Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

[quote]Universal Pictures and Hasbro, Inc. [NYSE:HAS] announced today that they have formed a six-year strategic partnership to produce at least four motion pictures based on some of the world’s best-known and beloved brands, including “MONOPOLY,â€

From Vulture:

[quote="Claude Brodesser-Akner"]
Everyone was expecting some very big dominoes to fall in the months before NBC/Universal is officially handed over to Comcast. First came Jeff Zucker. Now, Vulture hears there may be more fallout from NBC/Universal's imminent acquisition by Comcast: Sources tell Vulture that several candidates, including former Disney studios chief Dick Cook, have been approached about replacing Universal Studios president and COO Ron Meyer.

Universal’s troubles have been well-documented, if not well-attended: Their nearly uninterrupted string of flops (Land of the Lost, Public Enemies, State of Play, The Wolfman, Green Zone, Repo Men, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) dates back to two summers ago. Meyer’s movie studio is largely bereft of big franchises, and if he is forced out one of the last straws may have been his enormous gamble to get more of them: A constrictive — some say punishing — six-year deal with toy giant Hasbro to turn at least four familiar games and toys like Candy Land, Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, and the Ouija Board into big-budget films. Right now, Peter Berg is shooting a $200 million Battleship in Baton Rouge, Lousiana after a warp-speed development process that resulted in an alien spacemen versus American seamen plot that has almost nothing in common with the classic board game (except for the cry of “You sunk my battleship!â€

Wow -- Hasbro sounds like a bunch of jerks.

I contest the writer's assertation that "audiences are wrinkling their noses at movies based on musty brand names (Marmaduke, Land of the Lost, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)". It's not the brands that are the problem, it's the mediocre movies that are being turned out.

Land of the Lost should never have been a Will Ferell comedy. The movie should never have been a comedy at all -- LotL could have been great a adventure film covering the Marshall's arrival and discovering the mysteries & dangers of the "land of the lost". Sequels would explore more of the LotL and its mysteries, introduce Enik in the second movie and incorporate part of the episode "Circle" into final movie. Knowing studios the final movie would likely have been the third, but there's no reason LotL couldn't have supported a couple three more.

Marmaduke had little to do with the comic strip, the biggest problem was probably the bland story that was an odd mash-up of generic high school story and generic animal movie. Not to mention some oddly placed musical numbers that leave viewers with a sense that the movie so very much wants to be like Beveryly Hills Chihuahua (which was a decent movie). To be honest, I never understood why someone licensed Marmaduke for a movie unless it was simply to slap an established property's name on a script.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra -- Where to begin? Well there doesn't seem to be much "GI Joe" in it. This should have been an easy movie to make, just adapt G.I. Joe: Real American Hero (the 80s cartoon and action figure incarnation of the property). Instead we get a Cobra Commander without a mask, Snake Eyes with lips on his mask, generic sci-fi action movie robot suits, etc.

I hate Rise of Cobra. I really don't know what was going with Sommers. I suppose the same idiocy that caused things like Van Helsing. This is a movie that needs a reboot soon, just look at the cartoon/old marvel comics/new IDW comics. Any of that would be great.

I was wondering about Hasbro's decisions on what games to adapt into movies so I checked out Wikipedia for a list of Milton-Bradley games.

Barrel of Monkeys -- I'd take a general cue from 50s era sci-fi movies, a team of scientists have developed a high speed bio-duplicator/cloning machine they call the B.A.R.R.E.L. (sort out the meaning later, perhaps modify it so it still sounds like barrel). Though the device has had several successful tests on smaller animals something goes terribly wrong on their first test with a monkey. The machine goes haywire and starts cloning monkeys uncontrollably -- the animals over run the lab and have begun wreaking havoc across the city.

But wait there's more, the officials are desperate for a solution, it's time to unleash the Hungry Hungry Hippos. Robot H.I.P.P.O.s (sort out the acronym later) created to capture the rampaging monkeys and reverse the duplication process on the fly.

There you go -- super science causes disaster, super science solves disaster, and then everybody cheers. Two Hasbro game properties adapted into a single movie, and perhaps leave a final scene showing the monkey that was trapped in the B.A.R.R.E.L. mysteriously changed as a duplicate randomly appears.

Barrel of Monkeys vs. Hungry Hungry Hippos???

I'd probably watch it...