A few years ago, when Hollywood first starting buying up toy properties, such as Bratz, Transformers and G.I. Joe, another one they quickly jumped on was Magic-8 Ball – the oversized pool ball with a 20-sided die inside, which that can supposedly give you predictions about any questions you might as it.
Although the idea based on the toy may sound a bit ridiculous, there’s perhaps more mileage for a movie from a Magic-8 Ball that you might think. Maybe a Yes Man/Liar Liar type flick, where someone has to do whatever a Magic-8 Ball tells him, or a movie where someone starts getting ridiculously lucky by following the ball’s advice? Initially this seemed to be the direction they were going, as they hired Liar Liar director Tom Shadyac to helm the film. However that idea broke down and it seemed the Magic-8 Ball movie was lost in limbo.
Despite this, Paramount isn’t ready to give up, assigning Brad Weston to produce a film based on the toy. There’s also been a shift in tone, so rather than a comedy, Vulture says they’re going to make it ‘a sort of live-action National Treasurestyle action-adventure movie’ (which is Hollywood’s default setting when they aren’t sure what to do). Jon Gunn and John Mann have been asked to come up with the script, although no director or cast have been set yet.
Will the movie actually get made? Well, any prediction is likely to be as accurate as a Magic-8 Ball itself. After all, it seems both Battleship and Ouija will come to the screen, and even Monopoly is in development, so don’t write off Magic-8 Ball: The Movie yet.