3 with this series.
On a different note: even though McG’s Ouija was dropped by Universal a couple months back, Goldner says the project is far from dead at this point. He instead likens the film to being in a position similar to what Disney’s almost-collapsed Lone Ranger movie was recently in (re: stuck in development limbo because of cost concerns). Hence why the Ouija script is being polished and reworked so that the supernatural adventure film is less of a costly undertaking – in the hopes that another studio will thereafter be interested in producing it.
Other projects that Goldner says are in fact being actively worked on include Monopoly, Risk, and a second Clue board game movie. All of these projects feature some big names working behind-the-scenes (ex. Ridley Scott on Monopoly, Gore Verbinski on Clue) so they’re bound to continue moving forward… despite complaints from both casual moviegoers and respectable filmmakers that most of these Hasbro game/toy adaptations reflect Hollywood’s heavily-criticized preference for marketability over originality. Make of that what you will.
–
We will continue to keep you posted on the status of Transformers 4, Ouija, and all of the aforementioned Hasbro-related projects, as more information is released.
