Who knew that the 1985 board game adaptation Clue had so many fans? These people certainly weren’t around 24 years ago when the movie opened 6th at the box office, behind even the terrible Santa Claus: The Movie in its third week (I’ll admit, though, Santa Claus is one of my dear guilty pleasures). But suddenly, via the internet, loyalists are everywhere, up in arms over news that a new Clue adaptation is moving forward as if the original were as popular a film as the 1985 box office champ Back to the Future (which grossed as much as 14 times more than Clue).

Well, I am with the devoted to an extent. I have loved Clue since seeing it in the theater, and am embarrassed to admit it was probably the film that introduced me to the comic talents of Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn and Michael McKean (what can I say except that I was 8 and hadn’t yet seen Rocky Horror, Blazing Saddles or Spinal Tap?). But I’m not joining the protest, because I know we’ll always have the original movie. Plus, I recognize that it was anything but an original idea (never mind that it was based on a board game; hasn’t anyone see Murder By Death?). And besides, the new version, to be directed by Pirates of the Caribbean’s Gore Verbinski, hardly sounds anything like either the game or the first film. “Global thriller and transmedia event”? I don’t know what that is, but it isn’t the Clue I played.

After the jump, the internerds weigh in on their love for Clue or (gasp!) their excitement for Verbinski’s effort:

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If you haven’t already heard the news, I’ll sum it up for you: Ridley Scott is directing a feature film version of Monopoly. It’s probably the single strangest thing I’ve ever heard in the film business. I’m not sure if Scott himself seems to know what this movie will be about, because he keeps waffling on the subject: one moment he says it’ll be a broad family comedy, and the next minute it’s going to be dark like Blade Runner. He seems to have only been wooed by the fact that it’s one of the best-selling board games in the world.

This doesn’t mean that making a movie out of a board game is a bad idea, necessarily. It worked for Clue, after all. But unless Scott’s movie features Rich Uncle Pennybags jumping around with his monocle screwed firmly in place, I’m going to have to call shenanigans on it. Check out our list below of the 10 Board Games We’d Like To See As Movies, complete with fantasy casting.

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• Let the dream casting for the Jerry Garcia biopic officially continue. Favorites so far include Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Black, Jeff Bridges, Peter Jackson, Jorge Garcia, Paul Giamatti, John C. Reilly and Vincent D’Onofrio. Or how about Adam Herschman, who played the Grateful Dead frontman in Walk Hard?
• Also official is Monopoly, which Ridley Scott will direct with a “futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic ‘Blade Runner.’” So the Scottie dog is an animoid and that racecar can fly?
• Another documentary filmmaker heads for the easier road of romantic comedies, as American Teen director Nanette Burstein is set to helm the long-distance-relationship movie Going the Distance for New Line.
• I thought this news was a joke when I first read the headlines yesterday, but as long as Variety lists it as a top story, I guess it is to be believed and taken seriously. Didn’t Turkey already do enough damage to DC Comics and Warner Bros. with their awful 1979 Superman ripoff?
• Coming soon to Academy members’ computers: streaming screeners for Oscar contenders.

There are few board games that have endured the test of time to still get played today even during the video game craze. Games like Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, and Clue are still available at your neighborhood store, decades after they came out. In fact, they’ve all seen multiple releases over the years. There’s a billion different versions of Monopoly out there, and you can even Make-Your-Own-Opoly. Scrabble is still as popular as ever, especially given the Scrabulous flap over at Facebook, and Risk just came out with a revised edition that has new rules and pieces. That just leaves us with Clue.

Clue, or Cluedo as it is called in the United Kingdom, where it was invented by Anthony Pratt, was created out of a love for murder mysteries. It was first published in 1949 and still endures to this day in multiple versions. To name a few, there’s The Simpson’s Clue, a Clue DVD Game, and even Clue Express for people with limited time on their hands. Clue also came out with a new edition just a few weeks okay, completely updated with biographies for the characters, new weapons, and a second deck of cards. I’m not sure how I feel about Professor Plum being changed to Victor Plum, a dot com billionaire. That’s like replacing Gumdrop Pass in Candyland with “Bean Sprout Way” to encourage kids to eat healthy. Don’t mess with nostalgia, man.

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As if Toy Fair 2008 wasn’t reminding us enough about the intermingling of Hollywood and the toy and game industry, Hasbro and Universal had to go and announce a six-year partnership, which will result in at least four (mostly) board-game-inspired feature films. It wasn’t that surprising, considering the success of Transfomers and the anticipated success of G.I. Joe, both of which are based on Hasbro properties, and the still-shocking news from last summer that Ridley Scott is developing a Monopoly movie (not to mention that Hasbro had previously announced its intentions while switching from CAA to William Morris last year). Plus, this comes as a perfect follow-up to the recent Mattel/CAA team-up.

Personally, I’m wondering why the deal is so exclusive against brands that aren’t board games (Stretch Armstrong being the exception). I would love to see movies based on Mr. Potato Head, Lincoln Logs and Easy-Bake Oven. And as far as the games that aren’t getting any love, I’d be interested in movies based on Guess Who, Mouse Trap, Jenga and Risk (the Australians take over the world!!). Like me, the rest of the blogosphere has gone ga-ga for alternate ideas. Also, a lot of bloggers have been overly critical of the deal and have had some harsh responses to the list of properties that were optioned for the partnership. Check out some of my favorites after the jump.

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