Hasbro and Ridley Scott have tapped Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski to write the screenplay for a movie based on Hasbro’s Monopoly board game.  The duo has written a number of films including Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flynt, and the adaptation of Stephen King’s 1408.

 

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Universal, which recently pulled in its horns and cancelled Ron Howard’s ambitious The Dark Tower project (see “Universal Abandons The Dark Tower”), has cut loose a number of Hasbro projects including Monopoly, Ouija, and Clue.  The studio embarked on this austerity movement after spending over $200 million on a movie based on Hasbro’s Battleship game. 

 

Interestingly all three Hasbro projects dropped by Universal still have life because Hasbro is continuing to fund their development.  Ridley Scott is producing Monopoly (along with Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir) and plans to direct the film as well. 

 

Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean, Rango) is working with Hasbro on Clue, and Verbinski has hired writers Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama to pen the adaptation of the classic mystery board game.

 

Monopoly remains one of Hasbro’s most popular board games with all sorts of new iterations published every year (see “Futurama Collector’s Edition Monopoly”).