Five Movies Based on Board Games Coming to a Theater Near You

By Lauren Ivy Chiong

Remember the game Operation?  Connect Four?  Shoots and Ladders?  Life?  For many parents, the very mention of these games triggers a flood of nostalgia, and now Hollywood is banking on parents’ desire to share these fond memories with their kids.

The 2012 movie Battleship started the trend.  Grownups will remember the intense commercials for the popular naval combat game culminating with “You sank my battleship!”  Expanding a game into a compelling feature-length film can be a game of risk, and the results don’t necessarily work out just because the property has a recognizable name.  Here is what esteemed film critic Richard Roeper had to say about the movie Battleship: “It is completely and utterly ridiculous.”  Ouch!

However, board games could be turned into movies in the right hands.  After all, Disney managed to turn one of its theme park rides, Pirates of the Caribbean, into a hugely successful and fun blockbuster.  It will be up to the audience to decide if they will tell Hollywood producers “do not pass go” (as in Monopoly) when it comes to these ideas.

Here are just a few of the movies based on board games that could be coming to a theater near you in the future.

Clue

  by  TimmyGUNZ 

Speaking of Pirates of the Caribbean, its director Gore Verbinski is one of those lining up to bring a board game to the big screen.  He is developing the popular whodunnit murder mystery game Clue into a version that promises plenty of action and adventure. Rumored to be set on a global stage, this movie version of Clue is currently being penned by the screenwriters of Flash Gordon.  Children of the 1980s might recall that Clue has been made into a film before.  The first movie adaptation of Clue, starring Madeline Kahn and Tim Curry, has become a cult classic, most famous because of its three different endings, which can be viewed on the DVD.

Ouija board

This slumber party favorite is being given the Paranormal Activity treatment as a micro-budget horror film by producer Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions.  A Ouija board is said to be capable of conveying messages from spirits on the other side, which is a solid starting point for a low-budget horror film.  Originally the movie was slated to be a big $100 million summer release, but at this huge budget level, Universal couldn’t conjure up a version they were happy with.  The latest version of the movie is rumored to be in the found footage style, similar to the Blair Witch Project, in which the characters (living or dead) film the footage themselves to relate the story.

Candy Land

  by  Mimi Mia Photography 

This one is going to be interesting, and hopefully, hilarious in a good way with Adam Sandler producing and starring in a movie version of this classic board game.  Candy Land is one of the most popular toys of all time.  It’s a simple game based on drawing cards that will determine which player reaches the Candy Castle first.  The game is full of whimsical fantasy characters such as Princess Frostine, Lord Licorice, and King Candy.  Sandler is said to be collaborating on the screenplay with Robert Smigel, most famous for creating Saturday Night Live’s TV Funhouse.  The screenwriting team that worked on a previous version of the movie, before Sandler came on board, had described their vision of it as “Lord of the Rings, but set in a world of candy.”  Yikes!  Let’s hope that Sandler and Smigel come up with a better concept.

Monopoly

Ridley Scott, director of such classic films as Alien, Blade Runner, and Gladiator, has been developing a movie version of this classic board game for years.  To win a game of Monopoly, a player must succeed in buying out every corner of a fictitious town.  It’s a high stakes contest of greed, and it could make compelling cinema if given the right treatment.  Ridley Scott is known for creating interesting visual urban landscapes, and his vision of Monopoly in a heightened realityor even slightly sci fi atmosphere, combined with his Oscar-winning gift for storytelling, could result in a successful movie, if it ever makes it out of development hell.

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Many think that Hollywood is full of itself for even attempting to tackle a movie based on a game in which plastic hippos race to see which ones can eat the most marbles first.  The movie was one of the projects slated for development when Universal inked a deal with Hasbro in 2008.  The studio has since dropped several of the projects (including Clue and Ouija), but no word on the status of the marble-gobbling hippos.  If a studio like Disney Pixar gets on board, miracles might be possible, and that’s just what this project needs to be a successful movie.

Lauren Ivy Chiong’s blog ReelMama.com is a resource for fun and memorable family together time, specializing in family entertainment and parenting.