Michael Bay Is Developing a Film and TV Treatment for SKIBIDI TOILET
Oh, Hollywood… sometimes you make it really hard to like you. Michael Bay is and former Paramount Pictures president Adam Goodman have teamed up to develop a film and TV treatment for controversial animated internet sensation “Skibidi Toilet.”
Goodman said in an interview with Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast: “We are absolutely in talks right now, both on the television side and the earliest conversations right now on the film side. But it’s not a be-all, end-all for us.”
For those of you not familiar with “Skibidi Toilet,” in 2023, Alexey Gerasimov uploaded an 11-second video to his YouTube channel DaFuq!?Boom! called “skibidi toilet," which featured a head emerging from a toilet singing.
That launched a weird cultural phenomenon as Skibidi gradually “evolved into more than 70 1-to-5-minute mini-epics depicting the infinitely escalating war between the Toilets and the Cyborgs.”
The videos are “explosive, violent and free of any discernible dialogue. Those qualities have won it a worldwide audience, not to mention the distinction of being a cultural icon Generation Alpha can truly call its own.”
Goodman believes that Gerasimov’s creation has huge potential, saying: “He's building something that could be the next 'Transformers' or could be a Marvel universe.”
Bay is apparently, working closely with Gerasimov on content. Goodman says: "I will say that Michael and Jeffrey Beecroft, who's his longtime production designer and a colleague of his that's worked with him on all of his movies, have been working very closely with Alexey to really professionalize the kind of back engine of this, to make sure, if we ever decide to go film or television, that this is kind of lifted beyond just the resources that creators have on the internet.”
It’s absolutely insane to me that they think Skibidi Toilet could be as big as the Transformers and Marvel franchises! Is this Skibidi Toilet thing really that popular?
Not only that, Goodman said they are entertaining the thought of a hybrid animated/live action version of Skibidi he likened stylistically to the John Wick and District 9 movies.
He added: "If we find a partner in this that really believes there's opportunity for this to grow and to really see the storytelling grow and for this to be where we hope this can be, then film and TV seems like a natural extension for us.”
They are also looking to let fans in on the fun creatively. Goodman explained: "That's one of the things that is really different than anything that we've worked with before.
“Typically we issue takedowns; we're ready to make sure that nobody is messing with something we want to control. In this case, we've taken a very different approach to this.
“We want creators to play with our IP. We want to make sure that people are doing things, obviously within reason, so long as it kind of follows a certain guideline for us."
Can Bay and Goodman take this cultural moment and turn it into a massive and successful film and TV franchise? This makes no sense to me, so I’m obviously out of touch with the Skibi Toilet crowd.
Source: Variety