Hasbro is making big strides to advance their very own film company division by hiring veteran film producer Greg Mooradian to oversee the young venture. The prominent toy company will take advantage of its many well-established brands - Mr. Potato Head, Monopoly, and My Little Pony - as it makes this significant industry crossover.
Rumor has it that the massive toy maker group has long been looking to make its grand entrance in the business of movie making. Hasbro has apparently been relentless in raising money to fund their newest endeavor. With a supposedly nine-figure target budget to sufficiently get the division fully up and running, Hasbro aspires to be a high roller in the industry - one that could take juggernauts such as Marvel Studios.
The news comes courtesy of a report from Variety, which offers some details on Hasbro’s plans to launch a fully-fledged film studio with Mooradian leading the unit. As president of Allspark Pictures, the producer will manage both the company’s film and TV projects starting this January.
If anything, Hasbro has picked a seemingly fit and capable person to help them fully dive in in this new business venture. Mooradian is an industry veteran who has more than a decade’s worth of produced films under its belt, including the Twilight saga, The Stepfather and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. He has also helped create the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, as well as Hasbro-sourced movies like G.I. Joe and Transformers during his time at Paramount. He left Paramount in 2013 and went on to nab the EVP Production spot at Fox 2000, where he was involved with Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters.
Hasbro has a long relationship history with Paramount, as the latter has long served as distributor for their films. The former supposedly wants to expand their relationship, by also partnering on financing productions and developing new projects. Should that happen, however, already existing franchises like the Transformers and G.I. Joe would not be part of the new deal. Paramount will still be the one to develop any movies with the aforementioned characters, while Hasbro serves as a producer.
Just a few years back, Hasbro has also tried their hand at making their own movies, with their attempt to merge with DreamWorks Animation. Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly as everyone hoped, prompting the two parties to walk away from the deal thereafter. A similar thing happened when Hasbro tried to do the same thing with Lionsgate, leading to execs from both companies failing to reach an agreement in terms of sales price.
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Source: Variety
