A Live-Action Beyblade Movie Is Coming From Mega-Producer Jerry Bruckheimer

Some very odd and unexpected news has hit the movie world today, as mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer has found his next project: An adaptation of "Beyblade" as a potential live-action franchise. For the unfamiliar, these started out as toys that were essentially customizable tops that fight one another in little arenas, became quite popular for a time, and went on to inspire comics and animated shows. Now? Hasbro, Paramount, and the producer of such hits as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Top Gun" are attempting to turn that concept into gold. Somehow.

As reported by Deadline, up-and-coming writing duo Neil Widener and Gavin James are set to pen the screenplay for the "Beyblade" movie, with plot details currently being kept under wraps. The toys themselves were originally developed by Japanese company Takara and licensed to various companies, such as Hasbro, a company which had a great deal of luck collaborating with Paramount on the "Transformers" franchise. Different iterations of "Beyblade" have generally centered around fighting tournaments, and some of these tournaments have even happened in real life. Just look at this unbelievably serious commercial for one in 2018.

On the surface, it's a little tough to see how this makes for a movie, but it is not hard to see that Hollywood is absolutely obsessed with established properties and turning those into potential movie franchises. Having any sort of built-in audience is seen as the way to go, rather than risking money on something that has no sort of guarantee. That being the case, it has come to this, with Bruckheimer, one of the most successful producers in the history of the business, on board a "Beyblade" feature.

To try and understand what audience might exist for such a project, I turned to an expert. And by expert, I mean my little brother, who was a gigantic fan of "Beyblade" in his youth. In relaying the news of an impending live-action feature film based on his once-beloved toys, he had this to say about it:

"Bro, I f***ing loved Beyblades. S***, I'd buy some right now if it was still poppin'."

I should note for the sake of journalism that my brother initially texted the word "poopin'," but then corrected himself in short order. When I suggested that a "Beyblade" movie being in development points to the idea that it may indeed still be poppin' — or about to be poppin' in the future — he added, "Now you got me hyped, bro. I would dump some money into Beyblades man. I got adult money now."

Go out and get you some of that adult money, Paramount.

The "Beyblade" movie does not yet have a release date set.