The formerly imaginative world of Hollywood has announced a three picture deal with Hasbro to develop feature-length films about board games Monopoly and Hungry, Hungry Hippos and toy Action Man.

Production on Monopoly is set to begin in 2013 with director Ridley Scott (Prometheus, Gladiator) rumored to be a producer on the project.  The current belief is that Monopoly could be a comedy/parody about the housing market.  I’d personally like to see the film take the Megamind route and create a sympathetic villain.  Why does the greedy character always have to be bad?  Couldn’t there be a twist a la Megamind, where the villain becomes the hero?  Couldn’t Rich Uncle Pennybags have an Ebenezer Scrooge-like arc?

In addition to Emmett/Furla (one of the largest independent film production and finance companies) taking viewers from “GO” to “Boardwalk,” plans call for animated versions of Hungry, Hungry Hippos and Action Man – all of which have the primary goal of being family-friendly while containing mass appeal (which could happen if those involved stay away from live-action – i.e. Smurfs).  These three films join other board game/action figure pictures in the works including Candyland (Sony) and Stretch Armstrong (Relativity Media).

In the wake of the Battleship bomb, are board game adaptations a good idea?