Toy Wars: Josh Gad Drama Series Pilot Lands at Amazon

Josh Gad to star in and co-write Toy Wars TV show pilot for Amazon. (Photo: Tinseltown/Shutterstock.com.)

Deadline reports Josh Gad is set to star in the Toy Wars TV show pilot in development at Amazon. He will co-write with Ryan Dixon, and with showrunner Josh Schwartz. Seth Gordon is attached to direct, availability depending.

According to the report, the limited drama series, “…follows the real-life battle between American toy giants Hasbro, the company behind GI Joe, Transformer and My Little Pony toys, and Barbie maker Mattel in the 1980s and 1990s.” Toy Wars is based on G. Wayne Miller’s non-fiction book, Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies that Make Them.

Here is more, from Deadline:

This is a personal project for Schwartz who boarded Toy Wars after Gad, Dixon and Horrible Bosses helmer Gordon had sold it to Amazon.

Journalist and novelist Miller wrote the book after five years of unprecedented access to Hasbro, sitting in on meetings and interviewing employees. It follows Alan Hassenfeld, a free spirit who never intended to be an executive. He was thrust into the spotlight, taking the reins of Hasbro when his older brother Stephen, the marketing genius who had built up the family toy company into a powerhouse, died of AIDS. The book features a number of real-life characters, like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. One of them is Stephen Schwartz, Josh Schwartz’s father. Both Josh’s father and mother Honey were toy inventors who worked for Hasbro before launching their own company. Stephen Schwartz was one of late visionary CEO Steven Hassenfeld’s “Three Musketeers”, who helped turn Hasbro into the number one toy company in the world.

What do you think? Have you read G. Wayne Miller’s book? How do you like the sound of the Toy Wars TV series pilot? Who would you cast in the pilot? Let us know, below.