Ridley Scott’s forthcoming adaptation of Monopoly will not take place in a fantasy world populated by mustachioed men in top hats and Get Out of Jail Free cards. Instead, according to MTV News, he’s planning a film rooted in a very topical concern: the suffering world economy.
According to executive producer Brian Goldner, the CEO of Hasbro, the film has to be in tune with contemporary events. “The whole world is about the financial markets,” he said. “You can’t turn on the news today without understanding the financial markets and what’s going on out there.”
Apparently the screenplay, being written by Pamela Pettler, will follow real people playing a real-life game of Monopoly, rather than the board game itself. All other specifics remain sketchy.
Scott cryptically adds that “I have to direct it. We’re in progress right now. We’re having it written. We have identified a pretty good story and it is fundamentally a movie, not a game, probably describing in a way the characters in the film, the passion of the game, and how the game came about.”
If the filmmakers stick to this promise and actually make a gimmick free film about contemporary events the project might not be as inexplicable as it once seemed. However, I’ll still reserve judgment until we’re offered something more than vague conceptual promises.
What do you think? Does this fill you with any optimism?
