Mattel Drags Max Steel On To Big Screen

Variety is reporting that Paramount Pictures is teaming with Joe Roth to pick up Mattel’s “Max Steel” as another action figure license that they can destroy for the bigscreen.

As you may recall from the old cartoon in the late n90’s, the toy revolves around a 19-year-old extreme sports junkie recruited by a secret agency after an accident infects his body with nanobots, making him superhuman.The show never really got too much respect stateside, bit the cartoon is a hit in Latin America where Max Steel is the #1 figure.

Mattel wants to use movies as a way to relaunch the toy line in the U.S. and the rest of the world, the way the “Transformers” pics have helped generate new heat around Hasbro’s action figures.

“A theatrical film plays a significant role to relaunch the franchise,” said Barry Waldo, Mattel’s VP of worldwide entertainment marketing and strategy. “But we have a strong Latin consumer we’re going to keep happy while broadening the franchise for the rest of the world. We wouldn’t do ourselves a favor if we turned a blind eye to it. That’s the artistic challenge we’ve got.”

Mattel was keen on pairing with Roth, considering the Max Steel character has similarities to the “XXX” franchise he launched while head of Revolution Studios. The Xander Cage character in the first film was an extreme sports athlete turned spy.

Really?… Really?!? They really think that Max Steel is Like XXX? That’s like saying Mac and Me was Like E.T.