EXCLUSIVE: Here is a clue: it is Sony Pictures Television and Hasbro Entertainment, in the TV marketplace, with a scripted adaptation of the classic murder mystery board game.
The hourlong Clue, from writer/executive producer Dana Fox (Wicked) and director/executive producer Nicholas Stoller (You’re Cordially Invited), was just taken out and has started garnering interest, sources said.
To get prospective buyers in the spirit, the pitch material was sent to them in Clue‘s signature manila envelope and was accompanied by a copy of the board game, I hear.
As for timing, the hot scripted prospect comes out just as Netflix greenlighted an unscripted Clue series, also from Sony TV and Hasbro Entertainment.
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Inspired by the beloved game, Clue brings a modern twist to the colorful cast of iconic characters. When a group of strangers are invited to an eccentric billionaire’s murder mystery night to solve the famous questions — who, where and with what — they quickly discover that nothing is what it seems to be, and the stakes are even higher than life or death.
Fox is writing and will serve as showrunner, Stoller is set to direct. The two executive produce alongside Hasbro Entertainment’s Head of TV Gabriel Marano; Margy Love of Fox’s company Foxy, Inc.; and Conor Welch of Stoller’s banner Stoller Global Solutions.
Given Fox and Stoller’s comedy background, Clue would likely have comedic overtones in the vein of Knives Out, which is in the same whodunit genre. Both Fox and Stoller are under overall deals at Sony Pictures TV. Stoller has re-upped his most recent pact, extending his tenure at the studio to a decade. Fox was recently brought to Sony Pictures TV by President Katherine Pope who had worked with Fox on New Girl, on which Fox was a writer-producer, and Ben and Kate starring Dakota Johnson, which Fox created and executive produced.
The Clue scripted and unscripted series both stem from the deal Sony Pictures made last year for the TV and film rights to the Clue board game.
There are six characters in the classic edition of the murder mystery game – Mrs. Peacock, Professor Plum, Miss Scarlett, Mrs. White, Mr. Green and Colonel Mustard — six weapons — candlestick, wrench, lead pipe, rope, dagger and revolver — and nine rooms — hall, study, ballroom, billiards room, dining room, kitchen, lounge, conservatory and library. The player’s goal is to determine who committed the murder, with which weapon, and in which room.
Since Clue was launched in 1949, the board game has sold more than 150M copies. It was adapted into the 1985 movie starring Tim Curry as Wadsworth the butler, Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Michael McKean as Mr. Green, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard and Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet.
A five-part Clue limited series with a young ensemble cast ran on The Hub, Hasbro’s joint venture with Discovery Communications, in 2011. An animated Clue series with Story as executive producer was in development at Fox several years ago; it didn’t move forward.
This is the latest live-action scripted series based on a Hasbro game title that Hasbro Entertainment has set up joining Dungeons & Dragons, which is in the works at Netflix, and a film and TV universe based around Magic: The Gathering, which is being developed in partnership with Legendary Entertainment.
Fox is a co-writer executive producer on Wicked and Wicked: For Good. In TV, she executive produces Netflix’s upcoming Little House On the Prairie reboot. Her previous credits include movies The Lost City, Cruella and Couples Retreat and Apple TV+’s series Home Before Dark, which she co-created and showran. Fox is repped by UTA and Myman Greenspan Fox. Love is repped by Myman Greenspan Fox.
Stoller is co-creator, executive producer and co-showrunner on Sony TV’s Apple TV+ series Platonic and recently co-developed and executive produced the studio’s Disney+/Hulu series Goodbumps. He has the film Judgement Day starring Will Ferrell coming up at Amazon MGM Studios. Stoller, whose credits also include the Neighbors movies and series The Carmichael Show and Friends from College, is repped by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham.