Taylor Lautner is ‘Stretch Armstrong’

Published by Jeff Leins on: February 5th, 2010

Taylor Lautner has signed to star in Universal’s 3D adaptation of Stretch Armstrong, Hasbro’s gel-filled action figure with elongated arms.

The Twilight actor, who is set to appear in Eclipse this June, will play “an uptight spy who stumbles across a stretching formula, which he takes and must now adjust to in everyday life and when fighting crime,” according to the Heat Vision Blog.  The action-comedy script was written by Steve Oedekerk (Bruce Almighty, Ace Venture 2, Nutty Professor).

Stretch Armstrong is the latest toy-into-movie property part of a six-year deal between the studio and Hasbro.  Other upcoming adaptations include Ridley Scott’s Monopoly, Peter Berg’s Battleship (just moved to May 25, 2012), a Ouija Board movie with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes, Kevin Lima’s Candyland, and Gore Verbinski’s Clue.

Brian Grazer is producing, which might explain why Ron Howard was rumored as the director at one point.  Currently there is no filmmaker officially attached and the release date has been pushed to March 2012.

Universal doesn’t seem deterred by Lautner’s rapidly filling schedule.  Outside of the fourth and final Twilight movie(s), Breaking Dawn, he’s also involved with Paramount’s Max Steel, yet another movie about an ordinary young man transformed into an unlikely superhero and based on an action figure.  Lautner is also working on an aerobatics movie titled Northern Lights, a Taken-style kidnapping action movie set in Cancun, and he’s been linked to a Vision Quest remake.

While Kristen Stewart is working in festival favorites and Robert Pattinson has found continued work in indies, 17-year-old Lautner seems to be looking for more high-profile roles with bigger paychecks and more opportunities to go shirtless.  The previously mentioned movie about trick pilots is earning him $7.5 million, making him the highest-paid teen in Hollywood.