Jason Bateman up to Direct and Co-Star in Clue Movie With Ryan Reynolds

Jason Bateman is enjoying a nice career surge right now. The comedic actor (turned producer and director) is reportedly going to be following his recent Emmy win for Netflix’s Ozark by taking on the Clue movie reboot for Fox/Disney. Bateman is reportedly looking to keep Deadpool’s Ryan Reynolds as the star of the Clue reboot, with Bateman also set to star, in addition to directing. The two actors are said to be collaborating on the script together, presumably re-working the earlier draft of the Clue reboot that was done by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (Deadpool and Zombieland).

Deadline dropped the report about Bateman and Reynolds jumping aboard Clue, but there are little other details or insights into the project, beyond that.

When Reynolds, Reese, and Wernick were all previously announced for the film in 2018, Wernick teased that fans shouldn’t “be surprised if Clue is an R-rated” film. As for the actual story angle the Zombieland writers went with:

“It will have elements of [the original movie], but it’s important that we don’t try and just rehash it. We want to build on it. We want to take some of what makes it fun and funny, but then we want to do our own thing. It’s about finding that balance. Hopefully we don’t upset the Clue-hounds because there are a lot of them apparently. We didn’t realize this until we signed up.”

The 1985 Clue movie by Jonathan Lynn (My Cousin Vinny) remains a beloved cult-classic – not to mention being one of the best game adaptations in cinema. The charm of it was found in the witty and winking “Whodunit?” structure and vibe to the film – not to mention great cast of stars all hamming it up as the various characters from the board game, with Tim Curry (IT, Rocky Horror Picture Show) carrying things as the point man / butler, Wadsworth. Clue‘s main claim to fame, however, was the multiple endings that gave viewers several different scenarios for how the “game” would ended, and which player was the actual killer.

So clearly, the elements of fun wit, humor, and camp are what fans would want to see preserved in this new Clue, while elements of danger and surprising twists would be ratcheted up to meet the standards of a modern moviegoing audience. The big question is how an updated Clue will fit into the recent resurgence of “Whodunit?” mystery thrillers. The Murder on the Orient Express remake of 2017 was a faithful throwback homage that was successful enough to spawn a sequel (coming 2020) – while Star Wars director Rian Johnson is putting his own modern spin on the genre with the upcoming Knives Out. Hopefully this new Clue has the right mix of old and new to distinguish itself.