Confession: I happen to own a pair of the colorful critters seen above. These areThe Beastlies, the unique, hand-crafted creations of artistLeslie Levings, and soon, thanks to a partnership betweenJ.J. Abrams' Bad Robot and toy giant Mattel, more folks all around the world are about to fall in love with them. Abrams first acquired the movie and TV rights toThe Beastliesway back in 2012after quite the serendipitous run-in with Levings' creations at a local comic shop, and after years of hard work, the cute creations are about to come to life in all new ways.
AsDeadlinereports,The Beastliesare bound for the world stage thanks to the partnership between Bad Robot and Mattel. Abrams originally pitched the property to the toy company’s president/COORichard Dicksona couple of years ago while on the set ofStar Wars: The Force Awakens; just this morning, Dickson unveiled Mattel’sBeastliespresentation to Wall Street analysts. No details were offered, but previous plans were to turn the hand-sculpted mini-monsters into both a movie (franchise?) and an animated series, much like the super-successfulSmurfs; there are also merchandising, gaming and live events that are expected to start launching this fall. Expect big things.
Here’s what Abrams had to say in a statement:
“The Beastliesis a passion project we have been working on at Bad Robot for years with the creator of these extraordinary creatures, Leslie Levings. To finally bringThe Beastliesto the world, in collaboration with the brilliant minds at Mattel, is an absolute dream."
And here’s Dickson on Abrams' initial pitch:
“He presented this character concept he believed is aesthetically inspiring and creative, and then we got together the character drawings and creative conversations and that brought us to the point where we could reveal the partnership and concept. The combination of JJ and Bad Robot’s content creator powerhouse abilities and Mattel’s global marketing and branding abilities seemed a strong match for an amazing collaborative effort.”
But, of course,The Beastliesall started withLevings. You can find many more of her hand-crafted and ever-evolving creationsat her site–be quick, these things tend to go fast–but for more on the media franchise ofThe Beastlies, take a look at thebrand-new site, which includes Levings' own origin story for the project:
