You might recall that a few months ago the relationship between Universal and Hasbro soured, and the studio actually paid a hefty sum to break their relationship with the toymaker. Unfortunately it happened after they had spent like $200M+ on Battleship, which nobody liked and not enough people went to see. That wasn't the end for Hasbro, who promised that their plan to release bad big screen adaptations of their various board games was still in place, and now they've found backers for three of them, including that long-gestating Monopoly film nobody wants.
The LA Times reports that Emmett/Furla, the production company behind genre films like End of Watch and The Tomb, has signed a deal for the film rights to Monopoly, Hungry Hungry Hippos, and Action Man. Monopoly has been kicking around for awhile, and at one point Ridley Scott was being looked at as a potential director. He'll thankfully slip into a producer role, instead, with plans to shoot some time next year. The latest draft of the script comes from Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, and no plot details are clear as of yet, but if it involves a guy riding a giant thimble, well then count me in.
Action Man is a Brit toy similar to G.I. Joe, so it may be more of an action-oriented film. Hungry Hungry Hippos will be animated, with all three flicks expect to cost less than $100M each and will be aimed at the family crowd.
As terrible as all this sounds, the reality is that each of them will probably be a blockbuster hit.With Candyland and Stretch Armstrong still in development, Hasbro is going to be a major player with these lower-budgeted, easily recognizable and massively marketed franchises.
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