Movies based on classic board games — Battleship, Monopoly,
Hungry Hungry Hippos — are all the improbable rage in
Hollywood, so it was only a matter of time before they started raiding
the RPGs and miniature games for ideas. According to Deadline
Hollywood Daily, DreamWorks has optioned the popular strategy game Monsterpocalypse,
and they are trying to lure Tim
Burton in to be a director, producer, or “creative catalyst.”
There’s no word on whether
or not Burton is interested. I can’t really see why he would be, except
for his love of miniature and stop motion work. Frankly, after all that
hype about Burton remaking The Addams Family, I’m skeptical of anything until
he actually puts Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter into black and
white striped outfits and films them doing something Gothy.
The real story here, I guess, is Monsterpocaylpse.
It’s a weirdly meta pick for a studio, since the game’s appeal is
playing a tabletop version of Godzilla / Cloverfield /
King Kong / Independence Day. Players control armies
of rampaging monsters in order to destroy a city. As with most tabletop
battle games, the player with the best strategy wins. I haven’t gotten a chance to play it, but it was all the
rage at my gaming hangout. They couldn’t keep units in stock, and no
wonder, as the various miniatures were pretty fantastic.
I’m
not sure how it can be turned into a film, since the appeal of it is
being the rampaging monster. It doesn’t have a story. (Not that
existing material helped the poor Dungeons and Dragons movie.)
The best case scenario would find it becoming a Twilight Zone /
Treehouse of Horror VII tale, where two kids realize their
game is destroying real cities, and they are feared as cruel,
monster-commanding deities. Otherwise, it would just be a rampaging
monster movie. We’ll see where it ends up, and whether Burton really
becomes involved.