Following the resounding success of Margot Robbie’s blockbuster hit “Barbie,” the highest-grossing film of 2023, her production company LuckyChap is now venturing into new ventures with Lionsgate. Announced during Lionsgate’s panel today at CinemaCon 2024 in Vegas, Robbie’s company will produce an adaptation of the “Monopoly” board game, further solidifying the actor’s rising status as a mega-producer,
The classic Parker Brothers board game doesn’t have much of a narrative outside of the aim to collect all the money from other players, and the game’s primary mascot is Mr. Monopoly, who could easily end up as a protagonist or villain. Then again, Robbie and LuckyChap eventually figured out how to mine a story out of “Barbie” with Greta Gerwig after multiple failed attempts, and they’re already attempting to turn the video game “The Sims” into a movie as well, with filmmaker Kate Herron (“Loki”) attached to direct.
A “Monopoly” movie has been kicking around Hollywood for ages; in one incarnation, Ridley Scott (“Gladiator 2”) was trying to put a version of it together at 20th Century Fox, but ultimately, it went nowhere. Robbie/LuckyChap may have finally cracked a good enough story to move forward.
That wasn’t the only big news from the panel. Lionsgate also announced they are partnering with Blumhouse Pictures on a new “The Blair Witch Project” remake.” There have been three movies in the franchise so far, including the original from 1999, which was a smash sensation and single-handedly launched the found footage sub-genre of horror. That hit film led to a traditional/forgotten sequel, “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2,” and director Adam Wingard (“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire”) attempted his own take on the horror franchise that was released in theaters back in 2016.
Blumhouse obviously has the Midas touch with horror and has successfully revived the “Halloween” franchise, “The Invisible Man,” and has an upcoming “Wolf Man” movie in the works, too, now scheduled for 2025.
The horror pic “Blair Witch” focuses on a group of college students seeking out the “legend of the Blair Witch” as they hike/camp deeper and deeper into mysterious and eerie woods. Eventually, this leads to mysterious and spooky circumstances that turn very horrific. “Blair Witch” went on to gross $249 million at the global box office in 1999, a staggering figure at the time. The movie is generally considered one of the most successful movies ever due to its incredibly low budget of $35,000. As for who will write and direct, that’s unknown, but again, Blumhouse has an excellent track record for making cost-effective horrors that make bank at the box office.