Hollywood’s habit of leaving no stone unturned and no franchise rebooted looks to be hitting its limit with the news that Fox are ushering a movie version of Play-Doh to the big screen. Early word on the flick points toward Bridesmaids and The Heat director Paul Feig taking up residence in the director’s chair with Butter writer Jason Micallef handling the script. Hasbro, the company behind the toy, are connecting with Chernin Entertainment to produce alongside Feig’s Feigco production arm.
While detractors of the idea will no doubt cite the toy-to-screen misfires of Battleship and Ouija, Warner struck gold last year with The LEGO Movie. At the time, the concept of a narrative-less toy brand heading up a feature movie seemed impossible. Since clearing away a tidy sum at the box office, that brick-building franchise has spawned a slew of future instalments, and the Play-Doh outing just might do the same.
Since its conception in the 1950s there’s been 2 BILLION tubs of the shapeless stuff sold, which begs the question: why has it taken this long for a movie? After all, those types of numbers infer that virtually every person on the planet has encountered or at least heard of the colorful clay. With a built-in audience that vast, the film will practically sell itself.
With plenty of irons in the fire, the continuation of Hasbro’s presence in Hollywood won’t hinge upon the success of the Play-Doh outing. Coming up is the Jem And The Holograms live-action movie, a Magic: The Gathering adaptation is in the works and yet even more Transformers movies scheduled to tie together in a gigantic cinematic universe. If Akiva Goldsman can steer more robotic shenanigans to the big screen, Feig can most definitely shape a worthwhile Play-Doh caper into multiplexes.
