Universal Says Goodbye To ‘Ouija’
Back in May, a rumor broke on Twitter that Universal was halting pre-viz work and shutting down production onOuija, the big budget, board game adventure film that was to be directed byMcGand written byEdward KitsisandAdam Horowitz. Inquires to Universal at the time denied this rumor and we didn’t run the story. Turns out that was most likely the final few gasps of breath before the true ending.
Now Vulture is reporting Universal has officially dropped the Hasbro board-game adaptation. McG and producer Michael Bay are free to shop the project around but, according to reports, Paramount has already passed. There’s more after the break.
Vulture’s storyalludes to the fact that the significant budget that was likely the reason for Universal’s dismissal of the film but, if another studio shows interest, they could still come on to co-finance the project. If it does get officially killed though, Universal will have to pay $5 million to Hasbro as part of their deal in 2008.Ouijamarks the fourth film that Universal had been developing with Hasbro that will, most likely, not see the light of day:Monopoly, Magic the Gatheringandmost recentlyClueare the others. They already have a lot of money invested in next Summer’sBattleshipand Taylor Lautner attached to playStretch Armstrongsometime soon as well.
WhenCluewas canned, I wrote this, and one must assume its still how Hasbro feels:
Hasbro is more than content developing some of these projects on their own and then going out to studios with scripts and talent attached as opposed to just letting Universal do all the legwork themselves. They realize Universal can’t solely focus on Hasbro movies all the time.
Still, it doesn’t look likeOuijadirected by McG is going to happen. At least not at Universal. What do you think? And does this reflect poorly onBattleshipat all?
