While most of Hollywood is frantically trying to remake every film that has ever been loved, Adam Rifkin believes that there’s still money to be made in worthless nostalgia. But instead of making a movie about another old toy like My Pet Monster or Silly Putty, the guy who gave us Detroit Rock City is combining America’s love of Easter candy with the entire theme of The LEGO Movie by optioning Peeps. That’s right, Peeps – the tiny marshmallow candy bird that is usually either the last thing that your kid touches in his Easter basket or something that is blown up in a microwave.
But it wasn’t just The LEGO Movie’s incredible success that inspired Rifkin to make a movie just like it. No, this idea comes from somewhere much more important and special.
Rifkin got the idea from watching his niece and nephew construct their own Peeps diorama for a school project. That led him to discover the elaborate annual contests hosted by the likes of the Washington Post, whose winning entry this year was a black and white diorama of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech – fashioned, of course, entirely out of the sugar-dusted marshmallows.
The idea is to partner with a studio and fold in pre-existing IP, as WB did with Lego minifigs, DC comics characters, and historical and pop culture figures. (Via Deadline)
The most shocking part of this story, though, is that the candy company Just Born sells $2 billion worth of Peeps each year. The only excuse for this is that the government is buying them in bulk to turn into weaponized diabetes.
But if this movie isn’t focused on a microwave that is destroying Peeps and must ultimately be stopped by a brave-but-shy young Peep that doesn’t know he has a special gift, I will eat a whole box of Peeps. And then probably vomit.