Cool News
Universal Refugees Michael Bay And McG Seeking New Home For Their OUIJA Movie!!
Merrick here...
A few weeks ago Universal renounced plans to turn Hasbro's CLUE game into a Gore Verbinski directed film.
Now comes word that the studio has nixed another game-to-screen adaptation: its OUIJA movie.
Insiders tell Vulture that Ouija, an adaptation of the magical board that was to be produced by Michael Bay and directed by McG, has been put in turnaround.
[EDIT]
Insiders say that Bay and McG are taking meetings with other studios next week to drum up interest.
...says Vulture HERE.
I wonder if this has anything to do with the relatively icy reception of trailers for their costly BATTLESHIP adaptation (see it HERE), or the generally tepid reaction to the studios' recent COWBOYS AND ALIENS? Notably, Universal recently killed Guillermo del Toro's AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS adaption, as well and an uber-adaptation of Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER. Interesting times...
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Readers Talkback
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I guess so...
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OK, situation cleared
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The Comcast overlords are not pleased with the movie studio methinks.
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Too bad it still costs us DARK TOWER and ATMoM
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Shit sandwhich.
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Thankfully, we don't have too.
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Man, Tawny Kitaen was awesome back then. Remember that full frontal shower scene? I wore that scene out on my videotape of the movie.
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Jesus Christ Monkey Balls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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has nothing to do with the game, but looks like fun. and, clue was already made. i guess you could remake it, but i don't know if they could do the multiple ending thing now.
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Tawny Kitaen in Witchboard had me practically pulling off my mushroom cap in pleasure when the video came out.
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was all that successful even back then. However, it would work better these days on DVD. Just pick from the main menu which ending you want to see before you watch it. Although, the best way to watch it is with all 3 endings ("it could have happened this way but this is how it really happened") as two of the endings are noticeably weaker than the third.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 11:37 a.m. CST
I'm using my Ouija board right now. "How would this movie turn out?"
by welcometothepartypal
O.k it's moving....."S".........."H".........."I"........well you get it. Now I'm gonna try find Michael Bay's dead talent.
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That was the thing, it was different depending on which theater you went to. the three different endings thing was added for home video. i don't even think it said "This is how it could have happened"
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Who gives a shit about McG and Bay? McG is pure bullshit. But to be fair Bay isn't that bad, he did the Rock. But he also did Pearl H. and Trans. 2. Yeah you 2 hacks can shop around to which ever studio wants to buy your shitty film, and knowing you 2 shits you find a studio that will make your shit film. But i will not see it. Good Luck McG and Bay.
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I could have sworn the theatre I saw Clue in showed all 3 endings. I'm pretty sure it did.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 11:53 a.m. CST
Man, when known properties can't even get the greenlight...
by D.Vader
This really spells doom for original stories in Hollywood.
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I think Gore Verbinski is a pretty good director(I do.)...I can only assume they paid him like $45 million bucks to direct something like Clue.(Otherwise, I am baffled) When is Gore going to do something from his heart..something to his tastes?
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The action scenes in Terminator Salvation are superb. He's the one music video guy who does NOT need to resort to choppy MTV editing to make things exciting. His action scenes are intense, dynamic, but always super clear. His story sense is questionable, however.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:02 p.m. CST
A stupid, money-grab idea from those two Kubrick-esque geniuses. Sacre Bleu!
by AzulTool
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:05 p.m. CST
A Gore Verbinski "Clue" movie would've cost $300,000,000
by rev_skarekroe
I don't know that he's the right guy to direct a character driven mystery/comedy. Maybe they could get Richard Kelly to direct it. Halfway through we find out that Mr. Body is an alien from another dimension and that his murder opened a time portal.
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I think that all films should be independently financed by the people that want to make them and should only be distributed by the studios. This way you get real passion projects by people that are committed to making these films and not crap that's assembled by committee. Granted, you may not get as many HUGE summer tentpole pictures but it may just keep us from getting crap. I know it's unrealistic but one can dream.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:10 p.m. CST
geomancer21, upon reflection I think that might work a bit better these days
by jim
I think there are more screens today than 25 years ago. Also, audiences having choices of which version of a movie to see is much more commonplace today than it was back then. I had 3 choices for Captain America (2D, 3D, FauxMax 3D) and Harry Potter (2D, 3D, Imax 3D). I think it was the same for Transformers, Green Lantern, and Pirates 4 (and I'm sure others not on the top of my head). That said (as Harry likes to say) it was seen as a cheap gimmick back then, and would no doubt be seen as one today; but I wouldn't say it's something the studios would automatically dismiss. If they think they can make more money by tricking audiences into paying to see, basically, the same movie two or three times ("Never Say Never") I'm sure they'd be all for it. I do remember the movie listings for Clue showing which ending of the film they were playing. I believe there were only 3. The "this is how it could have happened" might have been for the TV edit. I know I saw it at some point with all 3 endings edited into one version of the movie.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:13 p.m. CST
Bean counters in Hollywood have a terrible perspective on what makes money.
by Ryan Dawson
The ludicrously conceived Cowboys and Aliens (the title sounds like a Nikelodeon show) underperforms, and Battleship looks lame (did anybody doubt that from the very first whisperings of this project?), and so in rapid succession two projects which had a very fair chance of actually being good, namely In the Mouth of Madness and The Dark Tower, are shelved. Hollywood is always playing a shell game so it fits that they can only think in terms of the outward appearance of things. Mouth of Madness and The Dark Tower are in a separate category from these other "similar" projects in that they are in a category called: Well-Conceived Projects of Some Intellectual Sophistication That Have A Chance of Actually Being Superb Entertainments. Films like Cowboys and Aliens and Battleship are ill-conceived, hackneyed narratives that fail because any halfway intelligent moviegoer can see the writing on the wall in their very titles. Now, for a rosier picture, consider the sharp folks heading up HBO, unswayed by the stampede of the herd. They go ahead with Game of Thrones, the first fantasy narrative for adults, and renew it for a second season immediately despite somewhat underwhelming ratings for the first episode. This is wise. Why? Because anyone that has seen Game of Thrones knows that it is superior entertainment and where there is quality an audience will be gathered to enrich the creators. Seinfeld had a shit audience for 3 seasons. Nobody cared about Breaking Bad the first 2 seasons, or the Wire for that matter, until they were falling all over themselves to declare it the best thing on TV. The point is: Hollywood, grow some brains and some balls! If you build something of quality, the audience will come! If you seek to drum up idiotic pop-corn narratives based upon Milton-Bradley games you get what you deserve: turn-around hell that lasts the rest of your short, rotten, useless, pathetic lives.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:14 p.m. CST
Gore Verbinski is just a nerd. Not even that good a nerd.
by UltraTron
Kind of a run o the mill nerd. Hence his films kinda suck. Rango was neat looking but derivative shit frankly. How much better is megamind in terms of story, heart, action, everything that makes up an entertaining movie, etc? Same with his live action vehicles. I'll take anything young much better nerd Speilberg made over his crap
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:14 p.m. CST
WITCHBOARD is alright an all...but THE PERILS OF GWENDOLINE IN THE LAND OF THE YIK YAK...
by fustfick
...was my pud pulling Tawny Kitaen movie of choice back in the day. Seems like Universal did the smart thing in pulling the plug on these turkeys. Now where the hell are we at with that CANDYLAND movie? Lord Licorice wants your head!
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:17 p.m. CST
Still Waiting for Hungry Hungry Hippos and Go Fish movies myself....
by Tony
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directed by Rob Zombie?
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starring Damian Lewis & Sarah Shahi.
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Aliens with bombs shaped like the boardgames' pegs? Pure WIN!! *this post brought to you by sarcasm. Sarcasm: used by nerds/geeks/etc the world over since who-knows-when*
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:31 p.m. CST
marvelousd, you're right, for the most part
by IWasInJuniorHighDickhead
but the whole 'build something of quality and the audience will come' idea is pretty much dead. Culturally, a very large proportion of the entertainment-consuming public are either very thick or they have become used to shit product and have grown perversely attached to it.<P> The Wire never got great ratings; had it been network it would have pulled faster than Eddie Murphy in a drag bar. Quality ensures that if you miraculously make it past your first or second season, a bunch of critics will laud your show after it is cancelled and bemoan the fact that no one got into it until it got released on DVD.<P> It would take about twenty years of getting us the public out of the cultural boondocks and used to watching - and expecting - good quality programming before we would see the emergence of some correlation between something being good and people going to see it.<P> Essentially, what i'm trying to say is I think you're right, but we need a few thankless (for the show creators) years of good shows being able to be kept on the air long enough to make a difference even if they're not making megabucks. And why would a business do this? It would be crazy to. The money is in what people want, and people have been conditioned to want shite. We're headed for the pit, but maybe after we hit bottom there'll be revolution and a renaissance. Here in the UK, this Big Brother has just started up. It looks to be beyond parody yet people are lapping it up.
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It writes itself ffs.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:42 p.m. CST
After the scene in Paranormal Activity (borrowed from The Exorcist), who needs a whole movie
by openthepodbaydoorshal
about a Ouija board?
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Aug. 24, 2011, 12:57 p.m. CST
If the market no longer demands quality than we live in dark days indeed.
by Ryan Dawson
But I happen not to believe that, iwasinjuniorhighdickhead. There will always be a strong demand for junk entertainment, and certainly the greater percentage of audiences are easily fooled into parting with their money via a flashy ad campaign; nonetheless I believe that people tend to grow more sophisticated, not less, although sometimes it is difficult to detect signs of their growing awareness. I take your point that true quality often occurs after a latent period of financial suffering on the part of the creators, however we can all think of examples of extremely lucrative projects that made their money because the word got out that they were great. To list a few that come to mind: Star Wars, Gladiator, Seinfeld, Sopranos, American Beauty. Yes for each of these great projects there are a dozen others that are shit and made money, but if moviegoers send the signal that they are passively OK with whatever entertainment that is produced to keep them distracted while they are fucked up the ass, with no demand of intellectual rigor or real inspiration, then we will see what could have been a cultural flowering of narratives turn into another round of soulless corporate drivel. I mentioned HBO in my previous post, and I truly believe that they are forging a new entertainment era as we speak. They are sending a clear message to consumers: pay a nominal monthly price and we guarantee you a stream of high quality intelligent narratives for adults. Sopranos started this trend largely, and probably still remains the greatest example of a show that found high critical success married to high financial success. But the fruits of the Sopranos are far greater than the money HBO made off it at the time, for HBO set itself up for a decade by declaring itself the highest quality producer on the block, and continues to roll out top shelf material in order to set itself up for the coming decades ahead. HBO execs are laughing all the way to the bank, I assure you, and it was not by underestimating the intelligence of their audience. We now see FX and AMC copying the same model and we've received a strew of fabulous shows over the past years that have found strong audiences (Shield, Justified, Louie, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, to only mention a few). Our society has everything at its disposal to produce another Shakespeare and share big ideas with the entire world. If you are angry, as I am, that the Michael Bay's of the world are able to shout out the greater talents, those who actually have something meaningful to say, then let it be known widely and let us hope for the dawning of a new sensibility.
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for sure. That's the model with the best future: you pay us monthly, we give you good programming and a proven track record. Despite AMC's apparent self-sabotage, it is looking good for long-form TV drama.<P> I wasn't really thinking of pay TV when I made my last post, so I must have used The Wire as an example cause although it was amazing, relatively few people bought in, and as I consider it to probably be the high point of American programming (if I was using Brit examples i'd cite Edge of Darkness and Tinker Tailor... - though they're miniseries) it was probably the best example of how people don't flock to greatness.<P> Film is all but dead to me, though. Only sparks of life I see is in the Spanish industry (eg The Last Circus) and the occasional film that survives the studio system.
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It sounds like a shitty idea, but Bay + McG for a summer spectacle movie sounds like the kind of thing studios would sign off on sight unseen. And let's all be honest, McG and Bay are going to continue to find work in Hollywood no matter what. Wouldn't we all they rather be occupied by shit like this so they don't actually fuck up stuff that could be cool? Wouldn't it have been great if when McG or Bay were circling Terminator/Transformers someone came up to them and said, hey, here's 20 million go make an expensive Ouija movie instead.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 1:23 p.m. CST
what silly weakness will the aliens have in BATTLESHIP?
by Spandau Belly
Tell me it's water again! In a submarine movie that would just be too funny.
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we produce great actors, but we've had our filmmaking heart ripped out, and our televisual drama is fucking atrocious. Formulaic and so transparent, you can actually see the target demographic spreadsheet coming at you through the screen. It is abysmal. ITV is a joke and the BBC? I don't know where to start. We have stellar actors like Ben Whishaw, who could one day 'be' the new Day-Lewis, having to journeyman his way through some slapdash Mad Men-lite waffle in 'The Hour' (it also claims Dominic West). It's embarrassing, considering the heights we once reached. I guess we just don't have the money, cause we sure do have the talent.
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Bay and McG. It can only end in a mountain of turd!
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Renewed!!!!
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him actually calling McG "McG"...does that guy seriously walk around as that being his real name?
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Aug. 24, 2011, 2:12 p.m. CST
Michael Bay And McG, those two fucking hacks, they should seek their new home in the local trash dumping grounds. Where they belong.
by AsimovLives
Those two fucks should be vagrant dums. Fuck this two assclowns up their fucking asses! Fucking fucks!
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Egotistical overconfidence and a failure to reckon with the tenacity of the human spirit and the power of love (set to a pounding rock score).
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Aug. 24, 2011, 2:13 p.m. CST
I guess Michaekl Bay must be pissed off he can't make the Battleship movie anymore. and worst, that Peter Berg is stealing his "style"
by AsimovLives
I want my style back, you fucking hack!" "Who you calling hack, hack?
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Aug. 24, 2011, 2:15 p.m. CST
by welcometothepartypal: "Now I'm gonna try find Michael Bay's dead talent." He never had one to begin with. And yes, The Rock is shit too.
by AsimovLives
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Is it pronounced Mick Gee or Emcee Gee?
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They're killing projects left and right, good and bad, movies and tv. The axe is swinging, nobody is safe. I think closer attention needs to be paid to what exactly is going on upstairs at Comcast and why, because I guarantee it's not good for the rest of us.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 2:27 p.m. CST
Ouija board's are trademarked?? That kind of sucks the fun out that old tradition
by Grant
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Aug. 24, 2011, 2:45 p.m. CST
The studio heads sat down with a Ouija board, and every time that asked about making a movie with Bay & McG, it just went right to "Goodbye."
by The Reluctant Austinite
The spirits just can't handle that much douchebag at the same time. If they try again, demons from Hell might just come right through the board and burn Hollywood to the ground.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 3:11 p.m. CST
Does anybody know the plot synopsis for BATTLESHIP yet?
by Ye Not Guilty
From the trailer, my guess is that the whole thing turns out to be alien naval exercises, kind of like PREDATOR on the ocean.
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This team up is as shitty as movies get. God help us all.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 3:22 p.m. CST
Maybe this is Bay and McG's way to finally come out of the closet and admit to soemthign too many people had already guessed about them.
by AsimovLives
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The end
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I have diarrhea.
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This reboot shit is getting out of hand!
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..."Hey you either watch this McG and Bay production, or I'll make you fuck your own mother!" I know I'll do the right thing in the end, but I gotta tell ya, I will consider it
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You disgust me... and make me laugh at the same time.
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The sequel to your movie could be ... DOS: La Pellicula ...
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created by two of the most talented directors in the showbiz,but instead they give 200m for a board game turned into a movie with a negative initial reception from the moviegoers? I know that the suits in HW make a lot of stupid things everyday,but this one,oh boy,this one takes the cake.
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Aug. 24, 2011, 8:40 p.m. CST
Witchboard was a decent flick....but Tawny Kitaen was a total whore
by Bobo_Vision
She went from being a groupie who sucked rock stars' dicks to starring in rock music videos to this film to the shitty America's Funniest People shitfest with Dave Coulier (who happened to have his dick sucked by Alanis Morissette in a movie theater and she wrote about it in her hit song "You Oughta Know"). But that dude with the axe, the Satan dude, was freaky.
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Who is kind of happy about these films getting cancelled? It's an impressive display of restraint on the studios' part. There's absolutely no reason why films like this need the mega-budgets that they get. Perhaps this is the beginning of something good that may cause filmmakers to concentrate on story and character rather than expensive special effects that still look fake and rarely age well.
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Aug. 25, 2011, 1:16 a.m. CST
Hungry Hungry Hippos...starring chick from Precious and Hudson chick from Dreamgirls.
by Tikidonkeypunch
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All that's missing is Paul W.S. Anderson.
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as a movie. It's a simple entry point to a supernatural flick. The rest are pretty retarded ideas.
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...its internet piracy that kills the movie studios..not the piss poor films they chuck 200 mil at! ;-)
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Aug. 25, 2011, 4:28 a.m. CST
Michael Bay and McG go living under a bridge. News at 11.
by AsimovLives
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and JJ Abrams.
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what the HELL could two massive spectacle directors do with a movie based on the ouija board? i mean, thats on the lines of finding out the lone ranger movie was gonna cost $250 million.
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a group of kids fooling around with a Ouija board get a warning from a spirit that the spirit world is about to invade this world. Then, for the next 105 minutes all hell (literally) breaks loose. Ghosts and demons and all sorts of creatures on the loose as people run and scream and there's massive destruction and things explode and the unlikely hero saves his best girl (and, by lucky coincidence, the world too) in the end.
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"Ouija Board, Ouija Board" by Morrissey as the intro track? I should keep my mouth shut on suggestions.
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Jenga: The Movie...in IMAX VERTICAL.
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Writing on the wall? Internet folks made this happen? What writing? Made what happen? The majority of all kiinds of films in pre-production are not greenlit - so what - that's showbiz for ya. Enjoy the lack of entertainment of any merit? What the frak are you babbling about? Oh, that's right, this is just one more reiteration of the same point you love to make over and over, shoehorned in at every opportunity, whether it makes sense or not. In any case, it is ridiculous the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on ephemeral, artistical bereft, empty film "product" in such a lousy economy. Is it the shitty CGI that makes them so expensive? I have studied the history of film. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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Movie Poster: A cityscape during a violent thunderstorm, with the center building being a blending of a Jenga tower and a skyscraper. Where's my movie deal?
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Mikey Bay and McG behind it. Is there no fucking end to the insanity that reeks of Hollywood?
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G-G-G-Gaaaaaaayyyyyyy!
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I am shocked that a family friendly PG-rated adventure film hasn't been made out of Where in the World is Carman Sandiego?. That would probably be way better than those crap Spy Kids films, in addition to the other shitty kids movies that Robert Rodriguez keeps spewing out. Or how about a Where's Waldo movie. It could feature Waldo accidentally stumbling into a time machine or time portal, or getting hold of some experimental time traveling device kinda like the thing they had in Sliders. So then Waldo starts time hopping into various eras of past and future, kinda Quantum Leap style. There would be a couple of sidekick characters that would go after Waldo, eventually catch up to him, and they'd all have to figure out a way to get back to the present day. Get the dude who played Harry Potter to star as Waldo. 3D IMAX. Boom. Instant money.
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Yes, indeed. And deservedly so. To a fucking stupid, suit-generated idea of a movie based on an old board game. Seriously, guys: what the FUCK? "Battleship," despite being directed by a good guy and very competent director Peter Berg, looks kind of... silly. And bleh. Sort of a nothing movie based on a douchey game that no one ever really liked that much. Get a fucking clue. Oh, that's right. They already made that movie. Too bad for you.
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Aug. 25, 2011, 5:54 p.m. CST
When will Holywood let people who actualy know how to make movies rule it, instead of clueless accountants and cynical hacks that rule it today?
by AsimovLives
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Aug. 25, 2011, 6:22 p.m. CST
Wasn't this movie already made way back with Tawny Kitaen or somebody?
by Jaka
I mean, I guess that doesn't really matter since nearly everything is a remake, reboot, prequel or sequel these days. But I could swear there was already a ouija movie.
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Aug. 25, 2011, 9:20 p.m. CST
So if Battleship sinks (yuck, yuck) at the box office, then will all these stupid toy and board game movies die?
by lv_426
Stuff like Monopoly, Ouija, Barbie, LEGO, that epic Lord of the Rings scale Candyland adaptation, or whatever other products they were going to try to turn into a multi-billion dollar franchise.
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Such a stupid twit.
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Aug. 27, 2011, 1:11 p.m. CST
Has Micahel Bay get fucked in thuis fucking ass already? That's the only news about him that AICN should bother to report.
by AsimovLives
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Aug. 27, 2011, 1:11 p.m. CST
Has Michael Bay get fucked in his fucking ass already? That's the only news about him that AICN should bother to report.
by AsimovLives
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Aug. 27, 2011, 1:12 p.m. CST
A post worth repeating. Fuck Michael Bay up his fucking ass!!
by AsimovLives
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Aug. 27, 2011, 1:14 p.m. CST
lv_426, if Peter Hack Berg's BATTLESHIP hopefully flops, i can't wait to read the mockery that the critics will unleash in their review's titles.
by AsimovLives
Never would had been such imaginative derivations of "battleship sunk" before.
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The Monopoly franchise of spin-offs is a license to print money! Lord of the Rings Monopoly Canadopoly Edna Kerbopoly Whatever... And it would be good to get Michael Bay and McG to direct all of these into perpetuity, because look on the bright side! It'll keep them away from ruining something worthwhile!
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Sept. 21, 2011, 12:22 a.m. CST
I will not rest until Stretch Armstrong hits the big screen!
by MrMysteryGuest