Vin Diesel Will Star in Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots Movie
Hollywood studios’ release calendars are looking more and more like Toy Story; just tons of classic children’s toys coming to life, one after the other.
The toy company Mattel already has movies in development based on brands like Hot Wheels, Barney, Magic 8 Ball, Masters of the Universe, the card game Uno, and even Barbie, which is being co-written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. To that to that extensive list we can now add the 50-year-old fighting game Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots, which is coming from Universal Studios and actor/producer Vin Diesel and his One Race Films production company.
Before you make any jokes about whether Diesel will be playing the blue robot or the red robot, we already know that the answer is neither. (Besides, Diesel already played the definitive rock ’em sock ’em robot in The Iron Giant.) According to the press release from Mattel, the film “follows a father and son who form an unlikely bond with an advanced war machine.”
Here was Diesel’s comment on the news, via that press release:
To take the classic Rock 'Em Sock 'Em game, with Mattel as my partner, and align it with the kind of world building, franchise making success we have had with Universal, is truly exciting.
By the way, did you know the robots in the original game have names? They do; it’s the Red Rocker and the Blue Bomber. (The game, which debuted in 1966, is also apparently inspired by an arcade boxing game.) I can’t wait to find out which of those two advanced war machines form an unlikely bond with Vin Diesel and his son.
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