Sony Picks Up TV and Movie Rights to Popular Board Game CLUE

Sony Nabs Deal to Secure Rights to Clue

Sony has obtained the rights to the popular Hasbro board game Clue, which was formerly filmed as a movie back in 1985.

In 1985, Paramount Pictures released a filmed comical version of the board game, Clue. A few versions of them, in fact. It was sort of confusing when the film made it to video and three versions were available, each with a different ending. If memory serves, there was only one ending that played in theaters at a time despite the fact two other ones were filmed. That didn’t bode well for a big theatrical box-office hit and the movie (though entertaining) only ended up earning $14 million at the domestic box-office. Now, almost 40 years, later, the television and film rights to Hasbro’s game, Clue, have been secured by Sony Television and Tri-Star Pictures which means a new movie could almost certainly be on the horizon.

That 1985 version of the board game certainly had a well assembled cast with stars like Madeline Kahn, Tim Curry, Martin Mull, Christopher Lloyd and Colleen Camp, to name a few. Mull was particularly fun as Col. Mustard and Curry certainly made an excellent butler. Now, it’s time for a new ensemble cast to assume the roles that were so much fun for people who have cherished the board game for the past several decades. This situation could result in a movie first and then a TV series which would allow two different sets of actors to portray the memorable characters.

In 2011, Universal Pictures had planned on making another Clue movie. Then, Fox was going to make a film version of the board game which was going to star Ryan Reynolds and be directed by Jason Bateman. It never materialized, for whatever reason. Yet another attempt was going to move forward in 2020 but, that too, got halted mid-way.

There are many ways that the next Clue movie could take flight. Hopefully, the film will choose one ending or, at the very least, allow multiple endings to be seen on one paid ticket, if the writers decide to go that route. it’s hard to decipher why the 1985 film wasn’t successful from a financial standpoint but it has garnered many fans over the years which make the Clue property still a potentially profitable one for Sony/Tri-Star.

The choice to obtain the rights to Clue by Sony Television and Tri-Star Pictures (for the film) comes right on the heels of Lionsgate’s acquisition of Hasbro’s Monopoly. It seems like films based on board games are going to be big business at the box-office in the next couple of years. Hopefully, the producers of the Clue picture will cast a nice slate of actors in the next film version of the game which will likely have audiences guessing whodunnit in the true style of the original board game.

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