After taking on the plastic, fantastic world of "Barbie," producer Margot Robbie is heading to the land of "Monopoly."
    • herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
      28·
      7 months ago

      That’s what I’m hoping, just very much not optimistically. Corpos will usually allow things like feminism (the Barbie movie, for example), but I can’t see them being cool with telling the tale of wealth inequality. Maybe a super watered-down version where one poor person gets a better outcome, but nothing systematic is changed. They’re typically ok with stuff like that. (Like the whole Undercover Boss model, where the boss pays off someone’s tuition or whatever but wages remain the same.)

      • azertyfun@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        4·
        7 months ago

        Capitalism is a system that sustains itself even if literally everyone knows how evil it is. This is part of the fundamental conceit.

        Capitalists literally have nothing to gain by “hiding” some truths, as if the masses were living with a veil in front of their eyes that one can just pull back to radicalize them. We were all there in 2008. We all saw behind the curtain. Literally nothing fundamentally changed and no movie is going to come close to having that cultural impact.

        Also capitalists aren’t any less prone to the tragedy of the commons than any other group of people. One corporation would end capitalism next quarter if they believed it would make them richer this quarter.

        The truth is much simpler than any conspiracy theory: Hollywood is largely systematically incapable of competent social commentary. There are occasional brilliant exceptions, but rampant nepotism, incompetent corporate meddling, and a strong history/culture of “character stories” means that Hollywood doesn’t know how to make a story about anything other than a character story.

        Anyway if the topic interests you here’s a one hour essay on how Apple failed to adapt Foundation, with a truly masterful ending on an anticapitalist message.

  • herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
    34·
    7 months ago

    I mean, it seems like a weird IP for a movie, but I suppose if anyone can pull it off its them.

      • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
        25·
        7 months ago

        Battleship is one of the worst game movies. Whereas Clue is probably the best game movie ever. We really won’t know until we see it.

        • Zagorath@aussie.zone
          7·
          7 months ago

          So, I haven’t seen the movie about Cluedo, but assuming by “game movie” we’re talking all games or all non-computer games (as opposed to strictly board games or board & card games), Dungeons & Dragons 2023 was fucking fantastic.

          • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
            8·
            7 months ago

            If you liked Honor Among Thieves (like I did), you should also really enjoy Clue. It also leans into comedy and irreverence. Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, it’s old but it holds up very well.

        • edric@lemm.ee
          3·
          7 months ago

          I’m in the minority, but I found it enjoyable. Obviously it’s not a great movie, but if you just want to turn your brain off for a bit and watch some action and explosions, it’s a pretty fun movie to watch.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
        8·
        7 months ago

        That’s the thing. There’s no shortage of ideas. Hollywood is not out of ideas. They’re out of courage. They’re terrified of taking a risk on anything that’s not attached to some existing brand.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
        6·
        7 months ago

        To be fair they were doing movies like clue, long before battleship. Additionally, clue is a great example of a board game movie done right

        • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2·
          7 months ago

          Clue wasn’t done right during its theatrical run though.

          As originally designed, they tried to pull off a theater gimmick where every time you went to see the movie, you got a different ending. Only one of the three endings was played. It was supposed to be reminiscent of the board game in which the same mystery can have multiple solutions. So to get all the content, you had to pay at least three ticket prices. This made the finished film about an hour long, and felt kind of scammy.

          The television release of the film strung all three endings together with that “that’s what could have happened, but here’s what really happened” text screen. This increased the run time, kept the energy up for a much longer finale, and just…increased the chaos. Plus it invented a joke, with “communism is just a red herring” brought up three times in three different contexts.

          Besides, I think it works better as a TV movie. It’s great for movie night with your friends. Having it boom down at you from the big screen in a theater feels like it would be a bit much.

          • leave_it_blank@lemmy.world
            2·
            7 months ago

            I have the opposite opinion. Three different endings were a fascinating gimmick and a novelty. I wouldn’t want that for every movie, but once in a while this is kind of refreshing. And in this movie it worked perfectly, it was made for this.

            And in a time where movies go to streaming in a month anyway I would be perfectly fine with that.

      • herrcaptain@lemmy.ca
        3·
        7 months ago

        Was it this production company that did Battleship though? I don’t think they were around back then.

        I’m definitely with you on Hollywood apparently bring out of ideas, and I don’t think Monopoly is a great idea for a movie … Just that if any producers can pull it off, it’ll be them.

        That said, the Clue movie from the 80s was actually good. Perhaps with Monopoly (unlike Battleship) having an actual established character of sorts, that could make all the difference.

        Either way, I’m way more excited for The Sims movie that these folks are also making. I think that genuinely offers some real possibilities for storytelling a la what they did with Barbie.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
      18·
      7 months ago

      It could be a biting criticism of capitalism, as that’s what the game was originally designed as. Although there’s no way Parker Brothers would allow that.

    • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
      5·
      7 months ago

      It’s vague enough that they can work a decent story and add all the monopoly elements. It’s not like monopoly has lore

    • baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
      3·
      7 months ago

      I hope they follow the real rules and not house rules. Movies gonna be 35 minutes of someone getting lucky and slowly buying up everything. the rest of the movie is the cast now working two jobs to pay the rent that was raised so that whoever is winning can buy boardwalk. The poorest one is constantly having to pay to get out of jail.

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
    24·
    7 months ago

    NPR has a great piece on the origin of Monopoly.

    Monopoly was designed by a socialist to demonstrate that capitalism is flawed, since the game eventually ends with all of the wealth in one player’s possession. Interestingly, the creator also included an alternative “Prosperity” rule, where all players received payment from a property purchase. All of this was omitted and replaced with the notion that “anyone can be rich” in capitalism when pitched to Parker Brothers.

    • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
      20·
      7 months ago

      And Monopoly is based on The Landlord’s Game, which was created to be a “practical demonstration of the present system of land grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences”.

      Designed by Elizabeth Magie between 1902 and 1903. She based the game on the economic principles of Georgism, a system proposed by Henry George, with the object of demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants.

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
        5·
        7 months ago

        Exactly! I couldn’t remember, and you’re absolutely right. The “Prosperity” version of the rules was based on Georgism.

      • key@lemmy.keychat.orgEnglish
        6·
        7 months ago

        They should have the battle ship from the battleship movie reprise it’s role in the monopoly movie and make it the gameiverse.

  • psmgx@lemmy.world
    13·
    7 months ago

    Monopoly? the game that was created to teach people how they’re being screwed by landlords? and they want to make this into a movie?

    I feel like Theodor Adorno would be shaking his head

  • Midnitte@beehaw.orgEnglish
    12·
    7 months ago

    I mean, she did explain subprime mortgages pretty well.

    Maybe she can create a movie exposing the horrors of unfettered capitalism.

  • jlow (he/him)@beehaw.org
    12·
    7 months ago

    Isn’t Monopoly supposed to be critic of capitlism but noone gets it (like Fight Club is a take on toxic masculinity but toxic douchebags love it because the don’t understand it)?