Pez Dispensers To Get Their Own Movie, And It’s Not April Fool's Day

Ben Arnold
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In a move that makes the forthcoming Play-Doh film look like a potential Oscar-winner, the humble Pez dispenser is getting its own movie.

According to Deadline, the plastic sweet holders with the flip-top heads – which come in a myriad varieties from Disney characters to Minions – will be animated for the big screen.

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Envision Media Arts, the company behind Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg’s ‘Celeste and Jesse Forever’ and which is currently finishing up Eddie Murphy’s next movie 'Henry Joseph Church’, is behind the project.

Cameron Fay, who has a handful of short films behind him and the forthcoming 'Brother In Laws’ with Bill Pullman and 'Community’s Gillian Jacobs, will write the movie.

Company CEO Lee Nelson said: “Pez candy is beloved by children and adults alike.

“With Cameron Fay we’ve created a world unique to Pez and a story that will touch the hearts of many.”

There’s been a scramble to produce movies around toy franchises in recent years, though comparing a Pez dispenser to a toy franchise is arguably a bit of a stretch.

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While 'The Lego Movie’ succeeded in pulling off a movie full of heart – and humour – based on a toy franchise, there’s now a stack of projects forthcoming which may not be so lucky.

The 'Play-Doh’ movie has previously had 'Ghostbusters’ reboot director Paul Feig 'circling’, after Fox gave it the green light in April.

The 'Monopoly’ movie, which, bizarrely, once had Ridley Scott attached, is now being scripted – equally bizarrely – by Andrew Niccol, who penned the cult sci-fi classic 'Gattaca’ and 'The Truman Show’.

And thanks to a hook up between toy giant Hasbro and Lionsgate, there is a also planned 'Hungry Hungry Hippos’ movie in the works.

Oddly, the long-in-gestation ‘Stretch Armstrong’ movie, a concept which could actually have worked far better than some of the other toy-based concepts in development, was eventually abandoned in 2013.

Image credit: Flickr