Adam Sandler's production company Happy Madison and Hasbro Toys announced they are in the final talks to bring an adaptation of the board game Candy Land to life under Sandler's production label. Deadline reports that Sandler is attached to star in the movie and will also write the screenplay along with Robert Smigel.
Candy Land is one of many board games set to hit the big screen in the near future, joining titles like the upcoming "Battleship" and Risk. While the idea of bringing a board game to life as a feature length movie seems strange, this is not the first time studios have culled titles from popular board games, and it surely won't be the last.
"Clue"
The most popular board game to be made into a movie is the 1985 comedy "Clue." In the original board game, a list of suspects fills up a house and it is up to the player to determine who committed the murder, what weapon was used, and what room the murder took place in based on clues given through cards. The game itself is based on the popular detective novel motif of the "Ten Little Indians" theme, where everyone is a suspect.
While there have been many movies based on this idea, from Alfred Hitchcock thrillers to Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the 1985 movie tied the theme in with the board game. Tim Curry stars as a butler who welcomes six strangers into a mansion and then reveals that his boss has been blackmailing them all. When the boss winds up dead and everyone in the house has a motive, the mystery begins.
The movie remains controversial for having three different endings, which played at different theaters across the nation. This set up the idea that anyone could have been the murderer, a distinct homage to the board game's theme.
"Witchboard"
One of the board games being set up for a movie adaptation is "Ouija," based on the game where people can supposedly talk to the dead to learn secrets. The board game has always been controversial, with many groups condemning it as a work of witchcraft. The 1987 horror movie "Witchboard" takes this idea of the Ouija Board being a real conduit to the afterlife to set up the scares.
The movie stars Tawny Kitaen, best known for crawling over David Coverdale's car in the Whitesnake music video "Here I Go Again." While she tried to kickstart a movie career, this was about as far as Kitaen got for fame. Her costar was Stephen Nichols, a soap opera star best known for his roles on "Days of Our Lives" and "General Hospital." In the movie, a woman tries to contact her dead husband through the Ouija Board and accidentally unleashes an evil spirit instead, which begins to kill everyone in contact with her.
"Jumanji"
The biggest movie based on a board game is not even based on a real board game. "Jumanji" stars Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, and a 13-year-old Kirsten Dunst in a movie about kids playing with a board game that brings all the exotic locations and creatures in the game to life, including a huntsman who begins to target the kids. "Jumanji" is based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. It is a case where an original movie featuring a board game is better than any adaptation of a real board game.
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