Sony is the latest player that would like to make an accusation. The studio has won the rights to develop a reimagining of the Hasbro board game “Clue,” and the studio intends to bring the murder mystery game to the screen for both film and television.
Hollywood has been trying to remake “Clue,” first adapted in Jonathan Lynn’s cult classic screwball comedy “Clue” from 1985, for years. Most recently, a project was set up at 20th Century Studios, and it had Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman circling to star along with “The Muppets Movie” filmmaker James Bobin directing. In 2022, Oren Uziel (“The Lost City”) stepped up to rewrite the original draft of the script from Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (“Deadpool”), but it too went nowhere.
No cast or creative talent is attached at this stage of development. Sony is the only studio developing anything based on “Clue” at this time, with any past iterations no longer in play, IndieWire has learned.
“Sony is the perfect partner to adapt a property as culturally impactful and mystery-defining as Clue. Nicole Brown, Katherine Pope, and their teams are tremendous creative collaborators and ideal partners to help us figure out after 75 years if it was Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the candlestick,” the Hasbro heads of Film and TV, Zev Foreman and Gabriel Marano, said in a statement.
Hasbro’s Clue board game, first released in 1949, has sold 150 million copies over the last 75 years. The game is a board game staple in which players must determine whether a cast of characters including Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Mr. Green, and Mrs. White committed a murder, deducing whom, in which room of a mansion, and with which murder weapon.
The 1985 film starred Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren. The film made only a modest $14.6 million at the box office, but it blew up in popularity once it hit home video. It has been a cult favorite ever since.
“Clue” is one of several adaptations Hasbro is developing based on its board games and toys. Ever since it sold eOne to Lionsgate, Hasbro now operates by licensing out its titles to other studios to develop — rather than doing so strictly in house — much in the way Mattel found success last year with “Barbie.” Hasbro is developing projects based on “G.I. Joe,” “Transformers,” “Magic: The Gathering,” “Candy Land,” and “Ouija.” It also recently set a “Monopoly” movie at Lionsgate that will be produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap banner.
