CandyLand Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In an interview over on Collider, Frosty spoke with Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner at a G.I. Joe screening and he covered the movies that the company has in development. In many ways it mirrored what our own Jessica Barnes wrote about back in March. Hasbro clearly isn't content to sit back and dive into the coffers filled with money from the Transformers movies, which will likely swell even further when G.I. Joe is released this weekend. They aren't just licensing their toys for film development (Stretch Armstrong is slated to be a movie in 2011), it now looks like they'll be tossing their entire board game range into the mix.

You've probably heard that Ridley Scott is developing Monopoly into a movie, as hard as that is to believe, but according to Goldner that will be joined by Candy Land and Battleship. Battleship!? Really? A movie based around Battleship? As much as I strained my brain to try and figure out how Ridley Scott could make Monopoly into a compelling film, Battleship just makes my grey matter give up abandon ship. You might as well make Connect Four into a movie. Everyone would be on the edge of their seats waiting for the "Pretty sneaky, sis." line.

So I'm not going to waste anyone's time by decrying the decision to make major motion pictures out of board games; Lord knows enough time and ink have already been devoted to that topic. But, regardless of what you may think about Hollywood's creative choices (or lack thereof), I know most of you were curious as to what exactly movies based on Monopoly, Candy Land, and Ouija Boards were going to be about. Thanks to MTV, we now have our first taste of Hasbro on the big screen.

First up is Ridley Scott's Monopoly, which is probably the strangest in the bunch because you wouldn't necessarily pair the macho director with a film about real estate. It gets stranger, though, because the movie isn't just Jumanji with land transfer taxes. Instead, Goldner tells MTV, "The whole world is about the financial markets...Pamela Pettler who's writing this great script about real people kind of playing a real-life game of 'Monopoly,' not the board game, although they're icons of the game. And then you really get the idea why this story could make sense right now." ... And I don't think I'm alone in saying that would be the first thing that does make sense since the film was announced.

Next up is Candy Land. Monika already brought us the news in February that Tropic Thunder writer Etan Cohen was at work on a script, but today MTV finally gave us a peek at what's planned. Goldner told MTV, "Imagine if you took that basic idea of going to a better place, and then allowed the audience to go to that same place together. But then you come to find out, like every other place that's promised to just be all better and all sweets and candy, you come to find out there's actually some controversy there as well." Controversy and candy canes? I guess it helps to imagine Pleasantville with gumdrops.

After the jump find out what Goldner had to say about the spooky game flick, Ouija.

I shouldn't be surprised. None of us should. If Monopoly is going to become a feature film, what isn't? The door has been opened, the path has been made, and now we're getting more board game feature film action.

Variety reports that Universal Pictures is getting ready for a journey to Candy Land. The Hasbro game will get morphed into a feature film by Tropic Thunder scribe Etan Cohen, and will be directed by Kevin Lima, who most recently brought us Enchanted. "The tyke-friendly board game isn't as obvious an inspiration for a movie project as those other Hasbro brands, but the studio has tapped talent adept at comedy and family fare." No shee-it. But that movie has already been made, under the Willy Wonka moniker.

Clue, now that made sense. A murder mystery with quirky characters is perfect for the big screen. Monopoly? That's just silly. And Candy Land? Oh, come on. At this rate, we'll have an Uno, a Rummy, and a Tiddlywinks game in no time. After that, well, Tic Tac Toe -- you better watch out! Anyone want to make bets on the next childhood board game to get the feature treatment?

We already know some studios (like Universal) are looking to bring our most favorite childhood games to the big screen, including Monopoly, Ouija, Candy Land, Clue (which was already a film), Battleship and a few others. And while at first it might sound rather ridiculous, you'd be amazed to see the types of stories a few clever Hollywood screenwriters could throw together for these. Heck, I can't imagine Candy Land would differ greatly from something like Willy Wonka.

That said, the folks over at Worth 1000 launched a photoshop contest recently in which the idea was to take a popular children's game and create a movie poster for it. The poster above for Monopoly (which director Ridley Scott is apparently developing for real) doesn't make much sense, but I do admire the casting choices. Could you imagine a film based on the Monopoly board game having a cast like that? After settling all their paychecks, you'd have -- what -- fifteen bucks to shoot the thing? Check out a few more of our favorites in the gallery below.

Out of all your favorite childhood games, which could you see becoming the most worthwhile film?



Related: Cinematical Seven: Bad Ideas for Board Game Movies