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Paramount, Hasbro Plan One Film Universe Based on Micronauts, G.I. Joe, Visionairies, M.A.S.K., ROM
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The Hollywood Reporter posted on Tuesday that film studio Paramount Pictures and toy company Hasbro are collaborating on a potential film series with a shared universe combining five Hasbro brands: G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionairies, M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) and ROM.
Allspark Pictures, Hasbro's film label, will produce the films. Hasbro and Paramount will collaborate to assemble a team of writers to create the shared universe. Paramount has already produced film franchises based on Hasbro's Transformers and G.I. Joe toy lines.
The 1976-1980 Micronauts toys from the defunct Mego Corporation were actually rebranded Microman action figures from the Japanese toy company Takara (now a part of Takara Tomy). Hasbro now has the rights to the Micronauts toy brand, and Hasbro and IDW plan to publish a new set of comics for the franchise.
In Japan, Takara's 1998-2000 Microman Magne Powers brand relaunch spawned the 52-episode Chiisana Kyojin Microman anime series (1999). There were also several Microman manga over the last three decades. Two other Microman spinoffs from Takara — the transforming handheld objects from the Micro Change line and the transforming vehicles from the Diaclone line — were rebranded and exported as the first year's lineup of Hasbro's Transformers toys in 1984.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2009 that that director and producer J.J. Abrams (Star Trek reboot films, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) was in talks with Hasbro to produce a film based on the Micronauts action figure line. The entertainment news website Deadline reported in October that Tom Wheeler will write the latest draft of the film's script.
Deadline then reported in November that scriptwriter Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind, Batman Forever) will lead the Writers Room for Paramount and Bad Robot's live-action Micronauts film.
