Article published November 11, 2009
FEATURE FILM POSSIBILITY
Etch a Sketch is a big draw for Hollywood producers
Lots of Etch a Sketches showed up in ‘Elf,’ a 2003 comedy starring Will Ferrell , left.
Now the wheels are turning to make the toy the main character in a new film.
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NEW LINE CINEMA
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By LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE
BLADE BUSINESS WRITER
BRYAN — Fresh from watching Transformers 2 gross $833 million worldwide, a half-dozen Hollywood producers are actively seeking the rights to make a full-length feature film based on the Etch a Sketch toy.
Their challenge: crafting a three-dimensional story line when all they have to work with is left and right, up and down.
After cameo appearances in the Toy Story films in 1995 and 1999, and a supporting role in Elf in 2003, the venerable, 49-year-old Bryan-born toy and its big, beautiful white knobs may be on the verge of a major career breakout: lead role in a big-budget blockbuster.
“It's amazing with the recent success of Transformers and G.I. Joe how these studios are clamoring to recreate that success around toys that people know and that are in the Toy Hall of Fame,” said Martin Killgallon, senior vice president for marketing and product development for Ohio Art Co., northwest Ohio's largest toy maker.
“Producers are telling us Hollywood is toy-crazy right now.”
Mr. Killgallon said he and other executives at Ohio Art — the Bryan-based metal lithography company that introduced the red, gray, and white Etch a Sketch to the world in 1960 — have “probably spoken to a half-dozen producers” in recent months who have pitched ideas to use their toy in a feature film.
While he would not disclose how the movie producers propose to transform the Etch a Sketch from its flat, unpowered current format into a three-dimensional character able to carry a movie, Mr. Killgallon did say that he has been impressed so far with the ideas that have been presented.
“I don't want to disclose the types of storylines that we're seeing and the types of pitches we're seeing, but after you see them, you say, ‘Oh, that makes sense,'” he said.
“There's an inherent magic to Etch a Sketch. Even after all these years, one of the things that people still say is “How does it do that?” So all I can say is that some of the pitches play up the magic of Etch a Sketch.”
The company has sold more than 150 million units of the Etch a Sketch worldwide.
The company, closely held by the Killgallon family, still trades a small number of shares publicly on the over-the-counter Pink Sheet, where its stock was listed at $2.50 a share yesterday.
At one point in 1999, shortly after the Etch a Sketch's appearance in Pixar's Toy Story 2, Ohio Art's shares traded at more than $15 per share on the American Stock Exchange. Ohio Art no longer publicly discloses its financial performance.
Etch a Sketch may be in demand by Hollywood producers not only for what it is — an object immediately recognizable to millions worldwide — but also for what it isn't. Unlike most of the toys and games that have been staples of American childhood for decades, Etch-a-Sketch is not owned by a large toy conglomerate such as Mattel Inc. or Hasbro Inc.
Other well-known toys and games reportedly getting the Hollywood treatment are Monopoly, Battleship, Risk, Barbie, Ouija, Stretch Armstrong, and Candyland.
Even the old Viewmaster, where kids dropped circular photo discs into a viewer, is being turned into a Hollywood movie.
As producer and director Stephen Sommers told the Wall Street Journal recently, “There's a herd mentality in Hollywood. Sometimes I read about toys in [film] development and just think, ‘What! Battleship and Monopoly? Really?' I mean, best of luck.”
Mr. Killgallon said Ohio Art is a long way from inking any Hollywood deal, and is “in the process of reviewing” its options.
He couldn't say how much such a deal might bring to the small Bryan company, but said Ohio Art would try to secure a portion of the gross sales receipts of any potential movie.
“I've been here for seven years, and I had never gotten a phone call from Hollywood about [movie rights], but now, we're getting a lot more interest.”
Contact Larry P. Vellequette at:lvellequette@theblade.comor 419-724-6091.
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