The Transformers movies have made a ridiculous amount of money, and The Lego Movie was a critical hit, so films based on toys are an even bigger no-brainer for studios now than they were a few years ago. While some companies are scraping the bottom of the Toys R Us to find things to turn into movies, one studio has decided to go in a weirder direction: As reported by Deadline, MGM has picked up the rights to Kidrobot’s line of artsy vinyl figurines. They’re not really toys, but Barnes & Noble sells them in its weird toy section—alongside Big Bang Theory board games, those architecture Lego sets, and anime model kits—so they count.
The Kidrobot movie will be written by Matt Ember and Tom Astle, the duo behind Dreamworks’ recent animated film Home, and Deadline says it will be a mix of animation and live action. Oddly, Deadline doesn’t actually explain what the film will be about. That seems like an important thing to leave out, since Kidrobot isn’t really a specific line of toys or characters—it’s a brand. It’s like saying you’re making a movie based on Hasbro instead of The Transformers. Kidrobot makes toys based on The Simpsons, DC’s superheroes, and food with adorable faces, but will the movie reflect any of that? It could be a Lego Movie-style mash-up of a bunch of different things, but that’s already been done. Whatever the movie is about, we just hope it retains the unique feeling of buyer’s remorse that comes from paying way too much for anything at Barnes & Noble.