A New ‘Clue’ Movie Will Kill Mr. Body In The Conservatory With The Potential Franchise
By Jacob Hall/Aug. 17, 2016 11:00 am EST
To be fair, the ‘85 Clue took that basic set-up and transformed it into a manic screwball comedy full of dynamite wordplay, ribald jokes, slapstick gags, and easily four or five of Tim Curry’s all-time best moments. As a game, Clue is such a barebones premise – you can expand on it and modify its tone in any way you see fit! It’s just that a globetrotting adventure movie doesn’t even sound remotely like Clue anymore, which means Hasbro is more interested in the game’s recognizable name than anything else. If you strip it of that parlor room mystery setting, why even call it Clue?
I won’t say board games should never serve as the inspiration for a movie – there are plenty of surprising contenders, and I’ll go to my grave defending Peter Berg’s ridiculous Battleship. The mere fact that I have an irregular series here on /Film where I talk about the cinematic traits of tabletop gaming means that I see the potential for many board games to make the jump to film. However, the games that always seem like they’re on the cusp of getting made into movies, like Monopoly, Risk, and Candyland, are also the games that feel like they offer the least potential. I’m all for Hollywood looking to tabletop for inspiration, but the games that would make for the best movies aren’t the ones with inherent brand recognition.
Anyway, this new Clue movie is still far from a sure thing, and it could easily vanish into the ether. In the meantime, here’s the late, great Madeline Kahn in a scene from Clue that I quote at least once a week.
