With its explosive set-pieces and over-long running times, the Transformers movie franchise has made its point: adapting toys into movies equals a hefty pay day. That’s definitely the case for Michael Bay’s robots-in-disguise mega-series, but examine the rest of Hasbro’s movie spinoffs and you’ll find they have suffered a far worse fate. The big-budget Battleship sunk (ahem) at the box office, followed by last year’s teenage horror, Ouija. So with a less-than-perfect track record, let’s turn to news of their next property destined for the big screen, Monopoly.
Trying to imagine how you’d adapt a board game of this nature into a successful feature might seem impossible, but in the past the proposed film acquired high-profile interest. Namely, Ridley Scott, who at one point during its development toyed with the idea of directing the flick. However, that period appears to be over now as the film is headed into production. During an interview with Collider, producer Randall Emmett, whose production company Emmett/Furla Films bagged the rights from Hasbro, revealed the film is gearing up to lens very soon indeed.
“We’ve worked on the script for about nine months, we now have a script that we’re going to go make this summer.”
No mention was made of names involved in the scripting process. Those nitty gritty details will be revealed in good time though, as Emmett went on to say that a big announcement is coming in February. Expect to hear whose leading the cast, who’s directing the cast and possibly the identity of the screenwriters:
“[For] the director, we’re on a shortlist of a few names, and we’re beyond excited about whichever of these directors ends up coming together. The cast is young kids but there is one lead, older—a guy chasing kids, lets say.”
A reference to the similarity of that logline to family cult classic, The Goonies, prompted Emmett to admit that that was one of their hopes for the finished product:
“That’s a perfect analogy to what Monopoly will hopefully be. There is a treasure map… It’s a family adventure film.”
All in all, there’s plenty to be optimistic about concerning the Monopoly adaptation. As mentioned above, Hasbro’s past flirtations with big-screen versions of their properties aren’t always successful, but with the prospect of a family adventure movie in the same vein as The Goonies, we’re keeping our hopes up.
