via Deadline.com
Emmy-nominated writer, comedian and actor Dewayne Perkins (The Amber Ruffin Show) has been tapped to write and executive produce Fox’s animated series Clue, based on Hasbro’s hugely popular mystery board game. Tim Story also has joined the project and will executive produce with Lynn Barrie for The Story Company. The project, which was set up at Fox for development last year, hails from Hasbro’s eOne and Fox Entertainment-owned Bento Box Entertainment, which will serve as the animation studio.
Clue reunites Perkins and Story. Perkins co-wrote and stars in Story’s The Blackening, which is premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. The MRC horror-comedy film, which Perkins co-wrote with Tracy Oliver, was based on Perkins’ viral Comedy Central digital short of the same name.
No details about the premise of the animated series have been revealed beyond assurances that it will be “encapsulating the thrilling and suspenseful dynamics that have made Clue a global sensation for more than seven decades.”
Clue, originally called Murder!, was launched in 1949 and invented by Englishman Anthony E. Pratt, who created the game during WWII to pass the time during lengthy air raid drills. Clue is conceptualized on the murder of Mr. Boddy, the host of the game’s “dinner party,” during which players must untangle various clues to determine who among the party’s six guests – Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlett, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green and Dr. Orchid – committed the crime. Since its debut, Clue has been introduced to more than 30 countries, some of which call it Cluedo. The game, which has 324 different plots for players to solve, was adapted into a film in 1985 that featured three alternate versions, each with a different ending and has since become a cult classic.
eOne is also producing the live-action feature film adaptation of Clue for 20th Century Studios with James Bobin directing, Oren Uziel writing, and Ryan Reynolds starring with his company Maximum Effort Productions producing.
Perkins’ writing/producing credits include The Amber Ruffin Show and Saved By the Bell, NBC’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Netflix’s The Break with Michelle Wolf and the 2018 White House Correspondent Dinner. He is repped by APA, Artists First, And Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.
Story has directed ten major studio feature films—eight of which debuted number one at the box office during opening weekend—Tom & Jerry, Ride Along 2, Think Like A Man Too, Ride Along, Think Like A Man, Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four and Barbershop. His films have grossed over $1 billion at the box office making him the first ever Black director to cross the milestone mark. On the TV side, Story was most recently a director and exec producer on ABC’s Queens. The Story Co. is currently producing Praise This at Universal.
