Clue remake lands at 20th Century Fox

Back in 2011, Universal Pictures ceased development on turning the Hasbro board game Clue into a feature film. Now the ball is in a new court as Tracking Board reports that 20th Century Fox has signed on to produce a Clue remake that may well be quite different from the 1985 original.

The previous Universal iteration of the remake had Gore Verbinksi (The Lone Ranger, Rango, Pirates of the Caribbean) attached to produce and potentially direct through his Blind Wink productions, although it is unknown if he is still attached. Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama had previously been brought aboard to write a screenplay that reconceived the single-house parlor mystery as a globe-trotting thriller with deductive reasoning at its core, which seems to remain the plan for the Fox version. How this will change the dynamic of the central conceit is unclear, although it will certainly open it up to broader worldwide appeal.

Josh Feldman (My Little Pony: The Movie) will produce for Hasbro Studios, with Ryan Jones serving as executive producer.

Clue was originally released as a game in 1948, created in England by a retired legal clerk named Anthony Pratt. The 1985 film version was directed by Jonathan Lynn and starred Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren and Eileen Brennan, and was released with three possible endings. Although not a box office success, it developed a strong cult following on home video (where all three endings are presented back-to-back) and is now considered one of the most beloved comedies of the ’80s.