Live-Action Beyblade Film Coming From Jerry Bruckheimer For Paramount

Paramount has announced an upcoming live-action film adaptation of the popular spinning-top Beyblade toys, produced by frequent Michael Bay collaborator Jerry Bruckheimer (Top Gun, National Treasure). News of the project was first reported by Deadline.

The project, which has not yet released plot details, casting information, or a production start date, will be co-written by Neil Widener and Gavin James. Beyblade was launched in 1999 as a humble toy, though quickly spawned an empire spanning manga and anime adaptations with stories told across hundreds of entries.

A Beyblade cinematic universe is not impossible to imagine, with the most obvious similar forerunner being the expansive Pokemon franchise of video games inspiring the card game, films, and TV shows. More recently, adaptations of Rubik's Cube and Slinky were placed on the production-horizon development slate proving that no game is too old-school to be given some new love. Remember, Battleship got its own movie.

Video game adaptations in particular are enjoying a resurgence and newfound box-office legitimacy--the most recent being Uncharted. Elsewhere, there's the burgeoning Sonic the Hedgehog movie and Mortal Kombat franchises and HBO's The Last of Us. dj2 in particular is a major player in the space, as the company is also behind Netflix's Tomb Raider anime, a live-action show based on Disco Elysium, and a film based on Sleeping Dogs.