Netflix gets creative in picking who will make ‘Monopoly’ series
Netflix gets creative in picking who will make ‘Monopoly’ series
The streamer is using a highly unique selection process to ensure its chosen production company does justice to the title.
Who will pass go and collect $200 in Netflix’s attempt to find a production company for its new “Monopoly” series? That’s one big question bouncing around Hollywood these days, and Netflix is attempting to use a selection process as complex as the game itself to find the production company that will actually bring the show to life.
Key Details:
- Monopoly meets Squid Game?: Netflix wants to make its Monopoly series a “large-scale” reality show.
- Not many fans: The selection process for a production company isn’t winning Netflix many friends.
- Mobile to TV: Netflix purchased the rights to the Monopoly show in part because of the success of Monopoly Go!
Netflix is taking no chances with Monopoly, a property it clearly thinks can turn into its own personal Boardwalk. According to Deadline, Netflix is using an extensive version of the “bake-off” process to pick the production company that will actually make the Monopoly reality TV series.
Production houses have either been invited to join the process or pre-approved by Netflix higher-ups. Deadline reports that these companies signed a two-page contract that stipulates that no back-end rights will be given to the winner of the competition. Then, the larger group will be whittled down to 15 after submitting their loglines for the show, and these 15 will be invited to pitch meetings that will lead to a selection of a winner, or move the development process to the next phase.
Sources close to the process say that the scale of this bake-off is “ridiculous” and a “little out of control,” even going so far as to call it “completely crazy” and “completely disrespectful of people’s time and resources.” But Netflix’s head of unscripted titles, Jeff Gaspin, thinks it’s a necessary amount of to-do for the show, which Netflix is counting on to succeed.
The streamer’s enthusiasm for the show is based on the success of the Monopoly Go! mobile board game. The game is thought to have generated more than $5 billion in revenue and 150 million downloads, and Netflix is betting that a reality series along the same lines will do just as well. That’s the main reason Netflix is casting such a wide net for the production company that will make the show; it thinks it has a Free Parking jackpot on the horizon.
“There’s a gameplay in Monopoly Go! that I think really will resonate with gameplay in an unscripted series,” Gaspin told Deadline. “The idea itself is still up for grabs. How do we want to approach it? Is it a giant game board? Is it in the real world? We don’t have the answer and we had so many agents and so many production companies reaching out and asking us if they can participate, and asking if we’ll consider putting them in the bake-off that we didn’t want to be restrictive. So, we said, ‘Why don’t we do a first round that’s pretty broad.’”
Will you jump on the “Monopoly” TV show when it comes out? Let us know in the comments!
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