An ALMIGHTY STRETCH to make ARMSTRONG into a movie?

Just last week we heard as part of Universal's deal with toy-makers Hasbro that a movie based on CANDY LAND (little more than U.S. version of Snakes & Ladders) had been put into development alongside the already greenlit MONOPOLY and OUIJA adaptations at the same studio. Now comes word from Variety that BRUCE and EVAN ALMIGHTY scribe Steve Oedekerk has been hired by Universal to transform the elastic kids toy STRETCH ARMSTRONG into a superhero comedy. He will begin working on the screenplay straight away but is not at this point attached to direct. The toy dates back to the 70's and I'm sure every boy had one, or at least knew someone who did. I always thought it was a boring product... what fun was there in seeing a toy strectch four feet? I was much more interested in my highly ellaborate battles in Gotham City (which had the Ghostbusters Tower as Wayne Manor with Data from STAR TREK running the secetary desk but when your a kid, that's part of the fun of toys right?).

And as far as a movie goes... there's a reason a stretchy character is part of a family of four heroes in both FANTASTIC FOUR and THE INCREDIBLES and that's because it's not particularly an interesting enough power to survive it's own flick. This isn't the first time a studio has seen potential in ARMSTRONG. During a strange toy craze in the late 90's when ARMSTRONG went through something of a revamp, Disney attempted to make a movie translation with Jackie Chan (as a spy who took a serum which made him super elastic) and Danny DeVito. And I'm sure at one point prior to that family fav Tim Allen was considered for an adaptation at Disney. Oedekerk's other movies include PATCH ADAMS, NUTTY PROFFESOR, ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS and KUNG POW: ENTER THE FIRST... so you get a good idea of what tone this movie will be going for.