1964 saw the debut of a toy called CREEPY CRAWLERS, and playing with this toy simply involved pouring a substance called Plastigoop into moulds shaped like various creatures and cooking them up in a hot plate oven. When the Plastigoop is done cooking, you'll have your own little, rubbery "creepy crawler" to play with and freak people out with.
It's a simple concept that has no story or mythology involved. You're just making insect creatures. Kids have been doing this for over fifty years now, as the CREEPY CRAWLERS toy has gone in and out of production and been passed from one toymaker to another.
Paramount Players have now decided that they want to bring the CREEPY CRAWLERS kids have been cooking up to the big screen, and are teaming with the company that currently owns the rights – JAKKS Pacific – to make it happen.
The CREEPY CRAWLERS feature film will be produced by Neal H. Moritz, who has experience with kid friendly horror: he produced the GOOSEBUMPS film for Sony and is currently working on the sequel.
Plot details are unknown at this time, but the film will be based on the classic toy molds of all sorts of creepy and slimy bugs.
Producing CREEPY CRAWLERS alongside Moritz will be Marc Gurvitz and Toby Ascher, while JAKKS Pacific chairman and CEO Stephen Berman serves as executive producer.
Well, whoever is hired to write this is going to have free rein to come up with any story they want to tell about kids sharing the screen with creepy, crawling insects, so this could turn out in any number of ways. I'll have to wait until there are plot details and a trailer to gauge my interest in this project.
The toy's previous rights holder, ToyMax, teamed with Saban Entertainment to produce a CREEPY CRAWLERS cartoon in the mid-'90s. That take on the concept centered on mutant creatures called the Goop-Mandos, who would help kids thwart the schemes of the evil Professor Googengrime. I wouldn't expect the movie to have anything to do with Goop-Mandos or Googengrime.