Universal Pictures has decided to drop development of a film based on the Hasbro board game Clue.
The project was one of seven that the studio had been working on based off of various games from the toy manufacturer under the terms of an exclusive six year deal the two parties reached in 2008. Previously, film versions of Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering were also dropped by the studio. Among the game-based projects still alive at the studio include Battleship, which is currently in post-production and scheduled to open next year, Ouija which has McG attached to direct and Candy Land which is currently being scripted by Kung Fu Panda 2 writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger.
But just because Universal isn’t interested in a Clue movie, don’t think that it is an entirely dead issue. The film was being developed by Gore Verbinski’s Blind Wink production shingle with the Pirates Of The Caribbean helmer fully intending to direct. (Currently, he has Flash Gordon reboot writers Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama working on the screenplay in which they will reportedly expand the scope of the game’s setting to something more “global.”) With Universal dropping the project it frees Verbinski to shop the project around to other studios.Hasbro will be footing the bill for the continued development while the film is in turnaround.
I suspect that if Battleship turns out to be an unexpected hit, Verbinski won’t be approaching other studios with this so much as they will be approaching him.
Clue was adapted once before into an ensemble comedy in 1985. True to the spirit of the game, the film famously featured three different endings which were randomly placed on release prints. If audiences wanted to see all three endings, they had to go to three different theaters. When released on home video, all three endings were edited into the film’s climax.
Via Deadline.
