Board game movies seem to be having a moment yet again; at least, in the world of project development. With Amazon-MGM Studios’ adaptation of The Game of Life developing as we speak, Hasbro’s canon of legendary table top trailblazers has a new lease on cinematic glory. Even though we’re still pretty dark on that project’s approach, the news is apparently enough for Lionsgate to mount not one, but two attempts to finally exercise its Monopoly option into a full-fledged motion picture.
Lionsgate And Lucky Chap Are Doubling Down On The Mr. Pennybags Legacy
Hollywood’s local game stores are about to see an uptick in sales! Deadline reports that the 1935 amusement/training ground for aggressive business negotiations is still very much in play. This time around the playing field is seeing double, as Lionsgate and LuckyChap Production’s partnership is working with two separate groups of writers to get Monopoly past Go, and into cinemas.
One team boasts A Minecraft Movie scribes Neil Widener and Gavin James, while Dumb Money’s Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum are set to work on the competing pitch. No further information is available, except that one of these teams’ treatments will move forward to the scripting phase. Much like Disney’s recent attempts with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Lionsgate has a bake off going that may define the history of a potential blockbuster.
This process means that, sadly, that 2025 Monopoly script from John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein is not going forward. Which is a shame, as their Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is still a textbook case of turning an open ended table top engine into a satisfying narrative. It’s a pitch that will be in good company with several other attempts to take this property to the bank.
A Brief HIstory Of Hollywood’s Multiple Monopoly Pitches
As a Monopoly fan who’s morbidly curious about how a Hollywood movie would even begin to touch this property, the history of this project is a point of fascination. To be totally honest, I still want to see Ridley Scott’s mad suggestion to put the audience into a world where we follow a player in the realm of railroad control and property acquisition.
However, that ship sailed a long time ago; and there’s plenty of other players with Monopoly stories of their own. The variety of this field even explains the duality of this latest lap around Boardwalk. The history of almost two decades of pitching leads to this list of attempts that come from all corners of Hollywood’s talent pool:
- The most recent John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’ script (2025)
- A Kevin Hart/Tim Story pitch (2019)
- Gattaca/The Truman Show writer Andrew Niccol’s script (July 2015)
- Producer Randall Emmett’s Goonies style pitch (January 2015)
- Director Ridley Scott’s failed partnership with a Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s script (2007)
In a way, the timeline of events you’ve just browsed is absolutely fitting for the project in question. Just as there are tons of variants to Monopoly that appeal to all sorts of interests and IP, a multiverse of theatrical adaptations exists with numerous angles to choose from. That may even be the key to the struggle at hand, as narrowing things down to something everyone is on board with may feel like trying to win second place in a beauty pagent.
Let’s hope that one of the two currently in the works actually gets a fighting chance to collect its dividends at a theater near us. In the meantime, keep your browser tuned to THS Movie News for all of the latest and greatest in pop culture happenings!
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