Following the success of Barbie, which is expected to pass $1 billion at the box-office over the next few days, toy retailers have been eyeing up their products to see which ones would make for a decent big screen adaptation. Well, now, Hasbro is following in Mattel's footsteps and making a Monopoly movie – and we're already desperate to know what that's going to look like.
Per Variety, which published an article about how Lionsgate has just bought eOne from Hasbro for $500 million, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks confirmed that it was collaborating with the studio for the new flick.
"Entertainment remains a priority for Hasbro. Hasbro will continue to develop and produce entertainment based on the rich vault of Hasbro-owned brands," he said. "We will also bring to life new original ideas designed to fuel all areas of Hasbro's blueprint including toys, publishing, gaming, licensed consumer products, and location-based entertainment.
"As part of the sale, we expect to move to an asset-lite model for future live action entertainment, relying on licensing and partnerships with select co-productions."
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, starring Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant, and Chris Pine, is technically based on a Hasbro product, thanks to the company's purchase of game publisher Wizards of the Coast in 1999. It received overwhelming positive reviews and calls from fans for a sequel but given the fantasy role-playing aspect of the source material, it's innately more cinematic than Monopoly.
Will the movie focus on people playing the board game itself? Perhaps a chaotic comedy about a family get-together gone wrong? Or will it take a more unrealistic approach and set itself within the world of Monopoly? Maybe a thriller, where a wrongly accused individual has to find the owner of a mysterious card and escape from jail? Or an animation, about a Scottie dog that befriends an iron, a top hat, and an old boot? Who knows!
Other Hasbro IPs include Transformers, Peppa Pig, Magic: The Gathering, My Little Pony, Play-Doh, Power Rangers, and Clue.
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I am an Entertainment Writer here at 12DOVE, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.