Teddy Ruxpin is ready to tell his story. A movie based on the 40-year-old animatronic toy has gone into development at Amazon MGM Studios, which won the project in a “competitive bidding war,” according to Variety.

This screen adaptation has been brewing since Story Kitchen’s Dmitri Johnson (through his company then known as DJ2 Entertainment) acquired the screen rights to the toy property in 2021. 

Comedy writers Chris Hazzard and Mike Fontana are penning a script, and although it’s very early for story details, the team seems to be building a quirky live-action world that Variety compares to the 2003 holiday pic Elf and Story Kitchen’s own Sonic the Hedgehog movies. The LA-based studio primarily adapts video game IPs and some non-traditional source material, like the upcoming Toys “R” Us film.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will produce the film through his Seven Bucks banner—which is also working on a Moana remake due out next year.

Created by inventor Ken Forsse and launched by toy company Alchemy II, Teddy Ruxpin was a stuffed bear-like creature with blinking eyes and a moving mouth that “spoke,” narrating stories as they played from a built-in cassette tape deck. 

Distributed by Worlds of Wonder, the talking plush toy hit shelves in 1985 and quickly became a bestseller, with a whopping 41,000 units sold in just 30 days. It generated US$93 million in sales in its first year and peaked in year two at US$327 million before demand declined.

During its heyday, Teddy crossed over onto the small screen in two animated seasons of The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (65 x 22 minutes) that ran from 1986 to 1988. And in 2018, The Jim Henson Company started developing a CG-animated reboot series under a deal with Alchemy, but the project never took off. DJ2 subsequently scooped up the rights.