Blame it on the huge success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which took a bunch of superhero comics that only the nerdy faithful cared about and turned them into a multi-billion dollar movie juggernaut. Fifteen years after the first Iron Man movie released and changed how Hollywood — and the world — defined the word “blockbuster”, it seems like MCU is the only game in town. All the boys and girls — and their parents — seem to want to watch grown men and women in bright costumes fight fantastical monsters and aliens, and, occasionally, each other. Can another brand be blamed for wanting a piece of the film franchise action that has proved so lucrative for one?
The toy company Mattel has already lined up a series of movie projects based on its toys, beginning with Barbie, which releases at the end of this month, followed by movies about Hot Wheels, Barney the Dinosaur, the card game Uno and the Magic 8 Ball. The company has unveiled a surprising creative vision for the movies in question: The inspiration for the Barney movie apparently comes from the works of Spike Jonze and Charlie Kauffman, the Magic 8 Ball film will get a comedy-horror treatment from the writer of Cocaine Bear and the Hot Wheels film, producer J J Abrams says, will be “emotional, grounded and gritty”.
Over a century ago, when Georges Melies launched a rocket that landed in the moon’s eye, it opened up a vista of possibilities for a still-emerging art form. Subsequent generations of filmmakers, from Maya Deren and Luis Bunuel to James Cameron have, with great creative leaps, pushed the boundaries of what cinema can imagine and do. Perhaps the new Hot Wheels film too will break new cinematic ground. Most likely, though, it will just be further confirmation that filmmaking today is less about wowing the viewer, and more about wooing the consumer.
