Allspark Pictures
Allspark Pictures, formerly Hasbro Films, or Hasbro Film Group, was a film production within Allspark, a subsidiary of Hasbro tasked with developing films for Hasbro properties.[33]
In 1986, The Transformers: The Movie and My Little Pony: The Movie, animated theatrical films based on Hasbro properties, were released. Waddingtons, later purchased by Hasbro in 1994,[34] Clue's US licensee, licensed a Clue film, released in 1985. Hasbro had previously licensed Transformers to DreamWorks for a live action film released in 2007.[35] The Transformers franchise continued solely with Paramount Pictures, the distribution of and acquirer of DreamWorks, with the addition of the G.I. Joe property.
Hasbro and Universal Pictures signed an agreement in February 2008 to derive and produce four films from seven Hasbro properties: Battleship, Candy Land, Clue, Magic: The Gathering, Monopoly, Ouija, and Stretch Armstrong. Hasbro was to pay for all development costs for the films and Universal was supposed to pay $5 million per property not made into films.[36] In May, Bennett Schneir was hired to lead its film division[37] while Hasbro also reacquired animated series based on their properties from Sunbow Productions.[8]
By January 2012, all Hasbro properties at Universal — except for Battleship and Ouija — were halted in development. While Hasbro's film division continued to have an office on the Universal lot, Hasbro was able to take the Universal agreement properties to any studio.[36] Universal paid a multimillion-dollar fee instead of the $5 million per property to depart from the agreement.[38]
On 31 January 2012, it was announced that Columbia Pictures, Happy Madison, and Adam Sandler were in final negotiations to develop the Candy Land film.[39] In February, Stretch Armstrong was set up with Relativity Media.[36] In October, Hasbro signed a three picture co-production two-year deal which includes a first look provision with Emmett/Furla for Monopoly, Action Man, and Hungry Hungry Hippos, with Envision Entertainment's partners Stepan Martisoyan and Remington Chase as co-financiers.[40] In December, Hasbro transferred the feature films division into Hasbro Studios along with its other short film division.[9] By October 10, 2013, Relativity and Hasbro had removed the Stretch Armstrong movie from their schedules.[41]
Hasbro filed suit against Sweetpea Entertainment and Warner Bros. on May 12, 2013, regarding the announced Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) movie based on Chainmail. Hasbro had asserted that rights had reverted to Hasbro, while Sweetpea felt they had the rights under a 1994 agreement with TSR. Hasbro had reportedly just agreed to license D&D movie rights to Universal.[42] On August 3, 2015, Warner Bros. announced that they will be developing a Dungeons & Dragons movie as a resolution to the lawsuit. The film will be based on the Forgotten Realms campaign world with Courtney Solomon and Roy Lee producing, David Leslie Johnson writing the screenplay, and produced by Sweetpea Entertainment and Allspark Pictures.[43]
In January 2014, Hasbro announced a franchise film deal with 20th Century Fox for Magic: The Gathering by its subsidiary Wizards of the Coast.[44] In October 2014, the studio announced its film self-finance/co-finance label Allspark Pictures with its first existing project Jem and the Holograms, along with My Little Pony: The Movie.[15]
Hasbro's first original film project, Hacker Camp, was assigned to writer Tripper Clancy in February 2015.[45] By July 2015, the Monopoly satire film with Emmett/Furla was set aside with Hasbro announcing that Lionsgate will distribute a Monopoly film with Andrew Niccol writing the film as a family-friendly action adventure film[46] co-financed and produced by Lionsgate and Hasbro's Allspark Pictures.[47]
Films' parent unit, Hasbro Studios, on December 15, 2015, agreed with Paramount Pictures to a deal creating a five-property movie universe by financing unit Allspark Pictures and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The properties in this movie-verse are G.I. Joe, Micronauts, Visionaries, M.A.S.K. and Rom. A writers’ room was organized to develop a "creative roadmap".[17] On April 21, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter has reported that Michael Chabon, Brian K. Vaughan, Nicole Perlman, Lindsey Beer, Cheo Coker, John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein, Joe Robert Cole, Jeff Pinkner, Nicole Riegel and Geneva Robertson has joined the writers room.[48]
On November 2, 2016, The Weinstein Company has announced that a Furby movie is in development as a live action/CG-animated movie produced under the TWC-Dimension label.[49]
After two attempts to purchase or merge with a filmed entertainment company, DreamWorks Animation and Lionsgate, fell apart due to pricing differences, Hasbro Studios moved to create a full-fledged movie studio. Thus in October 2017, the company hired Greg Mooradian, currently working at Fox 2000, as president of Allspark Pictures starting January 2018. Variety's sources also indicated that the company was looking for financing for a while in the hundred million dollars range.[50]
By November 2017, a five-year exclusive distribution and production pact was signed between Hasbro and Paramount Pictures for Allspark Pictures and Allspark Animation films. Plus Meghan McCarthy was promoted to head up for Allspark Animation.[51]
