Monday Movie Talk: Board Games

“Monday Movie Talk”

Welcome to Monday Movie Talk, a collection of recent movie related news and information for your entertainment. If you find anything that you think should make next weeks MMT, send us an e-mail.

So now that Hollywood has started to exhaust it’s use of comic books they look for a new frontier of ideas and it looks like it will be board games.

A movie rendition of Risk has recently been announced. The strategic board game produced by Parker Brothers and invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse in 1957. It is a turn-based game of world domination personally it’s my favorite board game of all time. Few men can say that they have defeated me in this game of wits and epic conquest.

In 2009 Sony acquired the rights to make a film based on the game and writer John Hlavin has been hired. John recently finished the script for the upcoming Underworld sequel called New Dawn.  It will be a sequel to Evolution where Selene escapes prison to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both species. But let’s get back to Risk, a game with absolutely no backstory at all. A movie based on this game could be absolutely anything, set in any time period and really the only possible connection the game will have to this movie is the name. It’s an entirely new film that will be promoted through pure brand recognition. Until more information is given there really isn’t anything else to say.

Back in 1985 another movie was made based on a board game, Clue.  To this day the movie remains one of the funniest ever made and is personally in my top five favorite films of all time. Of course, Clue provides a little bit of story setup and you knew it would be a murder mystery. Well it looks like it’s getting the reboot and a new Clue movie is in the works by director Gore Verbinski (The Ring, the original Pirates trilogy, Rango) and will be made under Universal Studios and Verbinski’s U-based Blind Wink company along with Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Bennet Schneir. This is a project that has been on hiatus due to Verbinski’s schedule but I’m sure we’ll hear some updates thanks to Risk.

Big plans are set for one of the world’s most recognizable game, Candy Land. Kung Fu Panda screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger are planning this to be like Lord of the Rings but in a world of candy. So in other words, it’s going to be a really expensive kids movie.

Keep your eyes open for our review of Kung Fu Panda 2 which should drop in the next 24 hours.

“We don’t see it as a movie based on a board game, although it has characters from that world and takes the idea of people finding themselves in a world that happens to be made entirely of candy where there are huge battles going on,” Berger says. “We are going for real comedy, real action, and real emotions at stake.”

Sounds like it will feature lots of candy races fighting each other, probably over a ring pop or something. Could be epic, but probably won’t be.

The board game news doesn’t stop there, Monopoly is also getting it’s own movie. Director Ridley Scott himself will be tackling this one and is currently filming Prometheus, a prequel to the iconic 1979 horror film Alien. It will star Michael Fassbender (X-Men First Class), as well as Idris Elba (Thor) and Charlize Theron (Hancock). I can not wait for Prometheus, it’s already shaping up to look really good. As soon as Ridley finishes with that he will decide to pass Go and create a movie that will combine two different worlds. Rumor suggests that people will inadvertently find themselves waking up not in the world they know but in the land of Monopoly.
“[It's] still happening and we’re developing a great story. It’s a very fun take. Ridley is still the perfect creative steward, because he creates these great, fictionalized worlds…Suffice it to say, it’s a story about a family with a history, and we’re projecting that into current times. But it’s not ‘Wall Street’. It’s more about property ownership and of the play-pattern of the game.”

That’s it for board games. Sacha Baron Cohen (Bruno, Borat) has released a picture of his next character role. It’s from his upcoming movie called The Dictator in which he plays a ruthless dictator who heads to the U.S. for a meeting at the United Nations and finds that his number two has replaced him with an unsuspecting sheepherder lookalike. As the dictator wanders the city, he meets the owner of an organic food store (Anna Faris) who gives him a different perspective on the idea of oppression.  Scripted by former Seinfeld scribes Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel. I’m really not a fan of his movies but if it’s being written by Alec Berg and other members of the Seinfeld gang then maybe it stands a chance to take my money.

Disney has plans to start an all new IP that could be bigger than Pirates of the Carribean and Tron. Little is known at this point but it will be a large-scale Sci-Fi film and they’ve struck a seven-figure deal with screenwriter and LOST executive producer Damon Lindelof to write it. All that is known at this time is that the project is being called 1952. It will be a large platform that will not just be a single movie but could go to television and video games too. Damon is an extraordinary writer and just worked on Cowboys & Aliens, the already discussed Prometheus and has started on Star Trek 2 with J.J. Abrams.

The poster for Colin Hanks (Son of Tom Hanks) next movie has been released. It is called Lucky and is about a wannabe serial killer who wins the lottery and pursues his lifelong crush. I always enjoy seeing him in new material, he’s a wonderful actor who’s trying hard to make into into the big leagues.

Killer Klowns from Outer Space star Grant Cramer confirmed that a sequel is in the works. Currently it is being called The Return of the Killer Klowns from Outer Space 3-D…pause while I catch my breath. Cramer has written the film and will reprise his role as Mike Tobacco.

“Well, I don’t want to say too much about the story at this early juncture but I will say that it is connected to the first movie and my character will be the mentor to the two new young leads that have to try save the world from the Klowns when they return. They’re also trying to save themselves because the bad stuff the Klowns do at first gets blamed on them.”

Paramount has given the green light to start on a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It will not be related to the their new animated TV show currently being made by Nickelodeon.

The movie is being produced by Micahel Bay and written by Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum who recently finished writing the new Mission Impossible movie Ghost Protocol. Little is known at this point but I sure hope it’s made to have the feel of the original comics. Dark, gritty and violet as hell. In my opinion there hasn’t been a good Ninja Turtle movie since the original 1990 film.

Shia LeBeouf confirms that Transformers Dark of the Moon will be his last Transformers movie.  He says that this third iteration will be the best in the trilogy and he wants to end it on a high note. He also expressed his feelings that Michael Bay probably won’t want to come back either but that the series will most likely get a reboot in the future.

I expressed my thoughts on Dark of the Moon in an earlier MMT. Although, the action shown in the trailers has started to gain my interest. Everything I’ve read suggests that this one will put the last two to shame, but let’s not put too much stock in that.

Fellow Pulp podcaster, Tony aka @hatmantc had an idea for the star of the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot. Her name is Kiele Sanchez (A Perfect Getaway, 30 Days of Night, Lost) and I am not opposed to this idea at all.

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And here is a clip taken from Lost where she is a stripper.

A new poster has been released for the upcoming Captain America: The First Avenger movie. It’s an awesome retro throwback to the movies of that era and shows the Captain punching Hitler right in the face. This is of course a throwback to the original cover to Captain America Comics #1. It also shows the Howling Commandos at the bottom. The Commandos were originally a group of soldiers picked by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. and feature icon members such as Dum Dum Dugan. I’m sorry to say you’ll probably never see this poster up close as it was only made as gifts for members of the crew who worked on the film.

A promo poster for The Avengers was seen at the Licensing International Expo in Las Vegas and photographed by ESQ. The quality isn’t great but we get to see Hawkeyes costume for the first time and what Captain America’s wardrobe upgrade will be in this movie. The guys like to keep up with the latest fashions, what can I say. The poster may also indicate that The Hulk will fight along side the team instead of against them. Which could make sense, given that the The Incredible Hulk ended in such a way that you could get the impression that Bruce Banner learns to control The Hulk. Either way, I’m excited for this movie!

Super 8 hit theaters this weekend. Read our review  HERE. It has some incredible music as it was scored by my favorite movie composer of all time, Mr. Michael Giacchino. Michael is J.J. Abrams’ go-to guy for music and has scored Lost, Alias, Cloverfield, Star Trek and Mission Impossible III. He has also done several Pixar movies such as Up, Ratatouille, and the Incredibles and even finds time to work on video games series Call of Duty and Medal of Honor.

Unfortunately for us Giacchino fans, the sound track won’t be out until June 28th. Why it didn’t release with the film is beyond me. Someone should be fired. However, you can still listen to a few of the masterful tracks on YouTube.

I want these so bad! Buzz Lightyear and Woody custom action figures by Luis Eduardo Vargas Montoya.

Ever imagine what a live action Toy Story movie would look like if it starred Josh Brolin and Vin Diesel? Well you are now.

Happy Birthday to Raiders of the Lost Ark, which turns 30 years old this week!

Our fan film this week is called Funeral For A Friend. It takes real movie clips and puts them together in a funeral/montage scene about the death of Superman. This looks really well done. I don’t even know how they did some of the shots we see. This is a sequel to the Man of Steel short film by the same people, it can  be watched in the same embedded video.

Listen to us talk about these news items and more on the upcoming Episode 04 of The Pulp

Play my outro….

- Jon Duryea (Follow @Artifact911 on Twitter)