Sony To Take Risk Board Game To Silver Screen

Sony Pictures Entertainment has purchased the film rights to the Hasbro world domination board game "Risk" and plans to bring its premise to the big screen.

According to Variety.com: "Property, which pits players against one another in a quest to annex all of the world's territories, became desirable in recent years thanks to the success of another Hasbro property, ‘Transformers,' which has spawned two global box-office sensations… In recent years, William Morris and now WME -- which reps Hasbro -- have set up a number of unlikely properties on behalf of the company, including ‘Ouija,' ‘Battleship' and Candyland.'"

Hasbro president and CEO Brian Goldner and Bennett Schneir will produce the motion picture alongside Overbrook Entertainment's James Lassiter. In addition, Overbrook, the production company owned by actor Will Smith, currently has two other TV projects in development with Hasbro.

HollywoodReporter.com delves into the background behind the popular strategy-heavy board game: "The game was invented in 1957 by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse under the title La Conquete du Monde (The Conquest of the World). Two years later, Parker Brothers published the game in the U.S. as Risk. According to Hasbro, Risk was the first board game to offer nonlinear movement as players compete on a map of the world by amassing armies and conquering territory."

The deal was announced on Wednesday by Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad and his fellow president Matt Tolmach. Then, Belgrad prophesized that the game's tactical principle will translate seamlessly into an action film.