In 2007, former Disney Chief Michael Eisner purchased Topps, the trading card company that also owns Bazooka gum, for $380 Million in hopes of resurrecting the company. Many have questioned this investment, as both Bazooka gum and trading cards aren’t nearly as popular as they once were, and there’s no clear path to them ever being popular again. One plan Eisner has, is to go Hollywood with a movie based on the face of the gum: Bazooka Joe!

Bazooka Joe comics are a pile of nostalgia for many people. We all remember opening up a piece of the gum, taking off the little comic and reading it while we chewed away. By the time we were done reading, the gum was a flavor-less lump of hardened silly putty, but we had fun while it lasted and moved on. Joe the character is a little boy with an eye patch, for which has long been a universal mystery. I personally believe he lost it in ‘Nam, but no one knows for sure.

Eisner and his Tornate Co. have hired Mark Hammer to script the movie. Hammer is a newcomer who wrote a script called Sonny Takes to Peru, but it never sold. Even so, the writing was impressive enough to catch some eyes, and now he has this bubble-gum job in-hand.

So many questions arise from this news. Will it be heavily aimed at kids, or will they make it a PG-rated family movie? Will they go live-action, or is it going to be animated? IF animated, do they go cartoon, CG, motion-capture? Will it be Bazooka Joe in IMAX Digital 3-D in Summer of 2011, maybe 2012? It should be very interesting to see this one play out.

What’s the consensus here: chance for success, or worst idea ever conceived?

Source: THR]