Really?
If the Dungeons and Dragons movie has taught us anything, it's that Hollywood doesn't really get it. Yeah they made Clue and Jumanji, which got decent reviews, but this new craze of Board Games gone Hollywood has me a bit worried. 
So far in the pipe line we have Battle Ship with Rihanna playing a naval officer, Real Steel starring Hugh Jackman that looks to be the real-life version of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, a version of Monopoly from Ridley Scott, and a Ouija board movie with who knows what kind of horrifying plot. So, when I heard the latest vision for the Candyland plot, I had to roll my eyes. Seriously, a Candyland movie with a Lord of the Rings feel. I think that's kinda stretching it. Glenn Berger explains his vision like this... "although [Candy Land] has characters from that world and takes the idea of people finding themselves in a world that happens to be made entirely of candy where there are huge battles going on," it is not remotely like the game. Not sure what to make of that.
If Hollywood is really serious about making blockbusters out of board games, the least they could do is explore some more exciting options. I have heard mention of a Magic: The Gathering movie, which may have potential, but I fear that it will suffer the same fate as Dungeons and Dragons. The truth of the matter is that most board games are rather abstract and don't really have a story. If you want to use a board game, why not try something more interesting like Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Thunderstone or any of the Fantasy Flight games set in the Realms of Terrinoth? There are bound to be some good stories there. Unfortunately, those games do not have the same familiarity as the Hasbro titles floating around behind the scenes. So, Hasbro and Hollywood will spend the money and films will get made, but I'm not holding my breath that any of them will really strike gold.
I don't know about you, but for now, I'll stick to playing games!
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