Hasbro has sure decided it likes the movies. While Battleship didn’t turn out too well, the likes of Tranformers have been huge for the company, not just in terms of box office receipts, but also the sheer amount of toys they helped shift. As a result the company has signed a deal with Emmett/Furla Films to produce adaptations of the board games Monopoly, Hungry Hungry Hippos and the toy Action Man.
The first movie to go into production will be Monopoly, which they hope to start shooting next year. You may have heard of plans for a Monopoly movie before, as it was previously in development at Universal Pictures, with Ridley Scott attached to direct. The filmmaker is still involved as a producer, although he will no longer helm the movie.
In many ways Hungry Hungry Hippos seems an even stranger prospect for a film version. The game debuted in 1978, with players hitting a lever on the hippos to try and gobble up as many white marbles as they can. The adaptation will be an animated feature aimed at children. No details are known about the Action Man project, although it is based on the 1960s British toy line.
Emmett/Furla and Hasbro are aiming to spend less than $100 million on each project, a steep downgrade from the $200 million budget of Hasbro’s Battleship. (Source: LA Times)
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