It's been more than two years since we first heard about Universal's brainpan shattering idea to turn the nonsensical board game, Candyland, into a big screen event pic. Not that it was that much of a surprise, considering we've already got Battleship
and Monopoly
flicks on the way. But Candyland seemed especially egregious, maybe because the game has zero story, no structure...nothin'. Kevin Lima(Enchanted
) has been attached to direct since the beginning, and initially Etan Cohen and Chris Morgan were brought in to script. Since then, Kung Fu Panda
screenwriters Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger were brought in, and apparently they've got some pretty lofty ideas of where this thing is going to go.Speaking with EW, Aibel said this about their plans for the script....
"We envision it as Lord of The Rings, but set in a world of candy… We don’t see it as a movie based on a board game, although it has characters from that world and takes the idea of people finding themselves in a world that happens to be made entirely of candy where there are huge battles going on… We are going for real comedy, real action, and real emotions at stake."
Ugh, sounds more like Night at the Museum
with candy than Lord of the Rings
. I get what Aibel is trying to say. Movies like Clue
and the upcoming Battleship don't rely on the board game roots at all. They stand alone just fine. But Candyland is a different beast. It's a game clearly aimed at children and trying to make something too big is going to possibly alienate really the only audience you have. Maybe we'll luck out and the whole idea will crap out before it goes too much further. 
