Universal is trimming its board-game portfolio. According to Deadline, the studio today quietly pulled the plug on three of the seven game-inspired films it committed to make in 2008, when it signed a six-year partnership with the toy company Hasbro. The most prominent of the cancelled projects is Clue, an adaptation of the mystery-solving game Pirates of the Caribbean and Rango helmer Gore Verbinski is attached to direct. Despite the setback, Hasbro remains committed to seeing Clue re-visit the big screen (a 1985 adaptation, directed by Jonathan Lynn and starring Tim Curry, Christopher Lloyd, and Lesley Ann Warren, flopped badly at the box office), and has announced that it is moving forward on the project with its own financing. Flash Gordon writers Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama have been hired to pen the script.
Magic the Gathering and the Ridley Scott-attached Monopoly have also received the ax, leaving Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, Candy Land, and Ouija as the only remaining board-game projects left on Universal's slate.
Source: Deadline