EXCLUSIVE: An animated feature of Aaron Blabey‘s middle-grade book series, Game of Pets, is being let off the leash as Lilo & Stitch producer Rideback and Foundation Media Partners are teaming to bring the IP to the big screen for Amazon MGM Studios.
A New York Times bestseller, Game of Pets: The Boy Who Knew Too Much debuted at No. 4 on the Children’s Middle Grade Hardcover list. The Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group title poses a deceptively simple question: what if life on Earth is secretly an intergalactic game show, and the household pets we love are the animal overlords playing it? Game of Pets follows Griff, an 11-year-old kid with innumerable allergies, who learns from a talking axolotl named Bob that he may be the only one who can save the world, if he can survive his own suspiciously well-behaved pets.
Rideback’s co-CEOs Jonathan Eirich and Michael LoFaso are producing along with Foundation Media’s Patrick Hughes. Blabey will executive produce alongside Rideback’s Nick Reynolds.
Blabey’s Bad Guys books were turned into a DreamWorks Animation franchise spanning two pics and grossing close to a half billion at the worldwide box office. He has more than 60M books in print around the globe. His Thelma the Unicorn was adapted by Netflix with the author serving as EP. He’s also the author of Cat on the Run and Pig the Pug.
Rideback produced the third highest grossing movie of 2025, the billion-dollar grossing live-action take of Disney classic Lilo & Stitch which is already getting a sequel. Rideback was also behind the pre-Covid blockbuster, the live-action take of Disney’s Aladdin ($1.05B WW) starring Will Smith and directed by Guy Ritchie. Rideback also has the Netflix new dance competition comedy, Best of the Best.
LA-based entertainment and publishing partnerships company Foundation Media Partners (FMP) is behind The Bad Guys franchise and Netflix’s Thelma the Unicorn. The Patrick Hughes led and founded company has strategic partnerships with Southwest Airlines and Varsity Spirit. They count more than 90 million books in print across its partners and clients over the past five years in their build of franchises.