Following the overwhelming box-office success of The Lego Movie, the Transformers series, and, uh, Ouija, the toymakers at Hasbro have apparently gone back to the old toy chest looking for a new blockbuster movie franchise and found it empty, save for a dried-up old lump of Play-Doh caked to the bottom. “This’ll have to do,” the real-life Santa’s Elves and professional delighters of children said to themselves, the childlike sense of wonder that led them to their chosen careers dulled by years of test marketing and revenue projections.
Thus, Hasbro has enlisted Fox to help put a little water on this cracked old lump of an idea, massaging Paul Feig into the potential revenue stream of a live-action Play-Doh movie. Feig, who must have made funny movies at one point—we can hardly remember anymore—is currently in talks to direct. Butter screenwriter Jason Micallef is set to write the script, because butter, like Play-Doh, is a soft, moldable substance that you could technically eat by the handful, although it’ll give you a stomachache. The Asylum ripoff, Flour, Salt, And Warm Water, is also presumably forthcoming.