Lionsgate will develop and finance a movie tied to the Hasbro board game Monopoly, the companies announced Wednesday. Andrew Niccol, who wrote The Truman Show, Gattaca, and The Terminal, has been signed to write a script.  Niccol has also done some directing (Gattaca, Lord of War), although he has not been signed to direct at this point. 

A Monopoly movie has been around in at least the concept stage for some time.  It was originally part of the 2008 deal between Hasbro and Universal that produced Battleship (see “’Monopoly,’ ‘Magic’ Movies on Tap?’”).  By 2011, it had been dropped from the Universal deal and was being developed by Hasbro and Ridley Scott (see “New Scribes Hired for Monopoly Movie”).  And in 2012 with Emmett-Furla (see “’Monopoly’ Movie”).

The concept is of a boy from Baltic Avenue who goes on a quest to make his fortune, using both Chance and Community.

Brand awareness shouldn’t be a problem; Hasbro says that Monopoly has been played by over a billion people.  But translating a board game to a narrative is not an easy task to do successfully.  For Hasbro so far, lower budgets have worked better.  Battleship had a big budget and was a flop; Ouija was more successful on a limited budget (see “Board Game-Based ‘Ouija’ Summons the winning spirit”).