I grew up playing "Clue" at home with my family so when the movie came out I was thrilled and saw it three times to catch the separate endings. My story is not unique (except for falling for the studio's marketing gamble and seeing it three times in theaters) because the board game has been hugely popular since its initial release in 1949 so multiple generations have played it and loved it. It has a built in audience so naturally movie studios are interested because franchises is what they do. Remember a handful of years ago when Universal was going to remake the movie Clue (1985) but nothing came of it? Too make a long story short... "too late!" ... the project is back on again at a different studio.
Clue art by Kevin Wada
Now, Fox will remake the movie despite the fact that board game based movies haven't done well at the box office (including the original Clue, despite its huge fanbase after the fact). Nevertheless it's a perfect opportunity for us to play CAST THIS! after the jump...
The possibilities are truly endless since the characters have been reinterpreted with every release of the game. You're not really bound by age or race or even too many character specifics. So let's do this.
Colonel Mustard is the military man. In early version he's a hunter. He's been portrayed at just about every age, when young he's usually a blonde and otherwise he's a grey haired stuffy colonial imperialist. He almost always has facial hair and sometimes a monocle.
Mrs Peacock is the grand dame. She's a dignified older woman in early versions. She began as an artistocrat with a tiara but eventually feathered hats and society lady became the norm in portrayals. Sometimes she's depicted as an ornithologist. In the movie she's a senator's wife.
Mr Green is either a Reverend or a Businessman, depending on the country you're playing in. The character has not been portrayed very consistently over the years. Sometimes he's a mobster, sometimes he's an old bald man in a smoking jacket. He's recently been reinvented as a black enterpreneur. In the movie he was a closeted gay in the State Department.
Mrs White is a houseservant. In the game she worked with the Butler, usually as a maid but occassionally a nanny or cook and usually she's a plump woman. In the movie they basically ditched that interpretation altogether (replacing her house duties with sexy maid Yvette and the Cook instead) and reinvented Mrs White as a mysterious black widow, whose husbands met untimely deaths. In a new version of the game she is a young African American lawyer.
Professor Plum is the intellectual of the game. No details as to what he's professor of. He's almost always depicted with glasses and sometimes with a pipe but the age varies wildly in different releases. In the movie he was a psychiatrist but in some versions he's an archaelogist.
Miss Scarlett is the femme fatale. She was originally portrayed as a young blonde but she's morphed over the years into a glamorous brunette or redhead and was the first Clue character to be portrayed as non-caucasian in 1972. In some releases of the game since she is Asian. In the movie she was an escort service madame but in the game she's often an aspiring actress or movie star. Which direction would you go in casting?
I can't wait to hear your thoughts. I'd list mine but my choice for every character keeps changing. Do I want Eva Green or Fanbingbing or Gong Li or Elizabeth Debicki as Miss Scarlett?
Bonus points
• if you can come up with anyone worthy to fill Tim Curry's shoes as the butler
• If you can guess why I listed the characters in this order.