Some studios like to go on shopping sprees, picking up projects and throwing them into the development rucksack to see what happens. But recently, it would seem that Universal has been doing quite the opposite, unzipping the rucksack, holding it upside down and shaking it to throw out a lot of potential movies. We’ve seen it happen with At The Mountains Of Madness, The Dark Tower and, most recently, Clue, and now the company has ditched another game-based film, shuffling Ouija off the board.
Originally nabbed back in 2008 under Universal’s huge deal with Hasbro/Milton Bradley, the idea of a movie based on the spooky game has sort of floated along in development limbo like a lost spirit looking for a connection. Tron Legacy writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz signed on to write the initial draft of the script, working with Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes company, pitching it as a Jumanji-meets-National Treasure-style adventure. That got Taken director Pierre Morel interested, but he didn’t stay long.
After him came a frenzied period with a variety of directors including John Moore, Scott Stewart, Sylvain White and Breck Eisner looking to score the gig with their take. But in the end, Terminator Salvation’s McG won out, with Simon Kinberg the last person to have his hands on the script.
Now, though, Vulture reports that Universal is choosing to pay a $5 million penalty rather than force this one into production. Michael Bay and McG are already shopping it around other studios and hope to keep the idea alive…