We already knew that Paramount and Hasbro were working on turning more than one of the toy company's products into movies, looking to build a shared cinematic universe along the lines of Marvel's behemoth. Among the potential franchises that has been floated in the past is based on the MASK toys and 'toons and that movie is driving forward with F Gary Gray on board to develop and potentially direct.
The M.A.S.K. team (the acronym expands to Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand, and no we're not commenting on that last word's spelling) were originally a line of action figures, vehicles and other products released by Kenner in the 1990s. M.A.S.K., led by Matt Trakker, is determined to thwart the evildoings of the subtly named VENOM (Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem), led by Miles Mayhem. For the toys' selling point, both groups' vehicles would transform and their masks also have special abilities.
Kenner's line (since bought up by Hasbro) spawned an animated series that ran for two seasons between 1985 and 1986. Now Paramount is hoping to repeat the success of Transformers with a similar concept and Gray brings the vehicular mayhem experience from his Italian Job remake and Fast & Furious 8. They're now looking for a writer to flesh out the idea into an actual script, though if it's anything like Michael Bay's films, that's probably the least of their worries.
Gray, meanwhile, is in pre-production on a new Men In Black film for Sony, which will see Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson as agents in the organisation policing alien activity on Earth. It'll kick off filming in June ready for a May 2019 release in the US and a 14 June slot over here the same year.
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