'Monopoly' Movie Plot -- and Why Ridley Scott Is Directing -- Revealed

Are you game for this? The movie 'Monopoly,' based on the famous Parkers Brothers board game, really is a "Go."

The project, set to be directed by Ridley Scott, now has a concept. According to a Los Angeles Times interview with producer Frank Beddor ('There's Something About Mary'), the plot will revolve around "a comedic, lovable loser who lives in Manhattan and works at a real estate company and he's not very good at his job but he's great at playing Monopoly."

In an effort to break the world record for playing Monopoly, he persuades his friends to join him in a marathon round of game playing, but they get into a fight and he falls asleep. When he awakens he's "in this very vibrant place, Monopoly City, and he's just come out of a Chance Shop. As it goes on, he takes on the evil Parker Brothers in the game of Monopoly. He has to defeat them. It tries to incorporate all the iconic imageries -- a sports car pulls up, there's someone on a horse, someone pushing a wheelbarrow -- and rich Uncle Pennybags, you're going to see him as the maître d' at the restaurant and he's the buggy driver and the local eccentric and the doorman at the opera. There's all these sight gags."

Why would Scott, who is best known for directing such classics as 'Alien,' 'Blade Runner' and 'Thelma & Louise,' and the epic 'Gladiator,' take on a project that sounds like so many other films about a character who falls asleep and has an adventure in his dreams?

Scott supposedly was sold on the film during a pitch meeting with Beddor and Universal. Beddor told the Times. "After I pitched it to him, he put out his hand and said, 'What do I have to be part of this movie?' So I said, 'Do you mean you want to direct it?' And he said, 'Yeah, and I will tell you why -- it's all the things you just said and the fact that I had these epic Monopoly battles with my family when I was young.'"

Internet buzz is pretty much against the concept, ridiculing the idea of making a board game into a movie. But this is Hollywood and anything can happen, especially in the hands of a visual genius like Scott. After all, who would have thought that a theme park ride like 'Pirates of the Caribbean' would become a multi-billion-dollar film franchise.

What do you think about a movie based on Monopoly?

I like it: I'll play alongThe idea stinks: roll the dice againVote