G. I. Joe Toys Interrupted : Some Shipped, Others Delayed

 

Hasbro will delay the release of the rest of its toys for G.I. Joe: Retaliation to early next year to tie into the revised release date for the movie , the company announced late last week. Some retailers have already put products from the first wave on sale; they were already being shipped when the move release date delay was announced. But any products not already on sale will be returned , and the remainder of the first wave and future waves will ship in 2013.

This presents an interesting situation, with G.I. Joe collectors chasing the limited amounts of product that has already been released, with the knowledge that larger quantities will eventually be available early next year. No elevated prices were noted on eBay as of Tuesday.

Universal Moves 'G.I. Joe: Retaliation' to March, 2013

Paramount has moved G.I. Joe: Retaliation, which was slated to debut on June 29th, to March 29th, 2013 in order to add 3-D in an attempt to bolster foreign sales. Paramount is giving up one of the prime dates of the summer and Universal quickly stepped in to help fill the late June void with the buzz-generating Ted, an "R" rated comedy by Seth MacFarlane about a foul-mouthed Teddy Bear that stars Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg.

Paramount has already spent quite a bit promoting the $125 million G.I. Joe sequel including a pricy Super Bowl ad and several trailers. Based on the Hasbro property, G.I. Joe: Retaliation was directed by Jon M. Chu and adds Bruce Willis and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to a solid ensemble cast.

As Deadline points out, Paramount has had some luck in the past changing release dates. The studio delayed the release of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and managed to give the director his box office best.

Paramount isn’t the only studio that has delayed a studio tentpole that was supposed to debut in 2012 in order to add TV. Already smarting from what appears to be a considerable loss with Battleship, Universal has moved the Keanu Reeves-starring 47 Ronin to 2013 and is citing 3-D as the reason. However Hollywood rumor has it that the studio is afraid the $200 million plus samurai epic is too risky to open in the same year in which Battleship has already put a major dent in the Universal’s bottom line.

New 'Transformers" Cartoon Debuts in February

A new Transformers animated series, Transformers: Rescue Bots will debut with back-to-back episodes on Hasbro’s The Hub cable network on Saturday, February 18th starting at 11:30 am (ET, PT). The Rescue Bots series, which is produced by Hasbro Studios and Atomic Cartoons, supports a toy line from Hasbro and targets pre-tween viewers, occupying a niche in the lineup of Transformers cartoons akin to that of the Marvel Super Hero Squad. The debut of Transformers: Rescue Bots kicks of The Hub’s “Transformers Mega Saturday Event,” which will unfold on February 18th.

Later that day Hasbro will launch the second season of the its CG animated series Transformers Prime, which will debut with the first episode of a 3-episode storyline on The Hub at 8:30 pm (ET)

The final event of the “Transformers Mega Saturday Event” will be an airing of the 1986 Transformers: The Animated Movie.

Will There Be a 'Magic 8-Ball' Movie?

Paramount, which scored a major success with Hasbro’s Transformers, has extended its deal with toy company Mattel by acquiring the rights to make a live action adventure movie based on the Magic 8-Ball, a predictive toy, which contains a die with 20 pre-set answers.

Hollywood’s headlong pursuit of “toyetic” properties, which is evident in numerous projects currently in development including Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, Risk, and Major Mason, made it likely that a studio would try to make a Magic 8-Ball movie, especially since Universal is already prepping a film based on Hasbro’s Ouija Board Game.

Deadline New York is reporting that Paramount, which is already working with Mattel on a Max Steel movie, has hired Jon Gunn and John Mann, who have written Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians for Dreamworks Animation, to write the screenplay for the Magic 8-Ball movie.