Adam Sandler to star in film based on 'Candy Land'

A film based on the beloved Hasbro board game Candy Land will be made into a film starring Adam Sandler.

The film will be distributed by Columbia Pictures after spending years in the development stage at Universal. Sandler is also set to produce the film with his company Happy Madison.

He and screenwriter Robert Smigel are currently working on a screenplay following the departure of original writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, both of whom wrote Kung Fu Panda (2008). Kevin Lima, the director of Enchanted (2007), is set to be in the director’s chair for this movie.

Other potential movies adapted from board games which Universal has departed from in recent months include Ouija. In 2011, the studio paid Hasbro $5 million to get out of its agreement to adapt the game for the big screen. A year earlier, Universal halted plans to make a movie of Clue, which was previously adapted for the cinema by Paramount in 1985.

However, the studio will release Battleship on May 18. The film stars Liam Nesson and Taylor Kitsch.

Candy Land was created in 1949. Players are required to navigate through such locations as Candy Cane Forest and Gum Drop Mountain, while trying to find the lost king.