By this point, everyone already knows Barbie is getting adapted into a live-action movie, and one that’s nearly guaranteed to be a hit. Early box office tracking predicts Barbie will beat out Cristopher Nolan’s historical drama Oppenheimer by nearly 200 percent when it hits theaters July 21. Perhaps emboldened by the hype the film is receiving, Mattel has several films in the works about some of the company’s other toys, ranging from some obvious choices to more obscure intellectual property.
According to a recent piece from The New Yorker, over 45 films based on Mattel IP are currently in development, with 13 of those announced publicly. It’s tempting to dismiss these upcoming films as potential disasters (anyone remember that failed Battleship movie?) but Hasbro did turn Transformers into a massive film franchise, so it’s easy to see the appeal for a company with so many toy properties (how great that bodes for the future of filmmaking is a debate for another time). As Mattel gears up to launch their own cinematic universe à la Marvel Studios and DC, here are the 13 films we know about so far.
1. American Girl
American Girl is an obvious choice for a live-action film. Any American Girl fan worth their salt will know that the dolls come with complex backstories and personalities, perfect for a movie adaptation. In fact, there have been several (mostly TV) movies made about the American Girl dolls, with Kit Kitteredge: An American Girl Story even getting a theatrical release. An upcoming film for Max starring the 2022 American Girl of the Year is slated for 2023 as is an unnamed second special (via The Wrap), but per the New Yorker article, it seems the film in development is an additional Hollywood film, described as a combination of “Booksmarts meets Bill & Ted.”
2. Matchbox
Named after the fact that the toy cars are so small they can fit inside a matchbox, a film about Mattel’s slightly less popular miniature cars is being made by Skydance Media, the production company behind Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission: Impossible films. Coming up with a plot appears to have been just as hard as you’d expect for a film based on a set of miniature cars. According to that same New Yorker article, “members of Mattel’s team took turns commuting to the home of the Skydance executive Don Granger, where five writers camped out for a week with a whiteboard and a collection of Matchbox play sets, trying to gin up a story.”
3. Major Matt Mason
One of Mattel’s vintage toys, Major Matt Mason was introduced just three years before man landed on the moon but has largely been forgotten in recent years. Tom Hanks has been attached to star in a project based on the astronaut action figure since 2011, and is currently set to produce the film along with Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend) with Paramount Pictures. According to Kevin McKeon, VP of Mattel Films, the new movie might go in a more adult, “prestige-y” direction (think Close Encounters of the Third Kind). The action figure inspired the creation of Buzz Lightyear, and while Hanks plays Sheriff Woody in Toy Story instead, it’s still pretty cool for him to be attached to the project.
4. Barney the Dinosaur
Daniel Kaluuya will be producing a film based on Barney, the friendly purple dinosaur (there’s a sentence I never expected to read, let alone write). According to Deadline, the film is described as having an “A24-type” plot and will be focusing on the disenchantment of thirty-something millennials who grew up watching the dinosaur on PBS. The film will be “surrealistic” and follow in the footsteps of filmmakers like Spike Jonze (Her, Where the Wild Things) and Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
5. View-Master
This is one of the films in development but there’s no word on what kind of film a View-Master will be. Heck, if they can come up with a plot for Matchbox, they can certainly come up with one for View-Master. For what it’s worth, my bet is either a horror movie or something in the vein of Jumanji.
6. UNO
It’s hard to imagine what an UNO movie would like, and there’s very few details as to the current status of the one in development. Writer Marcy Kelly was given the task of writing an UNO film, specifically a heist movie, along with some memes about the game (like one of Beyoncé holding some UNO cards). The original draft was set in “Atlanta’s hip-hop scene” and featured more obscenities than Mattel wanted. “It was very ‘f***’-heavy,” said Kelly. Ultimately, Mattel has chosen to go in a different direction — perhaps we’ll end up with a dramatization of UNO’s creation à la the 2023 Tetris film?
7. Christmas Balloon
Christmas Balloon is an upcoming Mattel film and while it’s not based on a toy, per se, one of Mattel’s toys is at the center of the story. The film will tell the true story of a young girl, Dayàmi, who lives in a town near the Mexican border and attached a Christmas list to a red balloon in the hopes of reaching Santa. By chance, the balloon was found by a couple in Arizona, Randy and Marcella Heiss, a couple who were celebrating the holidays alone after losing their only child. According to local news station 13 News, the Heiss family contacted a local radio station to help them get in touch with Dayámi and her family so that they could help fulfill her wish list.
Where does Mattel come in? The list asked for things such as art supplies, clothes, and a “casa Enchantimals,” or Enchantimals playhouse, one of Mattel’s toys. Mattel heard about the cute story and how the two families now celebrate holidays and other special occasions together, and sent both families boxes of toys in response. McKeon announced plans for a live-action film about the Christmas story in 2021, written by Gabriela Revilla Lugo (Palm Springs, A Million Little Things).
8. Hot Wheels
If Mattel is making a Matchbox movie, obviously a Hot Wheels one must be in the works as well. The brand of toy cars is one of the company’s most well-known properties, and J.J. Abrams (it’s as crazy to me to report that as it, no doubt, is for you to read) is attached as director for the project. There’s no script for the film as of yet, but Abrams described the movie’s plot as “emotional and grounded and gritty.”
9. Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots
Vin Diesel is set to star in a live-action film adaptation of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, the classic two-player game where you have two action figures duke it out in a proxy battle between you and your friends. Not much is know about the film other than the plot following a father (Diesel) and his son who “form an unlikely bond with an advanced war machine,” a move that sounds like it could go in a vaguely Pacific Rim-esque or Iron Giant direction. Per Variety, the film will be a collaboration between Diesel’s production company One Race Films and Universal Pictures, and Diesel seems pretty optimistic about its success, alluding to a future franchise.
10. Thomas & Friends
Based off a British series of books titled Railway Series, Thomas the Tank Engine has been a favorite among children for decades. The anthropomorphic train has starred in two animated series, Thomas & Friends (1984-2021) and the rebooted Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go (2021-present), so it comes as no surprise that movie is in the works. The upcoming film will be produced and directed by Marc Foster (World War Z, Quantum of Solace), per Deadline, but fortunately won’t be adapted for an adult audience. McKeon reassures The New Yorker, “Thomas the Tank Engine isn’t going on a bender with his friends.”
11. Masters of the Universe
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is one of Mattel’s best-known properties thanks in part to a few animated series, the He-Man action figures, and of course, memes. He-Man and Co. have had several animated movies and spin-offs (like the critically acclaimed She-Ra and the Princesses of Power series) but a live-action reboot of the 1987 film has been stuck in development hell since 2007. As of 2023, the film is still on; Netflix currently has the rights and Adam and Aaron Nee (The Lost City) are set to direct.
12. Polly Pocket
A live-action Polly Pocket movie is in development with Lena Dunham (Girls) set to direct. The film will be a collaboration between Mattel Films, MGM, and Dunham’s production company Good Thing Going and Lily Collins (Emily in Paris) is set to star. Both director and star had only praise for the doll: “Polly Pocket was responsible for countless hours of childhood escapism for me,” Dunham shared after landing the project while Collins shared she couldn’t “wait to dive into this pastel world,” per British Vogue.
13. Magic 8 Ball
The upcoming Magic 8 Ball film will be a horror-comedy written by Jimmy Warden (Cocaine Bear) in partnership with Blumhouse Productions. It seems like an obvious approach for a movie about the toy that predicts the future but according to Mattel Film’s EVP, Robbie Brenner, some executives were wary of creating a less family-friendly film. Although Brenner says the film “walks the line a little bit…we’re not going to make anything that feels violent, or that is alienating to families. . . . We want to stay within the parameters of what Mattel is.”
