IP Picks🔎: When Protests Turn Deadly
âž• Rescue in a 'Jumanji'-like world and an NBA player's second act as a winemaker
Welcome to The Optionist. As always, thanks for reading along.
Hot off the success of everything from Barbie to The Last of Us to Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Fallout and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the busiest segment of the IP market right now is the toys-and-games space.
In the last few weeks alone, we've seen announcements for Monopoly and Clue adaptations. And on the video-game front, everything from casual gamer hits like The Sims to nostalgic classics such as Tomb Raider are getting a reboot, while movies and TV shows based on newer entries like Fort Solis and El Paso, Elsewhere are also moving forward. Meanwhile, Mattel is trying to develop projects that spin off of everything from Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots to Matchbox cars and, signs point to yes, even the Magic 8 Ball.
Of course, this trend isn't just being driven by the box-office wins of Barbie and company. There’s also a growing sense that the superhero boom is waning and that studios need to find something else to fill the void. Not to mention that if you're not Disney (with Marvel) or Warner Bros. (with DC), you never really had access to the biggest comic-book IP anyway. When it comes to video games and toys, the playing field is more wide open. It's also the one area where studios think they can grab the attention — and dollars — of young men, who have historically fueled Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters.
There's no magic bullet with this kind of IP. Sure, many of these properties have massive awareness with the public. But they still require creative filmmakers like Greta Gerwig (Barbie), smart casting choices like Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us) and cool world building (Fallout). Plus, big swings like these take serious resources and time commitments to develop. Unlike a book, podcast or newspaper article, turning a video game into a movie or TV show is almost like starting from scratch. And just like any project, there's no guarantee of success.
I'm fascinated by these efforts — how they come together, how they land in the marketplace. They appeal to the teen boy in me. (I’ll admit to having played with an unhealthily large chunk of these toys and games over the years. Grow up? Me? Never!) But what makes writing the Optionist so much fun (and, I think, useful) is identifying fresh IP to adapt. The high-profile stuff gets all the attention, but there's so much great material out there — way more than can ever make it on screen. It's just a question of finding it . . . and I love the hunt.
This story about McKinsey & Company being investigated for the consulting firm’s role in the opioid crisis grabbed my attention. The role that the pharmaceutical companies have played in the epidemic has been the subject of more than one great adaptation (Dopesick, Painkiller, etc.), so that part isn’t new. But the part that consultants play hasn’t received enough attention. I’ve long thought that a show set in the world of big-time corporate consultants could revitalize the business procedural — something that mixed the legal procedural’s case-of-the-week format with the boardroom intrigue and amorality of a show like Succession. I’m thinking that it should be a one-hour drama rather than a half-hour satire/comedy like House of Lies. I’ve already flagged at least a couple of solid possibilities here and here.
Onto this week’s picks, which include a timely story that ties into the headline-dominating campus protests over Palestine. The full lineup:
A true-life historical drama about a college demonstration that turned deadly
An adventure-drama about two grown-ups who have to return to the magical world they discovered as kids to rescue a young woman who went missing in it
A dramatic mystery set in a hardscrabble upstate NY town about a reporter who suspects that the official explanation of his girlfriend’s overdose death isn’t the whole story
A Scandinavian noir about a woman who sleepwalks for miles at a time every night
A fish-out-of-water sitcom about a retired pro athlete who starts a winery
