\n\t\t\t\t\tWorking Title Films and Hasbro Entertainment are developing a live-action Action Man movie, with Simon Hatt and Anthony Sellitti writing the script and Jeremy Latcham producing. It’s the third attempt at bringing Action Man to the screen since 2012, after a James Bobin-directed version with Paddington 2 writer Simon Farnaby collapsed in 2018. Hasbro is betting on the toy again just as its G.I. Joe franchise, Action Man’s American twin, sits stalled after 2021’s Snake Eyes.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Third time\u2019s the charm, or so Hasbro hopes. Variety confirmed on August 3 that Working Title Films is teaming up with Hasbro Entertainment to bring Action Man to the big screen, a project that already died twice before it got this far: once in 2012 under Emmett\/Furla\/Oasis Films, then again in 2018 when James Bobin and Paddington 2 co-writer Simon Farnaby walked away from a Paramount Players version. The toymaker is betting on Marvel alumni Simon Hatt and Jeremy Latcham to finally crack a character it has tried to launch since the figure first hit British shelves in 1966 as a licensed cousin of G.I. Joe<\/a>. With the G.I. Joe franchise\u2019s fortunes sliding from $302 million to $375.7 million to a rough $40 million, and its planned fourth entry stalled, Hasbro is running its two soldiers on parallel tracks rather than pinning everything on one uniform.<\/p>\n A British icon takes aim at Hollywood<\/p>\n Before G.I. Joe became a movie franchise, his British twin was already a playroom staple across the Atlantic. Action Man, launched in the U.K. in 1966 by Palitoy as a licensed copy of Hasbro\u2019s \u201cmovable fighting man,\u201d is now getting his own live-action film. Variety confirmed the project<\/a> on August 3, 2026, a partnership between Working Title Films and Hasbro Entertainment, after The Hollywood Reporter broke the news.<\/p>\n Two failed attempts in 14 years<\/p>\n Hollywood has tried this before. In 2012, Emmett\/Furla\/Oasis Films signed a deal with Hasbro Studios for the film rights to Action Man, bundled alongside Monopoly and Hungry Hungry Hippos. Nothing came of it. A second push arrived in February 2018, when Paramount Players set James Bobin to direct<\/a>, with a script from Simon Farnaby, co-writer of \u201cPaddington 2.\u201d That version stalled in development as well, leaving the toy stuck on the shelf.<\/p>\n Marvel veterans take the reins<\/p>\n The new team has serious franchise credentials. The screenplay comes from Simon Hatt, a U.K. filmmaker who served as executive producer on \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,\u201d and Anthony Sellitti, a writer on the animated series \u201cX-Men \u201997.\u201d Producing is Jeremy Latcham, a former Marvel Studios executive whose credits include early MCU films and \u201cDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.\u201d The film is envisioned as a fast, high-energy action-comedy that leans into the character\u2019s espionage roots, described as \u201cdeeply British, with a reverence for action cinema.\u201d<\/a> Working Title, the studio behind \u201cLove Actually,\u201d the \u201cBridget Jones\u2019s Diary\u201d films and \u201cBaby Driver,\u201d knows how to sell that identity worldwide.<\/p>\n Why Hasbro keeps trying<\/p>\n The persistence makes commercial sense. The G.I. Joe films have delivered real money: \u201cG.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra\u201d grossed $302 million worldwide in 2009, and \u201cG.I. Joe: Retaliation\u201d added $375.7 million in 2013. The 2021 reboot \u201cSnake Eyes\u201d cooled things down, earning just $40 million against a budget of $88 to $110 million, and a planned fourth film, \u201cG.I. Joe: Ever Vigilant,\u201d has since stalled. Action Man offers Hasbro a second soldier to send into theaters, one with a distinctly different accent.<\/p>\n Still early days<\/p>\n The project remains in the script stage. Hasbro and Working Title have yet to announce a director, cast, budget or release window, and no trailer exists. The next milestone to watch is a directing hire, the step where both the 2012 and 2018 attempts fell apart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Working Title Films and Hasbro Entertainment are developing a live-action Action Man movie, with Simon Hatt and Anthony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-734635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}