In the second outlandish writing hire story of the day, it looks like famed writer-director Andrew Niccol will be writing the MONOPOLY movie. I can’t decide if that’s more or less ridiculous than the idea that RIDLEY SCOTT was going to direct at one point, but I definitely have higher hopes for it now.
Niccol won’t be directing the film, at least at this time, but Lionsgate and Hasbro are continuing to exhibit a surprising amount of ambition in the project by hiring someone on his caliber for the script. This is a guy who made his bones with deeply provocative, high-minded entertainment like GATTACA and THE TRUMAN SHOW. His last movie, GOOD KILL, was about the moral implications of drone warfare, for chrissakes. THE HOST notwithstanding, I don’t see him writing a condescending kid’s movie based on a game with this level of ubiquity. I know it’s a family property, but I’m really hoping he aims high.
Could his script be a challenging examination of capitalism and the way it warps the idealism and passion of the young? Could he break down the flaws of a rigid consumer-based social structure that eventually cannibalizes itself leaving only those at the very bottom and very top? Or will he just have an anthropomorphic hammer hobbling very slowly between Atlantic City streets and buying up property with multi-colored bills?
Anyway, here’s the current premise:
”The story will center on 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. Along the way he will have to make his own luck, while hoping to avoid going directly to jail.”
Yeah, I don’t know what to make of it either, but with Niccol at the typewriter, I can’t say that I’m not utterly fascinated about what this will end up being.
