A new American Girl Doll movie is happening. Mattel recently took a page out of Hasbro's book and decided to get serious about bringing some of their most popular toy lines to the big screen. So, they launched Hasbro Films and, as of late, they've been announcing new projects left and right. Now, they've partnered with MGM to bring their popular brand of dolls and books to moviegoing audiences.
According to a new report, Mattel Films, MGM and PictureStart have partnered for a live-action American Girl movie. Plot details are currently unavailable and it hasn't been announced who will be writing and/or directing just yet. Cassidy Lange, MGM's co-president of production, and Robbie Brenner, Mattel Films' executive producer, are set to oversee the production for both companies. Ynon Kreiz, Mattel's Chairman and CEO had this to say about it in a statement.
"American Girl is a beloved, story-driven franchise lending itself perfectly to a feature film. In MGM and Erik we have world-class partners and we look forward to working with them to give our passionate American Girl fans of all ages another way to connect with this iconic brand. This is another example of Mattel continuing to execute on our strategy as we transform Mattel into an IP-driven, high-performing toy company."
American Girl was initially launched in 1986 as a line of dolls. The dolls generally portray eight to 12 year old girls and originally, the stories in the books that accompanied the dolls covered various points in American history, but have since expanded. To date, the line has sold more than 32 million dolls worldwide, to go along with 157 million books. Jonathan Glickman, MGM's President, Motion Picture Group, had this to say about it the project.
"American Girl is a timeless and iconic brand that is part of the fabric of families all over the world. We look forward to working with our partners at Mattel and PictureStart to bring this cross-generational film to audiences all over the globe."
Mattel isn't wasting any time when it comes to setting up deals with major studios to develop these movies. They've already got a Barbie movie, with Margot Robbie set to produce in and star, as well as a Hot Wheels movie, which recently gained new life after being stuck in development hell for years, both at Warner Bros. They also are plotting their Masters of the Universe movie at Sony which, again, has been stuck for years but with Mattel taking more control over development, it could help to get it un-stuck.
This won't be the first time an American Girl movie has been made. There were 13 different movies based on the toy line released between 2004 and 2017, most of them released direct-to-video, save for 2008's Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, which starred Abigail Breslin in the title role. This news was previously reported by Variety.