Come on, is anyone really surprised? Well the film sites are apparently, even though it was June 2007 that we heard about the Monopoly project and August 2008 that Ridley Scott confirmed that he was working on developing the film, and then he was rather enthusiastic about it.

So is it any surprise that he's signed up to direct? The real surprise is that this project is still going ahead, that they have a writer, and that there are another two board game films out there in development.

Previously, back in August 2007, Ridley Scott sounded positively excited about the film:

"...it's really finding the universe for that game. Because clearly it ought to be humorous and for the family -- the funny way it brings out, particularly when your uncle suddenly gets Park Lane and -- in England, we have Park Lane, Mayfair and Barclay Square, what's it in America? Park and Madison? So you watch people change. You're witness to Jekyll and Hyde. Somewhere in that is a hysterically amusing and I think rather exciting film."

He sounded well into it, so it isn't a surprise that The Hollywood Reporter announce he's on for directing the film now. They even suggest he's going to give it a futuristic feel along the lines of Blade Runner, and that comparison is just plain daft.

Pamela Pettler is on to write the script, she's been responsible for writing some television but mainly for Corpse Bride and Monster House, with a script for a film called 9 starring Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau and John C. Reilly. So far all her film scripts have turned into animated films, is Monopoly going the same way? Who knows, after all that's not a choice of the screenwriter.

Meanwhile Monopoly isn't the only board game in development, there's a Battleships project apparently as well as, and board game is lose on this one, a ouija board film, and that's coming from Michael Bay's company.

There'll be more on the way too as Hasbro signed a deal with Universal on a number of projects, and with their recent reinvention of Cluedo (aka Clue) perhaps we'll see a remake?