SPIN CYCLE : Scrabble as ideal film fodder
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008
It seems Hollywood is seriously “board” these days.
According to Variety, Universal Pictures has signed a deal with Hasbro to produce at least four movies based on property that could include games like Monopoly, Candy Land, Ouija and Battleship.
Oh yeah, and Clue. Which already was made into a movie back in 1985.
How cheesy.
Or at least how Parcheesi.
Still, this entertainment development got us thinking about how other games we’ve played over the years could be transformed into box office blockbusters.
Mousetrap So as to keep all the cheese for themselves, animatronic rodents spend days following complex directions to build an intricate trap in an attempt to capture a rival family. Only then do they realize the setup — complete with a crank, and gears, and a shoe, and a bucket, and a marble, and a staircase, and a plastic diver figurine and a bathtub, etc. — doesn’t work. And they want their darn time and money back already.
Connect Four Two gangs — one wearing red and one wearing black — are locked in a heated battle to recruit the most members and control the streets. The thugs settle their turf war in the ultimate cutthroat game of vertical checkers.
Scrabble Characters “floccinaucinihilipilificate” commonly used words and instead converse in “newspeak,” “ bushwa, ” “flubdub,” “ jargony, ” “nonwords,” “ tosh” and “tommyrot.” Operation In this animated adventure, characters Adam Apple and Charley Horse must help their human — a down-onhis-luck doctor — mend his Broken Heart, rediscover his Funny Bone and conquer the Butterflies in the Stomach so he can fall in love again with a specialist.
Trouble The people of Pop-o-matic realize they’ve been existing in a bubble and decide to live free or “dice” and join the rat race happening outside.
Pictionary Instead of talking in this near-silent movie, characters communicate by sketching poorly, shaking heads furiously and rolling their eyes a lot.
The Game of Life The film follows friends as they take different career and life paths and encounter different obstacles as experienced by players in the game popular in the 1970 s and 1980 s. But ultimately they all end up disillusioned because they’re led to believe $ 16, 000 is a great salary, each of their friends will give them $ 2, 000 worth of wedding presents and that fabulous houses only cost $ 40, 000. Don’t be “Sorry !” E-mail jchristman@arkansasonline. com Spin Cycle is a weekly smirk at pop culture.
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