EXCLUSIVE: The game’s up, Scarlet: Netflix is opening the doors of its latest competition series, an adaptation of iconic board game and movie Clue.
The streamer has greenlit Clue, an unscripted series based on the murder mystery classic.
The series will feature a group of contestants facing physical and mental challenges to collect clues before stepping into a real-life game of deduction and deception. To win, they’ll have to outwit opponents and identify the who, where, and with what of the crime. Guess right and add money to the prize pot; guess wrong and they may be eliminated. They’ll be surrounded by familiar suspects such as Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett, Professor Plum and Mrs. White.
Clue comes from Hasbro Entertainment, The Intellectual Property Corporation (IPC) and B17 Entertainment.
It comes after Sony Pictures, which owns IPC and B17, landed the rights to Clue last year.
“Like so many families and friends over the years, we’ve gathered around the table trying to figure out who did it—making Clue a source of nostalgia that everyone shares,” said Jeff Gaspin, VP of Unscripted Series, Netflix. “Thanks to the incredible vision of our partners at Hasbro Entertainment, IPC, and B17, we’re delivering a fresh, imaginative whodunit competition that will invite today’s audiences into that iconic world.”
Hasbro Entertainment has been increasingly developing series and films based on its brands since its split with eOne such as a Dungeons & Dragons TV series, which is also in the works at Netflix and a film and TV universe based around Magic: The Gathering.
The company also has a game show based on its Monopoly board game set up at Netflix with Studio Lambert, Wheelhouse and Endemol Shine North America vying for the rights to produce it in a bake-off. It also produces a pair of game shows for The CW based on Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble.
IPC, which was founded by Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman, is behind series such as Netflix’s With Love, Meghan and Indian Matchmaking as well as recent launch Power Moves with Shaquille O’Neal.
B17, which was founded by Rhett Bachner and Brien Meagher, is behind series such as Fox’s Extracted and NBC’s On Brand With Jimmy Fallon and has made Blue Ribbon Baking Championship and The History of Swear Words for Netflix.
Holzman, Saidman, Bachner and Meagher exec produce alongside Hasbro Entertainment’s Gabriel Marano and Zachary Edwin.
Clue has sold more than 150M copies of its board game since its launch in 1949.
It was turned into a black comedy in 1985 that was directed by Jonathan Lynn, who wrote the script with John Landis. Starring Tim Curry as Wadsworth the butler, it centered around a group of strangers invited to a secluded mansion where things go wrong and featured 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, Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet, Colleen Camp as French maid Yvette and Fear’s Lee Ving as Mr. Boddy. Produced by Debra Hill, it infamously featured a number of different endings.
There have been a number of attempts to reboot Clue both in film and television. In 2011, Universal Studios revealed it was setting up a new movie, then Hasbro teamed up with Gore Verbinski. Fox attempted a version in 2016, Ryan Reynolds was at one point planning to star in a version, with Jason Bateman in talks to direct. The latest attempt in film came from director James Bobin in 2020 and Oren Uziel was hired to write a script.