Seven years after the news first broke that Monopoly was being made into a feature film—coincidentally, also the duration of the average Monopoly game—Deadline reports that the production has finally left development jail and is passing “Go.” (Yeah, we know. But it was just so easy.) The film was being developed at Universal, with Ridley Scott attached to direct at one point; apparently Universal objected to Scott’s vision for the film, specifically the part where he said that greed was bad. Now it’s in the hands of Lionsgate, which is okay with critiques of capitalism as long as they make lots of money.
No director for the new, presumably sexy Monopoly movie has been announced as of yet, but the project does have a screenwriter: Oscar-nominated The Truman Show and The Terminal scribe Andrew Niccol. Described as “a film for all ages, visually sumptuous, heartwarming, and full of action and adventure,” Niccol’s version of the script revolves around “a boy from Baltic Avenue who uses both Chance and Community in a quest to make his fortune, taking him on a fun, adventure-filled journey. It’s about making your own luck, what makes you truly rich, and, of course, avoiding Jail time!” Of course.
Monopoly will debut one rainy afternoon when no one has any better ideas.