I know. It seems the world has gone franchise crazy. Eager to ride out the recession on a surging tidal wave of box offices dosh it is the studios looking for the familiar to bring about their survival, and the dual strands of this are linked by Ridley Scott.
Not only is he looking back to the future with his Alien prequel film, thereby revisiting a previously established universe and all its nostalgic trappings, but also it seems that Hollywood is keen to capitalise on any franchise or brand that is known by more than four people – Facebook is attracting the talents of David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin and now the LA Times tell us how Sir Ridley got involved with Monopoly.
Talking with the writer of the proposed Monopolmovie Frank Beddor, the LA Times trace how the spark ignited the interest of the game’s manufacturers Hasbro and Scott himsef. It all began with a dark take on Alice in Wonderland…
Beddor said his inspiration came from Carroll and the “Looking Glass Wars” experience: “They have this big world and this game — it’s the most famous board game in the world — and it just really came out of the whole ‘Alice’ thing. I took the approach of thinking of the main character falling down a rabbit hole and into a real place called Monopoly City … It was the re-engineering of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ that got me thinking and then with this it came around full circle and I was able to utilize that. That’s a big world. They were searching for that.
It’s a fascinating read and the Jumanji parallels the Times draw are easy to see – and the film actually comes out of the article looking quite plausible.
“…it can’t be just about the money. To me it’s more a metaphor for life, the taking of chances and this character through this process learns that he can do a lot of things. He’s completely brave and strategic and risk-taking while playing this game but in real life he’s a mess. He won’t roll the dice. That’s the character and journey he has to take.”
With Scott on board (absolutely no pun intended) perhaps this odd outing for Monopoly may just be a winner. Eyes peeled, ear to the ground as always, we’l bring you more as we find it.
