Beaks here...

Look, I'm all for a newfangled naval warfare epic, but what are the chances the next DAS BOOT can be made out of a board game everyone cheated at when they were twelve years old?

I'm not at all surprised to learn (per The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit) that Universal is developing a big-screen adaptation of BATTLESHIP. The studio's got a six-year deal with Hasbro, and they're already exploring the cinematic/profit potential of MONOPOLY (with Ridley Scott), OUIJA BOARD (with Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes) and CANDY LAND (with Jacques Rivette). But why would an interesting filmmaker like Peter Berg - who's coming off the troubled, but very successful HANCOCK - want to waste his time with what will, at best, be a sanitized war film based on one of the most perfunctory strategy games of all time?

The screenplay for BATTLESHIP is from Jon and Erich Hoeber, who also wrote the long-shelved Kate Beckinsale flick WHITEOUT. There's no word yet on how they're going to translate the deliberately-played game to the big screen. Right now, their only competition is the below - and it is formidable.