Nostalgia remains a driving force for studios looking to find properties that can be converted into potential cinematic cash cows. Michael Eisner has the idea that what we’ve all been waiting for is a film based on the Garbage Pail Kids line of trading cards.
In case you’ve never heard of the cards, they were launched in 1985 by the Topps company, and created by Maus man Art Spielgelman. Massively popular, they sparked both commercial success and controversy as schools banned students from bringing them in (they were distracting us young ‘uns from learning, y’see) and Cabbage Patch Kids maker Coleco sued Topps for trademark infringement. A settlement involved Topps changing the look of the kids and the logo, and the series ran until 1988, when sales began to dwindle. But they’ve since been relaunched for a new generation of kids.
Back in 2007, Eisner’s Tornante company bought up Topps and began to look for ways to turn its products into film scripts. Now he’s hired The Three Misfortunes Of Geppetto** writer Michael Vukadinovich to crank out a draft, based on a story he’s developed with short film director PES. Yes, though his name is Adam Pesapane, he goes by PES. But despite the awkward moniker, he has produced some impressive original work, which makes us wonder what he sees in the creepy cards as his debut full length film.
It’s not the first time the kids have made it to the big screen: they were unsurprisingly plundered back in their ‘80s heyday by director Rod Amateau, who concocted a blend of horror, comedy and little people stuffed into puppet costumes. Something tells us the new version stands a good shot of being better. How much better, will, of course, be entirely relative…