A couple of year ago, Universal signed a deal with Hasbro to develop all sorts of toys and games, and turn them into movies. However, the only one that’s come to fruition is Battleship, which hits cinemas next month. One film the studio was working on was Ouija, but last August it put the project into turnaround, meaning it didn’t want to make it anymore.
However the project has just picked back up by Universal, according to Variety, although this is a rather different version than the one the studio dropped. It had initially been envisioned as a $100 million dollar family adventure movie, along the lines of Pirates Of The Caribbean. Universal and other studios balked at that, but the budget has now been slashed all the way down to $5 million, which the money men found much more palatable (although it should be noted, Universal probably spent more than $5 million developing the mega-budget version they canned, so it’s not really quite than cheap).
Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes will still produce the movie, although they’ve now brought in Jason Blum who was behind the successful low-budget horror projects Paranormal Activity and Insidious. It certainly suggests they’re going more horror this time, which is what most people suggested Ouija should be in the first place.
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