We’ve known for awhile that there’s a movie version of Hasbro’s Stretch Armstrong character in the works somewhere. This is generally regarded as a bad idea, especially when the stretchy human thing has already been done with The Fantastic Four and done better in The Incredibles. Nevertheless the movie persists, and there’s a chance that Ron Howard might direct it. Ok, it’s not much of a chance.

But right before the weekend started IESB spotted an article in Business Week discussing Hasbro’s move into the feature film business. IESB says that when they read it, the article contained this quote: “The company has an April 2011 release for a movie version of its Stretch Armstrong figure, to be directed by Ron Howard.” Interestingly, if you click over to that same article now, the words “to be directed by Ron Howard have been erased. Ah the internet, queen of revisionist history.

Two possibilities here. Ok scratch that three. Possibility 1: Business Week spilled the beans on something they weren’t supposed to talk about, and removed it hoping to pretend it never happened. Possibility 2: Business Week screwed up and reported something which wasn’t true, and removed it hoping to pretend it never happened. Possibility 3: It was Friday night, the guys at IESB are out drinking and when they get back to their blog accidentally fantasy cast Ron Howard into a Business Week article. Extremely unlikely.

If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Possibility 2. If Ron Howard wants to direct a superhero movie, he can do a hell of a lot better than Stretch Armstrong. For starters, he could make Plastic Man.