Who would of thunk that a company known for making toys is behind a bunch of possible Hollywood blockbusters?
Knowing that movie studios are mainly in it for the money, it’s really not a shocker. After all, Transformers and GI Joe made more than pretty penny for our favorite toymaker Hasbro, which has lead to a multi-year deal between the and Universal.
For a while now there have been rumors about Universal bringing Stretch Armstrong, Monopoly and Candyland to the big screen. Heck, Monopoly has freaking Ridley Scott attached. In case you’re wondering, that would be the same Ridley Scott behind Alien.
But now things are full speed ahead with details about an upcoming Battleship flick.
Peter Berg is on board to direct and the movie has a July 1, 2011 release date. Berg has previously directed Hancock and The Kingdom, both of which I dug. You also might remember him as an actor in such films as The Great White Hype, Cop Land and Smokin’ Aces.
OK, so you may be curious as to how the Battleship movie is going to play out. Here’s what Berg had to say about it to Variety, it’s “a contemporary story of an international five-ship fleet engaged in a very dynamic, violent and intense battle”. Violent and intense naval battles could have my sold on this one.
I’m just glad that they’re not going for the played out “kid gets sucked into a game for an adventure because his life sucks so bad, but then discovers that it’s better than trying to be killed”. Then again, they may be re-hasing that plot for future board games turned movies down the road.
While I don’t want to say that this movie will suck, it has the most potential out of the board games, it’s kind of comical that Universal is rumaging through their attic and dusting off toys to turn into movies. At least there’s going to be some originality instead of remaking another movie.
Oh wait a minute. They’re remaking the original board game turned movie Clue as well.
*smacks hand onto head*
To commemorate the forthcoming Battleship movie, let’s take a look it’s long history.
The game actually predated World War 1.
Around 1909 the game L’attaque was played amongst men in the French military. The game helped influence Stratego and Battleship.
Shortly after World War I, the Russians were known to have played Battleship’s predecessor Salvo. The game used a 10×10 paper lettered and numbered grid that had to be filled out by pen or pencil.
By 1931 Salvo hit that market, after being created by Clifford Von Wickler. But you’ve probably never heard of him because he didn’t patent the game.
During the next decade there were a lot of Battleship style games. These included Combat, Admirals, The Naval War Game and The Battleship Game.
But it wasn’t until 1943 that Milton Bradley jumped on board Salvo’s potential and released Broadsides, The Game of Naval Strategy as a paper game.
In 1967 the game that we know and love as Battleship was released by Milton Bradley.
The company updated Battleship in 1982 into the awesome Electronic Battleship. A few years later, 1989, Milton Bradley released Travel Battleship, so kids could scream “I sunk your battleship!” in the backseat of a station wagon, while the veins in their dad’s head were ready to explore.
The company has also manufactured versions of Battleship based on Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Over the years the game has been able to keep up with the times. Battleship has also been made into lots of video games, ranging from PC to Playstation to Nintendo DS to Windows Mobile.
Let’s hope that Berg and Universal continue the fun of blowing each other’s naval fleet to smithereens!
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