Recently there’s been word of a Monopoly movie, a Choose Your Own Adventure movie, and a movie for basically every well-established toy or game ever invented. One of those similar projects was a film about a gel-filled Hasbro action figure called Stretch Armstrong. Unfortunately for all the Stretch fans out there, Relativity Media have announced that they are abandoning the project.
Taylor Lautner was originally supposed to star as Stretch, and the film was once set to be based off a screenplay by Nicholas Stoller. It was first going to be made through Universal, but in 2010 they dropped the project and it was picked up by Relativity. Relativity tossed in Lautner, brought in Dean Georgaris to rewrite the script, and hired Breck Eisner to direct. Production was supposed to start May 15, 2013 in Montreal, with a release date of April 11, 2014 in mind. Now Relativity and Hasbro have announced they’re no longer pursuing the project in order to focus on other things.
Check out what Relativity spokesman David Shane had to say on the matter.
“Stretch Armstrong is an incredible character who will make an amazing movie, and we know that Hasbro has some new ideas they are looking at. Relativity and Hasbro have a tremendous relationship, and we decided to focus on other projects. We look forward to continuing to work together.”
The character was first launched in 1976, with a relaunch in the 1990s that really boosted his popularity. For those who aren’t familiar, the cool thing about the action figure was that he could be stretched from his original size of about 15 inches to a whopping 5 feet, and then return back to normal size like nothing ever happened. While I had plenty of fun playing with my Stretch Armstrong as a kid, I really wasn’t too excited for this film. I just can’t picture it being anything other than ultra-campy and fairly lame. Considering they dropped the project, I’m assuming Relativity felt the same way.
Are you still interested in a Stretch Armstrong movie? Do you think there’s any chance another studio picks this up? Head down to the comments section to share your thoughts.