If, when you heard back in 2010, that Taylor Lautner was attached to star as Stretch Armstrong, you started work on your new Stretch Lautner photo-collage, we have bad news: you need to tear that sucker up and dump it in the bin, because he’s no longer on board.
As part of a press release from Relativity Media, which is taking over the option for the movie from Universal (which appears to have dumped the project along with other Hasbro properties such as Ouija), there’s no mention of any casting for the new version of the movie. But then again, since it’s an announcement release, there’s mostly just a lot of backslapping…
“We are absolutely thrilled to partner with Hasbro, a company whose global reach and ability to innovate has made them immensely successful in the arena of brand re-imagination – as evidenced by their legacy of creating such franchises as Transformers and G.I. Joe,” said Relativity co-president and possible toy line title himself, Tucker Tooley, “We look forward to bringing Stretch Armstrong to audiences worldwide.”
“Stretch Armstrong is a great example of Hasbro’s rich portfolio of intellectual properties that we are continuing to develop globally,” said Hasbro’s president, Brian Goldner, “We are excited to partner with Relativity on this movie as they are a growing and innovative studio.”
In case you forgot, Stretch is the action figure toy with the rubbery limbs and torso that can be stretched out and always retain his shape. First launched in the 1970s, it was successfully re-introduced to sadistic, limit testing kids in the 1990s and continues to be a presence today. So who will star as Armstrong? We’ll know soon enough. As for whether it’ll still be in 3D… Who can say?