Universal has taken themselves out of the toy adaptation business, and for now at least, out of the Taylor Lautner Business. If you recall, one of Lautner's next big projects was meant to be Stretch Armstrong, an action flick based on the stupid stretchable action figures from the 1970s. It would be another flick borne out of the partnership between Universal and Hasbro, and would capitalize on the obvious soon-to-be success of Lautner's new leading man status after Abduction.
Then a funny thing happened along the way. For one, Universal started cutting projects left and right, with practically all of the films they had lined up with Hasbro sent packing. And two, Abduction turned out to be as appealing as a cold sore, with not even the pimple faced teens going out to see it. After that, Universal started having some doubts about banking on Lautner, and now it appears Hasbro has taken the project elsewhere.
Deadline reports the film has turned up with Relativity, and there have been some major changes. For one, Lautner is no longer involved, a surprising move considering the monster deal he signed in order to do it. And you might remember that Nicholas Stoller(The Muppets) had been brought on to pen the script and Rob Letterman(Gulliver's Travels) to direct. Neither of them were mentioned in Relativity's press release announcing the deal with Hasbro. It's clear they still have really high hopes for it, though, as a release date of April 11th 2014 has been set in place.
This is already a stupid sounding movie, and the one thing it had working in it's favor was Lautner. With him gone, what other young star is big enough to make it worthwhile? Liam Hemsworth, maybe?
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