Hasbro rolls the dice on board game movies

The 1985 movie "Clue" was a box-office flop, and critics said the characters were as flat as the Parker Brothers board game that inspired it.

Nevertheless, Hasbro Inc., which has since acquired Parker Brothers, is ready to take its turn at board game-based movies, in a deal that departs from typical collaborations between toy companies and Hollywood.

Hasbro is interviewing potential directors, assembling a creative team and building an office in Los Angeles on the moviemaking lot of Universal Studios, which this year agreed to be a partner in the venture. Hasbro and Universal will be rolling the dice on a number of old-time classics, including Monopoly, Candy Land and Ouija. If the projects go well, the companies may even attempt a remake of "Clue."

In traditional arrangements, toy companies pay a royalty to the film studio for the rights to make toys in the likeness of characters - as Hasbro recently did in a deal with "Iron Man," the Marvel Entertainment Inc. superhero firm distributed by Paramount Pictures. In its board-game movie arrangement, however, Hasbro is licensing the rights to the name, characters and themes of its board games to Universal, which pays for the production and gets the box-office receipts. Hasbro gets the toy tie-ins and rebates a small part of the sales to Universal. Little upfront money changes hands.

The risk to Hasbro is lowered - and it also gets rights to creative input on the movies to insure that they stay true to the "mythology of the brand," says Brian Goldner, Hasbro's chief executive, who received a credit in last year's "Transformers" - on which Hasbro has the toy rights - for the hours he spent on the set consulting on the story line and theme.

The collaboration is part of an effort by Goldner, who took the reins of the company in May, to "reinvent" its decades-old stable of toys and games, which it calls its "core brands." Mr. Goldner is also turning to the Internet and teaming with video game partners, aiming to breathe new life into its product stable.

The pact between Hasbro and Universal calls for the making of at least four movies over six years, the first of which is scheduled for release in 2010. For help in the venture, Hasbro in May created a position - managing director of motion pictures - and hired Hollywood veteran Bennett Schneir who has helped produce "Forrest Gump," "Beowulf" and "Polar Express" to fill it.

Goldner says Hasbro has "been in talks with" Ridley Scott, who directed "Gladiator," "Blade Runner," and "Thelma and Louise," among others. Scott didn't respond to a request for comment through a company spokesman.

"That shows serious ambition because Mr. Scott only does $100 million movies," says Howard Suber, author and film studies professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In a toy industry squeezed by bigger players in video games and other forms of electronic entertainment, movie tie-ins have been among Hasbro's better performers. Last year toys and play sets linked to such action flicks as "Transformers," "Star Wars" and "Spiderman" rang up nearly $1 billion in sales - accounting for more than a quarter of the company's $3.8 billion in revenue. This year the toy maker is banking on films such as "Iron Man," "Indiana Jones" and a "Star Wars" animation to be released next month.

Some industry watchers say board games are boring and won't make the transition to the screen as easily as comic books and superheroes. "There are three basic elements to any story," says David Klein, senior director of the New York Film Academy. "There needs to be a heroic character; there needs to be an objector and there needs to be conflict. Those three things don't necessarily exist in most board games."

Richard Walter, a screenwriting professor at UCLA, says he finds "it depressing to think that someone someday is going to actually utter the words, 'Let's go see the movie Monopoly.'"

Hasbro and Universal executives say Monopoly is an American parable. Developed by an appliance salesman who lost his job during the Great Depression, it is the best-selling game in the world. Goldner calls it "a rags-to-riches story," with elements of pathos, competition and greed that writers can exploit for drama.