Sci-Fi Film and Television Developments

Ouija

11/29/11 - Ouija, the supernatural project, is still very much alive and kicking, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Hasbro and Platinum Dunes have hired Marti Noxon to work on the script.  Universal had parted with Hasbro in late August due to budgetary concerns.  Ouija is still envisioned as a family adventure in the tone of The Mummy centering on a family who has to deal with otherwordly chaos that is unleashed.

4/20/11 - Variety reported that Evan Spiliotopoulos is set to rewrite the supernatural action-adventure film Ouija for Universal Pictures and Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes banner.  McG is set to direct the film, which is based on the Hasbro board game that has players conjure spirits from beyond the grave. Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir of Hasbro are producing with Bay and his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form.  Universal's EVP of Production Scott Bernstein and creative exec Kiska Higgs will oversee the project for the studio.  Universal still plans to release Ouija on Nov. 9, 2012.

1/4/11 - McG will direct Ouija for Universal.  The studio's planned film adaptation of the classic Hasbro board game about conjuring up spirits of the dead has had a tough go at finding a director.  McG presented Universal execs his vision for the project, which has a script by Tron: Legacy writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and is being produced by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes.  Plot details are kept under wraps although it's described as a four-quadrant supernatural adventure centering around a family.

2/2/09 – SCI FI Wire reported that producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form said they're close to hiring a "very high-level writer" to begin drafting a script for a Ouija-themed movie, tied to the Parker Brothers' "spirit board" game.  "I don't think we've closed the deal, so I can't say, but we've got a very high-level writer to write that, and we start writing it, I think, within the month," Fuller said.  Fuller added that the movie will be "a huge movie. That's a big, big, big thing. ... It's more of a, like, Pirates of the Caribbean adventure story, with a Ouija board at the center of it."

05/30/08 - Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes has been brought on board to turn Hasbro's Ouija "spirit board" game into a movie.  Andrew Form and Brad Fuller will produce Ouija along with Hasbro.  Although the specific story for the film is being kept under wraps, the film will be a supernatural adventure with the Ouija board playing an integral part of the story.  While divination or spiritual boards have been around for centuries, they began being sold as novelty items in the late 1800s, with the first Ouija board, one with an alphabet on it, being patented in 1890. Players' fingers are placed on a small planchette that mysteriously moves to letters and numbers in order to spell out messages from beyond the earthly realm.

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