THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS
BEFORE BECOMING A KILLER CULT PHENOMENON. READY TO PLAY CLUE?
IT WAS ONE OF THE 1980S’ BIGGEST CINEMATIC MYSTERIES — A BRILLIANT BOARD-GAME-BASED MOVIE THAT DIED AT THE BOX OFFICE…
WORDS DAN JOLIN
ILLUSTRATION ARN0
Jonathan Lynn thought it was “an insane idea”. A movie based on a family board game? “I couldn’t see how you made that into a film. There was no story!” the British writer-director reasonably reasoned.
It was 1983 and Lynn, a well-respected theatre actor and director, and co-creator of hit political sitcom Yes Minister, had been invited to meet with Hollywood big shot Peter Guber, who together with his partner Jon Peters had executive-produced Flashdance and An American Werewolf In London. Guber opened by announcing he had the “perfect project” for Lynn to write: a big-screen comedy adaptation of the 1949 Waddingtons game Cluedo (then published by Parker Brothers in the States as Clue), which saw players of colour-coded characters solving a murder in a mansion. Professor Plum! In the study! With the lead pipe! And all that. American Werewolf’s John Landis was set to direct. Would Lynn like to fly to LA to meet him?
Lynn was bemused. But he’d enjoyed Landis’ Animal House and more importantly, he tells Empire, “I discovered they’d fly me first class, which I’d never experienced. So I thought, ‘Well, just for that I’ve got to see him.’”
The flight was worth it, and not just because it involved more leg room. Clue would become Lynn’s film directorial debut, with a knockout comedy-star ensemble and the audacious gimmick of three different endings. It’s still the film he’s best remembered for. “I get a tremendous amount of fan mail about Clue,” he says. “But I have complicated and ambivalent feelings about it.”
That’s not surprising. On its release in mid-December 1985, Clue flopped spectacularly, seemingly killing Lynn’s nascent Hollywood career. But over the following decades came an unexpected post-VHS life of cult appreciation: cosplay screenings, unofficial stage adaptations, a fan-made ‘making of’ doc and even a mooted remake. For Lynn, it was a series of twists and turns perfectly suited to a frantic, farcical whodunnit.
Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), Colonel Mustard (Martin Mull), Mrs White (Madeline Kahn), Mr Green (Michael McKean), Wadsworth (Tim Curry), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd) and Mrs Peacock (Eileen Brennan).