Matel has launched a talent agency and signed Polly Pocket as their first A-list client. We hear it's a seven year agreement at a mind-blowing 5% commission as opposed to the 10% that is standard payout for most actors. The hope is to partner with Disney/Pixar to launch a franchise of Polly Pocket films. We hear a script for the first installment is in the works and could be in production as early as September. Naturally, Michael Bay is attached to direct. We also hear that Matel has resurrected the toy company Worlds of Wonder and with it their best-selling Teddy Ruxpin who is fresh out of a stint at Promises Rehabilitation Facility in Malibu, California.
Tyler Perry and his production company Tyler Perry Studios has purchased the rights to Guess Who? (The Mystery Face Game) from the Milton Bradley Company. He plans to adapt the game into a murder mystery, though says any comparisons to the game and movie Clue are completely coincidental. He also promises for a much more diverse cast in his version of the
Milton Bradley also made another pair of sales officially cementing their place as the number two^ toy/movie company in the entertainment business today. The first is a live-action adaptation of the popular board game Mall Madness. What was once the mall with it all will now be the movie with it all. John Travolta and Tom Cruise are set to star as a pair of girlfriends who get locked in a mall over night. In order to escape the
Mouse Trap, the second of Milton-Bradley's sales, will prove to be a bit more difficult despite it selling for a steep price tag. The script with "the most difficult set-up ever" will be written by Charlie Kauffman. We hear George Clooney's Section Eight Production Company is attached to produce the film, though Clooney will not direct. Michael Bay will. We also hear that the team behind Wipe Out could be contributing the vast majority of the set, although this is all based on the assumption that Kaufman will take a literal interpretation of the material. No release date has been set, but should the rumors be true that Universal Studios is co-financing the film you can expect a Mouse Trap ride to launch the weekend the film opens as well.
Whether or not these films will be commercially successful is hard to say. If Hasbro's previous success is any indication, I'd say that Dec 21, 2012 end-of-the-world-thing is pretty spot on.
*I fainted after writing this sentence.
^Yes. That number two.
























