[adrotate banner=”1″]What in the flying monkey crap is happening to Earth, planet of humans, that makes jokes reality? Are we being zapped with Ironic Reality Rays from the Evil Skeletor and his gang of baddies? Because suddenly, everyone’s favorite joke board game movie will actually be a real movie! Hasbro has signed deals to bring more of their properties to the big screen. In addition to reviving the long-in-production Monopoly flick and optioning Action Man for some reason, Hungry Hungry Hippos is the third property in the deal with Emmett/Furla Films giving Hasbro the dump trucks full of cash it needs to get these films in production through their Universal subsidiary. Don’t worry, each film will cost less than $100 million, that way they will only lose lots of money instead of a ton of money.
Monopoly will be the first of the three films, probably because a lot of the ground work has already been done over the years. Ridley Scott is still listed as a producer, but I do not know if they will continue with the “guy wakes up in a Monopoly world” plot that was rumored years ago. All the films are being marketed as family films.
Emmett/Furla is also bankrolling The Tomb, Two Guns, and Broken City, so they’re posed to become very very rich. Which they will need when no one watches these Hasbro films. I mean, I can’t wait for Hungry Hungry Hippos!
I actually seriously can’t wait.
According to Box Office Mojo Battleship made a return of $302,836,260 from a production budget $209 million. I’m not sure how much of that includes advertising, but not a bad chunk of change all things considered. Perhaps Messrs. Hasbro along with Messrs. Emmett and Furla are all seeing Dollar signs before their eyes. Out of Hungry Hungry Hippos, Monopoly and Action Man one is bound to hit it big – my money’s on Monopoly.
It looks like they’re trying to get that return but with a much smaller budget, thus making the films very profitable. Getting that to work is the problem. An old Monolopy script sounded pretty good, but who knows what the final version will be. I’m most interested in Hungry Hungry Hippos, because that can go in any direction and has the potential to be incredibly awesome or incredibly lame. And I like saying “Hungry Hungry Hippos”