Paramount toys with 'Max Steel' pic
Just weeks before Paramount Pictures invades theaters with "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra," the studio is teaming with Joe Roth to pick up Mattel's "Max Steel" as another action figure it wants to play with on the bigscreen.
The toy property revolves around a 19-year-old extreme sports junkie recruited by a secret agency after an accident infects his body with nanobots, making him superhuman.
Although Mattel introduced the character in the U.S. in 1999 as an action figure, and soon after in an animated series that ran from 2000-2002, he's proved more popular in Latin America, where Max Steel is the region's No. 1 action figure. Mattel has continued to produce animated direct-to-DVD features for the region, produced by Rainmaker Entertainment in Vancouver.
But Mattel wants to use movies as a way to relaunch the toy line in the U.S. and the rest of the world, the way the "Transformers" pics have helped generate new heat around Hasbro's action figures.
"A theatrical film plays a significant role to relaunch the franchise," said Barry Waldo, Mattel's VP of worldwide entertainment marketing and strategy. "But we have a strong Latin consumer we're going to keep happy while broadening the franchise for the rest of the world. We wouldn't do ourselves a favor if we turned a blind eye to it. That's the artistic challenge we've got."
Roth, who is a producer on Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" at Disney, and produced last summer's "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army," will serve as executive producer on "Max Steel," with Waldo and Tim Kilpin, a Mattel senior VP who is shepherding the company's top brands for boys and girls.
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http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=10&cs=1
Just weeks before Paramount Pictures invades theaters with "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra," the studio is teaming with Joe Roth to pick up Mattel's "Max Steel" as another action figure it wants to play with on the bigscreen.
The toy property revolves around a 19-year-old extreme sports junkie recruited by a secret agency after an accident infects his body with nanobots, making him superhuman.
Although Mattel introduced the character in the U.S. in 1999 as an action figure, and soon after in an animated series that ran from 2000-2002, he's proved more popular in Latin America, where Max Steel is the region's No. 1 action figure. Mattel has continued to produce animated direct-to-DVD features for the region, produced by Rainmaker Entertainment in Vancouver.
But Mattel wants to use movies as a way to relaunch the toy line in the U.S. and the rest of the world, the way the "Transformers" pics have helped generate new heat around Hasbro's action figures.
"A theatrical film plays a significant role to relaunch the franchise," said Barry Waldo, Mattel's VP of worldwide entertainment marketing and strategy. "But we have a strong Latin consumer we're going to keep happy while broadening the franchise for the rest of the world. We wouldn't do ourselves a favor if we turned a blind eye to it. That's the artistic challenge we've got."
Roth, who is a producer on Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" at Disney, and produced last summer's "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army," will serve as executive producer on "Max Steel," with Waldo and Tim Kilpin, a Mattel senior VP who is shepherding the company's top brands for boys and girls.
continues:-
http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=10&cs=1
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