OuijaThe recent Hollywood "trend" of converting board game properties into movies seems to be waning a bit, even though it really never got completely off the ground.

Of course Battleship is set to arrive in theaters next summer, and if the trailer for that film is any indication of where this thing is headed, there's no question why even Hollywood has lost interest in the trend. Also, Universal was working on the development of Gore Verbinski's big screen take on the board game Clue (anyone remember that film from the 80s?) but has since dropped that project like a hot potato. And today we get word that the studio has also opted out of McG's Ouija movie adaptation that was to be produced by Michael Bay. Finally, Hollywood makes the smart decision.

There's a lot riding on the success of next year's Battleship, and how well that film does at the box office will likely have an effect on whether or not other board game adaptations waiting in the wings, such as Ridley Scott's Monopoly or Kevin Lima's Candyland, get fast-tracked.

FrankensteinIn other cinematic developments, Ol' Flat-topped Frankie seems to be the creature du jour these days in Hollywood with several projects in the planning stages that will feature Mary Shelley's iconic monster, Frankenstein. Deadline is reporting that director Shawn Levy (A Night at the Museum) is the latest to get in on the action with a Fox Studios production of a Frankenstein project that hopes to beat to market the seven other Frankenstein films in various states of development. Levy's Real Steel will be coming out this October, and his previously announced Fantastic Voyage remake seems to be dead in the water with what is believed to be some casting issues involving Will Smith, whom the director has demanded for the film.

No further details of this Frankenstein project are known at this time other than the word that Max Landis will script. If that name sounds familiar, it's because he's the son of legendary Hollywood film director John Landis, arguably most well-known for his Blues Brothers and Animal House films. This is all good news as it's time to put this whole vampire hullabaloo to rest and move on to another monster.

UPDATE: Variety is reporting that Levy will indeed be the director for Fox's Frankenstein project as he officially signed on with Chronicle writer Max Landis applying his pen to script a revisionist Frankenstein tale that has been described as a sci-fi treatment of Shelley's story with themes of friendship and redemption.

There's been no official productions date set yet, but you can rest assured it will be fast-tracked with hopes of beating all the other "Frankie" films to the punch.