Universal Pictures has set Bruce Almighty screenwriter Steve Oedekerk to write Stretch Armstrong, a superhero comedy based on the Hasbro-owned toy, reports Variety.
Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir will produce “Stretch Armstrong.”
The toy, a 13-inch, blond-haired muscled figure whose limbs could be stretched to nearly four feet, was launched by Kenner in the ’70s. He had a dog named Fetch Armstrong, and a sibling, Evil X-Ray Wretch Armstrong. Attempts to turn him into a movie stretch back to 1998, when Disney tried to make the film with Danny DeVito and later Jackie Chan.
Hasbro’s Goldner reacquired the rights, and Oedekerk is starting from scratch. He has most recently been working on a sequel to Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, writing, directing and starring in the martial-arts spoof.
The studio and Hasbro are also readying movie transformations of Monopoly (a potential Ridley Scott directing vehicle), Candy Land (with Etan Cohen scripting and Kevin Lima directing), and Ouija (being developed by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes).
