So if (like me) you’ve been wondering what could possibly be going through Ridley Scott’s head by getting involved with the Monopoly movie adaptation and how in the great hell they plan to turn the Monopoly board game into a feature film… Well, wonder no more!
Writer-producer Frank Beddor tells The LA Times how it’s going to work.
I wrote the story that got Hasbro excited and I attached Ridley Scott. The project was underway but they were in a little bit of trouble I guess and they were looking for a way to actually turn it into a movie. I had a pretty interesting take and it got Sir Ridley interested.
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.
I created a comedic, lovable loser who lives in Manhattan and works at a real estate company and he’s not very good at his job but he’s great at playing Monopoly. And the world record for playing is 70 straight days – over 1,600 hours – and he wanted to try to convince his friends to help him break that world record. They think he is crazy. They kid him about this girl and they’re playing the game and there’s this big fight. And he’s holding a Chance card and after they’ve left he says, ‘Damn, I wanted to use that Chance card,’ and he throws it down. He falls asleep and then he wakes up in the morning and he’s holding the Chance card, and he thinks, ‘That’s odd.
He’s all groggy and he goes down to buy some coffee and he reaches into his pocket and all he has is Monopoly money. All this Monopoly money pours out. He’s confused and embarrassed and the girl reaches across the counter and says, ‘That’s OK.’ And she gives him change in Monopoly money. He walks outside and he’s in this very vibrant place, Monopoly City, and he’s just come out of a Chance Shop. As it goes on, he takes on the evil Parker Brothers in the game of Monolopy. He has to defeat them. It tries to incorporate all the iconic imageries — a sports car pulls up, there’s someone on a horse, someone pushing a wheelbarrow — and rich Uncle Pennybags, you’re going to see him as the maître d’ at the restaurant and he’s the buggy driver and the local eccentric and the doorman at the opera. There’s all these sight gags.
Now, of course anyone with the aptitude to tie their shoes in broad daylight is thinking to themselves “Really? What the F***?” and of course you’re also wondering what Ridley Scott could possibly see in this craptastic sounding project. Well, apparently this is what the director had to say at the pitch meeting:
“I will tell you why – it’s all the things you just said and the fact that I had these epic Monopoly battles with my family when I was young.”
Oh, how the Mighty have fallen… Sir Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Blackhawk Down) you have sold your soul to the board game devil. I’m gonna pass go and collect my $200 on this one, Thanks!
