‘My Little Pony’ movie in development at Hasbro

Bronies of the world, rejoice: “My Little Pony” is trotting toward the big screen.

Hasbro Studios is developing an animated film based on the 1980s toy line of plucky multicolored ponies and the magical world they live in, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to The Times. Variety first reported the news.

Since hitting toy store shelves three decades ago, the characters of “My Little Pony” have inspired animated TV series and specials, straight-to-video movies, video games and a 1986 film featuring the voices of Danny DeVito and Chloris Leachman.

In recent years, the popular Discovery Family (nee Hub Network) series “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic” has inspired the unlikely pop-culture phenomenon of “bronies,” a term used to describe the surprisingly robust contingent of adult men who love the show. (A combination of “bro” and “pony,” the word has come to include “Pony” enthusiasts of all stripes.)

Bronyhood is also the subject of the documentaries “Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony” and “A Brony Tale.”

Set for release in 2017, the “My Little Pony” movie will be produced through Hasbro’s new Allspark Pictures label, which is also co-producing a live-action “Jem and the Holograms” movie with Blumhouse Productions. (Universal Pictures will release “Jem” in October.) Hasbro will produce and finance “Pony” in-house.

Joe Ballarini (who did uncredited work on “Ice Age: Continental Drift” and “Turbo”) is writing the script for the “Pony” movie; a director has yet to be named.

Hasbro’s other movie franchises include “Transformers” and “G.I. Joe” at Paramount, “Monopoly” and “Candy Land” at Sony, and “Ouija” at Universal.

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