Jason Bateman, the newly-minted Emmy winner for directing “Ozark,” is in talks to direct the live-action remake of “Clue” based on the Hasbro board game set up at Disney and Fox, an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap. Bateman is also in early talks to star in the film alongside Ryan Reynolds.
“Clue” is a comedy and murder mystery inspired by the popular board game from Hasbro, but it’s not connected to the 1985 “Clue” film starring Tim Curry.
The writers on Reynolds’s “Deadpool,” Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, were hired to write the screenplay back in 2018 as the first project as part of a three-year, first-look deal with Twentieth Century Fox. Reynolds’s Maximum Effort is producing the film alongside Hasbro Studios’ film division Allspark Pictures, and Bateman will also work in developing the script.
The 1985 “Clue,” directed by Jonathan Lynn, starred Curry as a butler leading Col. Mustard, Miss Scarlet, and the other characters from the famous board game on a chase to discover which one of them killed Mr. Boddy. Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd and Lesley Ann Warren also starred in the movie that has since become a cult hit for its dark, slapstick humor.
Bateman just started production on the third season of “Ozark.” He won his first Emmy for Best Directing in a Drama series after directing the episode “Reparations” in the show’s second season. Bateman previously directed two other feature films, 2013’s “Bad Words” and “The Family Fang” from 2015, in both of which he also starred. He’s also set to direct two episodes of the HBO series “The Outsider.”
Bateman is represented by CAA, Lighthouse Media & Management and Hansen Jacobson.
Deadline first reported the news of Bateman’s attachment to the project.