Only One Thing Can Save the Kevin Hart ‘Monopoly’ Movie
January 18, 2019The last time we checked, no one was clamoring for a live-action Monopoly movie. Just like no one really begs to play Monopoly, the board game. Yet as Deadline reports, we are indeed getting such a film, starring none other than Kevin Hart.
Hasbro, the toy company that owns Monopoly, has been angling to make movies out of its games for a while. This is how we wound up with the Transformers franchise, as well as the 2012 Battleship movie starring Rihanna. Back in 2008, The AV Club reported that Universal Pictures was in talks with Hasbro to adapt a bunch of its games, including Candy Land and Ouija. Then in 2015, Deadline reported that Lionsgate had signed on to push the Monopoly movie down the field. The project stalled for a while—in the meantime, plans for a Monopoly musical on Broadway were inked—but now the film is really happening, and producers have begun to assemble a creative team.
With Hart and his Oscar drama overshadowing the announcement, the overlooked aspect of the Monopoly movie news is director Tim Story, who makes the prospect of board game-based filmmaking far more interesting. He's behind some of the funniest movies of the early 2000s, like Taxi from 2004, which featured Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah chasing down a gang of supermodel bank robbers.
Story also directed the cult classic Barbershop from 2002, starring Cedric the Entertainer and a host of other black comedians at the height of their craft. Story killed it with action movies like Fantastic Four (2005), and he’s currently directing a remake of John Singleton’s 2000 hit Shaft. Story also directed Ride Along and Ride Along 2, starring Hart and Ice Cube.
It's hard to know what to expect from the film interpretation of Monopoly. We're sure it'll involve a lot of jokes about "passing go," whatever that could mean. But one thing's for sure: with Story at the helm, the Monopoly movie probably won't be dull.
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