Even a Magic 8 Ball couldn’t have seen this one coming. “The Sixth Sense” director M. Night Shyamalan is set to direct a series for Mattel Studios based on its Magic 8 Ball toy.
In an Instagram post announcing the project — certainly a twist from one of the masters of them if there ever was one — Shyamalan said he’s been “working on this for a couple years.”
Brad Falchuk, known as a writer on “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” and “Pose,” is serving as the writer, co-creator, and co-showrunner of the series, and it’s currently in development. The live-action series is being described by Mattel as meant to place Magic 8 Ball “as the centerpiece of a high-concept, character-driven supernatural drama that blends psychological intensity with cultural intrigue.”
That actually signals to us that this is not strictly a kids series based on a toy. In fact, there were a lot of skeptics when “Barbie” was first put into development by Mattel. So would “Magic 8 Ball” have an equal chance of surprising audiences, blending some shameless commercialism with a highly talented auteur director?
If we asked the Magic 8 Ball, we think it might say “Reply hazy, try again.”
Since “Barbie” opened in 2023, Mattel and chief Robbie Brenner have been kicking around a number of different films and series, many of which have yet to materialize. In post-production now are “Masters of the Universe” from Laika filmmaker Travis Knight, which is a live-action film that brings the He-Man and Skeletor characters to life and is set at Amazon MGM, and also “Matchbox,” which is an action film set at Apple based on the toy cars that stars John Cena.
But there’s a number of others that are in early stages that have us asking the Magic 8 Ball for some guidance. There’s an “American Girl” series that sounds an awful lot like a recent “SNL” sketch, a live-action “Barney” movie that originally had Daniel Kaluuya attached but is now being written by Ayo Edebiri, Jon M. Chu and J.J. Abrams’ “Hot Wheels” movie, “Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots” with Vin Diesel, “Polly Pocket” starring Lily Collins and produced by Reese Witherspoon after Lena Dunham exited, and at one point a “Thomas & Friends” movie that was meant to be directed by Marc Forster, to name just a few.
It’s hard to not point to Martin Scorsese directing the “Kool-Aid” movie on “The Studio” and just write this off, but Mattel with “Barbie” quickly proved to be the test case other companies are looking to when it comes to pairing brands with entertainment in more subtle ways.
For Shyamalan, this marks his return to TV after directing and EP’ing “Servant” for Apple, and his last film was “Trap,” which grossed $84 million worldwide. Not counting something like “Glass” that is a sequel to “Unbreakable,” you’d have to go all the way back to “The Last Airbender” in 2010 to find an example where Shyamalan was a director-for-hire working on some existing IP. That movie made $320 million but would be safe to say it was not among his better films.