Netflix adds Ticket To Ride movie to its weird Family Board Games Cinematic Universe

This is per Deadline, which reports that the streamer is continuing its business relationship with board game publisher Asmodee, now in the form of a film version of Alan R. Moon’s award-winning railroad-laying hit. To be clear, there’s nothing inherently wrong with a film adaptation of Moon’s game, which is set at the start of the 20th century, and (very loosely) about a group of travelers trying to see who can visit the most cities by rail. (Represented in-game by “building” rail lines that inevitably block at least somebody from getting to god damned inconvenient Miami, at which point the game becomes an exercise not so much in path management, as interpersonal violence de-escalation.) That’s a strong hook, with a lot of places you could take it; it’s just that there’s something inherently funny about imagining a Netflix exec desperately hunting around for a new pitch, having their eye fall conveniently on the board game closet, and going “Ah-ha!”

The Ticket To Ride film, specifically, is being written by Ben Mekler and Chris Amick, previously of Netflix series like Kipo And The Age Of Wonderbeasts. Deadline notes that the Ticket To Ride franchise is also being considered for unscripted development, which we’d actually be pretty into: The idea of an Amazing Race-style show focused on riding the rails could genuinely be pretty fun.