There’s a rumor setting the ‘net on fire right now that may have some truth to it, if only because it was rumored at least once before… and now the time could be right. Film industry site The Tracking Board is reporting that Mattel is moving ahead with plans for a live-action film based on their 1988 DINO-RIDERS toys. According to Tracking Board, DINO-RIDERS is in development, with Alissa Phillips (MONEYBALL) and Stephen L’Heureux (SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR) producing for Solipsist Films. The basic gist of the original toys and animated series was about a war (a la TRANSFORMERS) between various factions of DINO-RIDERS – humans that came to Earth from other planets and turned Dinosaurs into sci-fi, weapon-wearing prehistoric warriors.
The last time I’d heard rumblings of a DINO-RIDERS movie was around the same time that Mattel rival Hasbro reactivated their M.A.S.K. trademarks and talk of that 80s revival came along.
Funny enough, the first time anyone mentioned it (without concrete proof) was last year when Disney-Pixar’s TOY STORY THAT TIME FORGOT made its debut on ABC… and within that Holiday animated special were a race of Battlesaurs. These technologically-advanced reptilians came face-to-face with Woody and Buzz, even outfitting Trixie and Rex with high-tech weapons. What’s interesting here is that in real-life, there were toys made for TOY STORY THAT TIME FORGOT – a toy line that included many of the previously-fictional Battlesaurs. The company that made them? Mattel. Coincidentally, TOY STORY THAT TIME FORGOT hits Blu-ray and DVD next month…
With how big JURASSIC WORLD was this year, could Mattel have used the TOY STORY Battlesaurs as a back-door pilot to gauge interest in a DINO-RIDERS rebirth? After all, DINO-RIDERS were mentioned for a possible toy comeback during Matty Collector’s MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE Panel at SDCC this past July. Stay tuned…
