Action Man Movie in Development at Working Title

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- Action Man is getting a movie treatment from U.K. studio Working Title and Hasbro, which owns the licence to the 1966-launched British action figure.
- Working Title is developing the film alongside Hasbro, with a script from Simon Hatt (a Marvel exec producer on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3) and Anthony Sellitti (X-Men '97 co-writer).
- Jeremy Latchem, a former Marvel exec whose credits include Spider-Man: Homecoming and Avengers: Age of Ultron, is producing the project.
- Action Man was originally based on Hasbro's 1964 G.I. Joe figure; later models adopted British armed forces uniforms and accessories, and the toy only got a U.K. video-only animated series due to child-advertising rules.
- G.I. Joe has had three live-action films — Rise of Cobra ($302M worldwide, 2009), Retaliation ($375.7M, 2013), and Snake Eyes ($40M on an $88-110M budget, 2021) — while a fourth, Ever Vigilant, has stalled.
Why it matters: Hasbro is reviving its action-figure IP pipeline after G.I. Joe's Snake Eyes reboot grossed just $40M against an $88-110M budget, now entrusting Working Title to spin Action Man off as its own property rather than folding it into the G.I. Joe franchise. A stalled fourth G.I. Joe film leaves this British spinoff as Hasbro's clearest live-action play.




