I can guess what a script for this might be: a magical View-Master brings to life the images it shows. In 3D.
But after that, what’s next? Will every object end up as a film? How about one about a bar of soap? A guy sleeping? Oops, Warhol already did that. I want to see a film about a box of Kleenex. Or that anti-fart stuff, Beano. Call it, Gone With The Wind. Rats, that’s been done, too. Yeah, like that matters…
View-Master, the Fisher-Price toy with little 3-D picture discs of mountains, rivers and caverns that kids could rotate through a viewfinder, is the latest vintage toy getting a second life on the big screen.
DreamWorks is in negotiations to acquire movie rights to the toy from Mattel (which owns Fisher-Price) and has asked writer-producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to do some “Transformers”-style magic on it.
Brad Caleb Kane, who worked as a writer-producer on the duo’s Fox series “Fringe,” is on board to write the screenplay. Kurtzman and Orci would produce.
Story specifics are being kept under wraps, though Kane, who during the holiday weekend sent out a message on Twitter announcing his involvement, said, “It’ll be like the old ’80s Amblin movies: ‘Goonies,’ ‘Young Sherlock’ … in that vein.” (That post has since been taken down.)
The Kurtzman-Orci production banner has specialized in Amblin-style movies. Kurtzman and Orci do have experience with toy brands, as well: Their resumes include the two “Transformers” movies, which are based on Hasbro toys.
Learn more about View-Master. And then there’s the artist who works in what he calls VladMaster.
Not new. The short lived TV show Wonderfalls featured a viewmaster.
How about a film about a bar of soap? Umm, Fight Club?
Next thing you know they’ll make a movie about the old arcade game Asteroids….
I hope the writers and producers realize that reality is in 3D. So the premise should not be kids looking into the View-Master and seeing an amazing 3D world. As that’s what they see every day. (Well, except for the amazing part, of course!)
Look out #2. They already are.
“Slinky! The Movie!”
I’ll look forward to watching these on SciFi’s Saturday night movie line-up next year. Ummm…make that SyFy.
Its not a movie about a viewmaster, its about what HAPPENS when you use the viewmaster.
EXACTLY the same premise a Genie granting 3 wishes–the movie is about the wishes not about the magic lamp.
Same as the schlock show I watched a bit of tonight called Warehouse 13. Same as the viewmaster without the need to actually click on the lever.
Story telling is weak. Every movie I can think of that I like is actually about cinematography. Thought that watching “The Duelists” last night. TERRIBLE movie, completely unbelievable pointless plot, zero character development, people too clean, fencing was atrocious but the cinematography/settings were superb making it all worthwhile.
Kinda like a viewmaster.
Is the viewmaster still around? Do kids today know what one is? I’m wondering about the audience for this. It will almost certainly be a Jumanji-style thing where kids get sucked into it or it changed the world or something.
I’m not going to laugh at it based on the idea. If it actually makes it into production I’ll wait until some details come out. It sounds silly but so does a movie about a guy who dies thinking about the sled he had as a kid.
Hey don’t knock it ya never know it might have a real good story behind it. One of my favorite stories was the Twilight Zone episode with the Camera that took pictures of the future. Everybody died.
Spoiler Alert:
In the movie, the old film-based ViewMaster becomes the all-digital ViewMaster Of The Universe, transforming regular old 3D + Time into 9D + Time^3 so everybody lives out every possible permutation of their possible realities. Running length: 13.8 x 10^100^100 minutes.
It will come in under budget, but first weekend results will be disappointing, garnering only $2.6 x 10 ^14 in all dimensions.
Dreamworks has a tendencies to put out a Pixar-ripoff movie a couple of years after the original movie (Finding Nemo > Sharks, Mansters. Inc. > Monsters v. Aliens, etc.)
Since Pixar is releasing Toy Story this year, we might see Viewmaster in 2011.
Just as ArianeB (#1) pointed out, one of my favorite Tv shows, Wonderfalls, used the viewmaster as a regular effect. Wipes between some scenes and commercial breaks, used the viewmaster’s rounded corners frame and sound effect of the film disk sliding into it next position. A better sound that the old 35MM auto winder motor sound, or the Polaroid print spitting motor sound, we’ve heard too much of over the years.
“NCIS” has been getting away with a kind of overblown photo-flash sound, for its crime scene snaps. Even though a flash is rarely used or needed. And electronic flashes aren’t as loud as the old exploding flash powder pans. If Hollywood wants to impress us, invent a entirely new scene change sound effect, that they can call their own (and patented).
Anyway, from the movie types involved in this project, I think we can guess what the movie will be about. Haunted or magical Viewmaster disks that transport characters into or out of each frame. In other words, a magic portal plot idea.