I See What They Did There

Hasbro Says the Ouija Board Movie Is “Not Dead,” Probably Consulted Ouija Board First

by Jamie Frevele | 2:01 pm, October 17th, 2011

The CEO of Hasbro, Brian Goldner, has some updates on the movies being made out of the toys produced by his company. We’ll gloss over the Transformers 4 news for the moment, because what we’re really interested in is the Ouija Board movie and what’s happening with that. Last we heard, Universal said “No” to what was intended to be a supernatural family flick. But Goldner claims that the project is still in the works, just trying to cut the budget. In other words, it’s “not dead.” Get it? Haha, Ouija Board humor! In other news, someone asked a toy company about movie news.

First, we’ll quickly address Transformers 4, just to mention that Goldner said that there were “active discussions” taking place with Paramount that also involve Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg. But nothing about production dates, release dates, screenwriters (HAHAHAHA, I know, right?), or actors. There might be some news about this in coming months.

But back to the mighty Ouija. Goldner is comparing this project to Disney‘s Lone Ranger, which was canceled and then came back once they were able to rejigger the budget and make it less expensive for the studio. Apparently, the same exact thing is happening: work is being done to cut the budget and the script has been rewritten and changed in order to accommodate a smaller amount of money. (Although the two budgets are not of comparable size, in case that wasn’t totally clear. The Ouija movie is a much smaller deal.) In short, there might still be a Ouija Board movie. (I am still not totally sure this is a bad thing.)

However, Goldner is still threatening us with more movies based on board games and toys including Candyland, Monopoly, Risk, and Clue. (STOP IT … JUST … STOP IT. We HAVE one.) But also Stretch Armstrong, which has been rumored to involve Taylor Lautner, and Micronauts, which involves J.J. Abrams. And, in news that is probably not surprising, Hasbro will not be taking “the Marvel approach” to making movies by forming its own movie studio. So, at least we can take comfort in that.

(The Hollywood Reporter via Screen Rant, Blastr)

TAGS: Brian Goldner | Hasbro | Michael Bay | Ouija Board movie | Steven Spielberg

Anonymous

I’ve consulted a Ouija board of my own, and the spirits say, “PLEASE STOP HOLLYWOOD JUST STOP P567YM No”.
http://profiles.google.com/quieteyes Chris Talbot

There is some potential for some of these. For example: a Monopoly movie as a sort of spoof of Wallstreet might work. Even better if several real estate companies (each with one of the tokens as their corporate symbol) are vying to control the whole New York area. Some one would have to end up in Jail and someone would have to be able to “Get Out Of Jail Free”. :-)

For Risk, I’d either use different factions within a corporation or different corporations trying to take over the world (albeit, in their market share). The world map would then indicate the section they control. Admittedly, though, this becomes an awful lot like Monopoly at that point. There’s also the unique (albeit potentially stupid) idea of having aliens fighting a real war unbeknownst to us. At which point, our world really is the game board.

I have no words for Candyland.

Ouija Board could be a good property. Indeed, at least one horror movie has used it as a plot point. Unfortunately, it is really easy to become stupid.

All-in-all any one of the games could be a good start to a movie. Heck, as my wife pointed out, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was an excellent movie based off of a themed ride. However, it was only loosely based on that ride and, although it was fun to spot the elements that were taken from the ride, the movie was good because it a good story, had good actors, and was well put together.

Heck, I’d even say Candyland could work if it had that going for it. But they’d really have to work at it.
http://www.facebook.com/Gorillazfan Emily Hill

how the hell do you do a movie about a board that lets you talk to the dead?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7G4SWUX2MCWWXLMYNN347JMIZY Frodo Baggins

Any attempt at satire by the Monopoly movie fails automatically by virtue of being a commercial tie-in. You might as well try to cram an anti-war message into the next GI Joe.

Pirates of the Caribbean worked (once) because it’s an awesome premise, regardless of its source. Communication with the Dead movies are a patchy bunch to begin with, even without the pivotal involvement of an outdated toy that most people consider a joke.