Projo Biz Blog

Pawtucket-based toymaker Hasbro Inc. (HAS:NYSE) has appointed a movie business veteran to serve as its liaison to the motion picture industry.

Hasbro said yesterday it hired Bennett Schneir, who most recently served as an underling to noted filmmaker Robert Zemeckis, to take on the newly created job of senior vice president and managing director of motion pictures. Schneir will be based in Los Angeles.

The appointment is another sign that the company that helped start the action-figure craze with the introduction of G.I. Joe in the 1960s and is noted for producing Monopoly and other iconic board games sees its future as a media-centric entertainment company. Hasbro is coming off a year when it launched a traveling stage show for one toy line and brought another to the movies.

Last year's Transformers movie was a hit with fans and Wall Street alike as it generated nearly $500 million in licensing revenue for Hasbro and millions more for producers Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures.

Schneir will serve as Hasbro's lead creative executive for feature films, focused on the comapny's new six-year strategic partnership with Universal Studios. Hasbro and Universal enterted a deal in February that calls for at least four motion pictures based on Hasbro games and toys, including Monopoly, Clue, Battleship and Magic: The Gathering.

At ImageMovers, Zemeckis' production company, Schneir has worked on such movies as What Lies Beneath, Cast Away, The Polar Express, Monster House and Beowulf.

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