Over three decades after the last cinematic adaptation of Clue, 20th Century Fox has picked up the rights to remake the classic board game with a few modern twists. For starters, it appears that the new Clue movie won’t be confined to a single mansion, and we’re talking about why it’s maybe not the best idea on today’s Nerdist News!
The Tracking Board broke the story about Clue‘s new studio, which reportedly wants to “move the story out of the parlor and make it a game of ‘worldwide mystery’ with action-adventure elements, potentially setting up a possible franchise that could play well internationally.” That sounds like the studio is trying to Fast and Furious the project, and it’s too early to tell if that approach is going to work or not.
Back in 1949, the Clue board game (which was originally called Cluedo in England) introduced players to a mystery game that prompted them to deduce which character had committed a murder within the rooms of a mansion, in addition to guessing which weapon was used in the attack. Director Jonathan Lynn and screenwriter John Landis adapted Clue into a movie in 1985, which featured a terrific cast including Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, and Eileen Brennan. Clue become a cult classic comedy, and that’s going to be hard for anyone to top.
Prior to this new deal, Clue was set to go forward at Universal Pictures with Pirates of the Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski slated to direct the remake. However, The Tracking Board notes that it is not clear if Verbinski will remain involved with the project. Clue‘s current owner, Hasbro, is producing the new film, which is far from the only board game movie that Hasbro has on its plate. Hasbro also has its eye towards bringing Monopoly, Risk, and Candy Land to the big screen.
Now while nothing is essentially too sacred to be remade–go ahead, spend millions and millions on a PG-13 RoboCop or Total Recall, we don’t care!–we do think that attempting to recapture the magic of the original cult classic is a bit misguided, especially when they’re leaning toward making a franchise out of it. (Sidebar: remember when movies were made and if they were good enough and enough people liked them, then we’d start get talk of sequels?) The original Clue was not a big hit and definitely wasn’t beloved when it was released. Only after years of it being a basic cable staple did the younger generations recognize it as the great farce that it is. There’s nothing inherently franchisable about a whodunit mystery game; it was the alchemy of cast and script and tone of the original that made it what it was.
But what do you guys think? Would you be on board (game) with the Cluedo remake? Who would you cast as the memorable characters? Share your deductions in the comment section below!
Image: Paramount Pictures
