“I couldn’t think about a greater manufacturing staff for this beloved and iconic model than LuckyChap,” Lionsgate Movement Image Group Chair Adam Fogelson mentioned in a information launch Wednesday. “They’re distinctive producers who select their tasks with nice thought and care and be a part of Monopoly with a transparent perspective.”
LuckyChap, which Robbie leads alongside together with her husband, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara, was instrumental within the success of “Barbie.” After the corporate joined the manufacturing staff, Robbie satisfied Mattel and Warner Bros. of the film’s huge potential and the necessity for Greta Gerwig to be its director.
The movie grossed greater than $1 billion on the field workplace final summer season and have become a popular culture hit. Followers flocked to film theaters wearing pink costumes and glitter to have a good time the movie. “Barbie” snagged one Oscar award in March when Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” received finest authentic music.
“Monopoly is a high property — pun totally supposed,” mentioned LuckyChap in a information launch. “Like all the finest IP, this recreation has resonated worldwide for generations, and we’re so excited to convey this recreation to life alongside the great groups concerned at Lionsgate and Hasbro.”
Robbie and LuckyChap are on a roll with toy- and game-themed tasks. Final month, Robbie’s manufacturing arm introduced a film primarily based on The Sims, a well-liked online game the place gamers lead simulated folks by simulated lives. The sport had an enormous following within the early 2000s and continues to be round right now with numerous new renditions.
Regardless of some hypothesis on-line that Robbie may be carving out a distinct segment as an auteur of recreation and toy movies, her firm has labored on many productions unrelated to video games since “Barbie,” together with “Saltburn” and “My Previous Ass.”
A movie in regards to the capitalistic board recreation Monopoly can be one other try by Hasbro to show its mental property right into a field workplace success. To this point, it has seen combined outcomes. Although Transformers films hold coming in droves and snag millions, only one (a derivative, thoughts you) has had vital reward. Equally, the toy firm’s films “Battleship” (2012) and “Energy Rangers” (2017), in addition to films primarily based on the Ouija board recreation and G.I. Joe, have been critically panned with middling field workplace returns.
Hollywood has shifted its gaze towards toy-based films following the success of “Barbie” and the animated “Lego Film” earlier than it. There’s already an “emotional and grounded and gritty” story about Scorching Wheels vehicles by J.J. Abrams (cue the lens flare) in improvement, in addition to a “Polly Pocket” film by Lena Dunham. And Vin Diesel has already punched his ticket to make a Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots film. Mattel has also teased movies about — deep breath — American Woman dolls, Barney, the Magic 8 Ball, motion determine Main Matt Mason, the Masters of the Universe, Thomas the Tank Engine, the cardboard recreation Uno and the ocular toy View-Grasp.
It’s unclear what a Monopoly film will seem like. The more-than-a-century-old board game is a largely luck-based competitors to amass actual property, whose solely recognizable character is the top-hat-wearing Monopoly man (or Wealthy Uncle Milburn Pennybags). Hasbro Leisure’s head of movie, Zev Foreman, mentioned the sport “gives an unbelievable platform for storytelling alternatives.”
Director Ridley Scott advised Vulture again in 2010 that he had an concept for a Monopoly film “with the massive homes and humorous high hats and that kind of factor.” Hasbro nixed the thought, so he reimagined it as one thing a few Donald Trump-like character having to work with actual property tycoons. “It’s about greed,” he advised Vulture. “… Greed turns into, hopefully, hysterically humorous.”
Some folks have already theorized that the film will mimic the sport itself: “It’s going to go on manner too lengthy and the ending can be actually apparent an hour out,” wrote Robert Colvile on X.
