A film based on Beyblade, a popular range of battling spinning tops, will soon be Hasbro’s latest feature-length toy advert in disguise.
According to Deadline Hollywood, Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to turn Beyblade into a live-action motion picture. Mary Parent, founder and president of Disruption Entertainment, will be the film’s producer.
Beyblades are made by Japanese firm Takaratomy, the company that created Transformers, and have been distributed outside of Japan by Hasbro since 2001.
The toys are designed so that they are assembled and set-off spinning with two at battle against each other, the last Beyblade spinning wins; often leaving the opponents spinning top in a debris of parts.
In 2002 Beyblade became a toy craze in British playgrounds, leading to queues at opening time outside stores and some most wanted models exchanging hands on eBay for several times their normal price. At the time a series of cartoons based on these toys was shown on television.
In 2009 Beyblade : Metal Fusion was launched, a new range toys is expected to be in shops in 2017, which is a likely release date for the new film.
Informer : Deadline Hollywood