Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery-themed multimedia franchise started in 1949 with the manufacture of the Cluedo board game. The franchise has since expanded to film, television game shows, book series, computer games, board game spinoffs, a comic, a play, a musical, jigsaws, card games, and other media.
Waddingtons, Parker Brothers, and Hasbro have created many spin-off versions of the game, consisting of alternative rules varying from the original Classic Detective Game. (Such spin-offs are distinct from themed "variants" using the basic rules and game configuration, effectively new skins on the original board game.) In addition to revising the rules of gameplay, many of the spin-off games also introduce new characters, locations, weapons, and/or alternative objectives.
Various versions of the game were developed for Commodore 64, MSX, Atari ST, PC, Game Boy Advance, ZX Spectrum, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Switch, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, CD-i, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and Apple iPhone / iPod Touch.
A comedic film Clue, based on the American version of the game, was released in 1985. In this version, the person murdered was Mr. Boddy. The film featured different endings released to different theatres. It received mixed reviews and did poorly at the box office, ultimately grossing $14,643,997 in the United States, [33] though it later developed a cult following. [34] All three endings released to theatres are available on the VHS and DVD versions of the film, to watch one after the other (VHS), or to select playing one or all three endings (DVD/Blu-ray).
Universal Pictures touted a 2008 deal with Hasbro that licensed several of its board games for feature film adaptations; [35] Gore Verbinski was announced as director of Clue, [36] before Universal dropped the project in 2011. [37]
Hasbro landed a new Clue film deal at 20th Century Fox in 2016, with Josh Feldman, Ryan Jones, and Daria Cercek producing. Their film was planned as a "worldwide mystery" with action-adventure elements, potentially setting up a possible franchise that could play well internationally. [38] Fox announced in January 2018 that Ryan Reynolds, as part of his first-look deal with the studio, would star in a live-action remake of Clue, with Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick as scriptwriters. [39] Jason Bateman was connected to the project in 2019, [40] then left, with James Bobin discussed as his replacement in 2020. [41] [42] Following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, Reynolds expressed uncertainty about the film in 2021, [43] bringing Oren Uziel onboard to rewrite the screenplay in 2022. [44]
Sony Pictures acquired the film rights to the Clue franchise under its TriStar Pictures label in April 2024. [45]
There have been several television game shows based upon this game. To date, there have been four seasons of the British version of Cluedo (and a Christmas version that in fact shows some similarity to the North American movie), and there have been other versions in Germany ( Cluedo - Das Mörderspiel ), France (Cluedo), Italy, Australia ( Cluedo ), Portugal ( Cluedo ) and Scandinavia ( Cluedo - en mordgåta ). The format for each puts two teams (each usually containing one celebrity and one person with law enforcement/research experience) against six in-character actors as the famed colour-coded suspects. There is a new murder victim every episode, who usually has it coming to them for one reason or another. Each episode uses different weapons. In the Christmas episode in the UK the six original weapons were used.
On August 6, 2010, The Hub announced that an original five-part miniseries based on Clue was in pre-production. The miniseries premiered on November 14, 2011 and featured a youthful, ensemble cast loosely based on the characters of the board game, working together to unravel a mystery. [46] [47] [48] The short mini-series draws similarities to the original board game and mostly to the 2012 spin-off Clue: The Classic Mystery Game which both featured the characters belonging or having ties to secret societies/houses and fitting closely with the character descriptions.
Fox Entertainment greenlit an animated Clue series in 2021 in partnership with Hasbro's Entertainment One, with Bento Box Entertainment serving as co-production and the animation studio for the show. [49]
Sony Pictures Television acquired the television rights to Clue in April 2024. [50] An unscripted Clue series is in development at Hasbro Entertainment and Sony Pictures Television Nonfiction. [51]
The Clue title and theme were used in the 1986 US documentary Clue: Movies, Murders, and Mystery, which took a look at mystery-related pieces of media including Murder on the Orient Express; Murder, She Wrote; Sherlock Holmes and other television series and movies, as well as a look at the board game itself. The one-hour special was hosted by Martin Mull, who had starred in the feature film adaptation the previous year; clips from the movie are seen intertwined with the footage.
A comedic musical of Clue, based on the American version of the game, ran Off Broadway in 1997, closing in 1999. At the start of each performance, three audience members each select one card from oversized versions of the traditional game decks and place them in an envelope. The chosen cards determine the ending of the show, with 216 possible conclusions.
Penned by Robert Duncan with the cooperation of Waddingtons, the first official theatrical adaptation of Cluedo was presented by the amateur theatre group: The Thame Players in Oxfordshire in July 1985. The play was subsequently picked up by Hiss & Boo productions and began a successful tour of the UK. A second tour was undertaken in 1990. Like the musical, the play involved the audience's random selection of three solution cards which were revealed towards the end of the play, whereupon the actors would then conclude the play by performing one of the 216 endings possible. Presently the play is not available for performance due to a restriction by Hasbro, since Hasbro has been planning to make a new movie. [52] It is unclear whether the restriction applies to the musical as well.
Based on the 1985 movie from Paramount Pictures, the play was written by Sandy Rustin. This version of the play also has been edited for a High School and Virtual performance environment. [53] Unlike the other 2 stage adaptations, Clue: On Stage presents all endings, similar to the home video version of the movie. [54]
A series of 18 humorous children's books/teen books were published in the United States by Scholastic Press between 1992 and 1997 based on the Clue concept and created by A. E. Parker. The books featured the US Clue characters in short, comedic vignettes and ask the reader to follow along and solve a crime at the end of each. Solutions are printed upside down, with an explanation, on the page following each chapter. The crime would usually be the murder of another guest besides Mr. Boddy, a robbery of some sort, or a simple contest, in which case they must figure out who won. The tenth and final vignette would always be the murder of Mr. Boddy. Somehow, Mr. Boddy would always manage to cheat death, such as fainting before the shot was fired or being shot with trick bullets. However, at the end of the 18th book, Mr. Boddy stays dead.
In 2003, Canadian mystery writer Vicki Cameron wrote Clue Mysteries, a new set of mini-mystery books. The series is geared toward a more adult audience while still retaining some comic absurdity of the 1990s series. Only two books were published; both feature more complex storylines and vocabulary, as well as fifteen mysteries apiece. The first book contains the more modern looking clue game cover by Drew Struzan. [55]
Another book called "CLUE Code-Breaking Puzzles" was released in December 2008 written by Helene Hovanec. The book contains 60 mysteries. [56]
A similar series of books featuring the Clue Jr. characters was also published. The first book, Who Killed Mr. Boddy? features thirteen mysteries. Mr Boddy is a trillionaire, and the guests are his friends. Each "friend" attempts to kill him at one point, intent to cash in on his will. The guests are all given some sort of defining characteristic for comic effect, as well as to help the reader discern the culprit. Colonel Mustard constantly challenges other guests to duels, Professor Plum often forgets things, and Mr. Green is notoriously greedy. Mrs. Peacock is highly proper and will not stand for any lack of manners, the maid Mrs. White hates her employer and all the guests, and Miss Scarlet is beautiful and seductive. Mr. Boddy himself is ludicrously naive, to the point where he accepts any attempt to kill him as an accident or a misunderstanding, and invites the guests back to the mansion. This explains why he never seeks any legal action against his "friends," and invited them back despite repeated attempts to kill him. He eventually wises up enough to be suspicious of them, but continues to invite them over against better judgement.
The Clue Jr. series originally had all six characters, but suddenly, some of the characters were taken out, leaving only four. The mysteries usually only included cases similar to the theft of a toy, but sometimes the cases were more serious. They are usually solved when the culprit traps himself in his own lies.
American author Diana Peterfreund wrote a trio of Clue Mystery titles that adapt the story for an elite boarding school: In the Hall with the Knife (2019), In the Study with the Wrench (2020), and In the Ballroom with the Candlestick (2021). [57]
IDW Publishing has produced two limited series comics based on the franchise.
Clue was written by Paul Allor and released in 2017, [58] set in the Hasbro Comic Book Universe alongside various other Hasbro properties. [59] [60]
Clue: Candlestick was written and illustrated by Dash Shaw and released in 2019, unrelated to the prior series and set in its own standalone continuity. [61]
A series of jigsaw puzzles (500 piece Clue/750 piece Cluedo/200 Jr. ed.), based on the game was introduced in 1991. The jigsaw puzzles presented detailed stories with a biography for each of the standard suspects. The object was to assemble the jigsaw puzzles and then deduce the solutions presented in the mystery stories from the clues provided within the completed pictures. There were four titles in the 750 piece series: Death in the First Edition, Garden of Evil, Killers in the Kitchen, and Six Cases of Murder.
Kill Doctor Lucky is a humorous board game designed by James Ernest and released in 1996 by Cheapass Games. In 1998, Kill Doctor Lucky won the Origins Award for Best Abstract Board Game of 1997.
Cluedo, known as Clue in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt. The game was first manufactured by Waddingtons in the United Kingdom in 1949. Since then, it has been relaunched and updated several times, and it is currently owned and published by the American game and toy company Hasbro.
Clue is a 1985 American black comedy mystery film based on the board game of the same name. Directed by Jonathan Lynn, who cowrote the script with John Landis, and produced by Debra Hill, it stars the ensemble cast of Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, and Lesley Ann Warren, with Colleen Camp and Lee Ving in supporting roles.
Clue is a 1998 video game based on the board game of the same name. It is also known as Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion or Cluedo: Murder at Blackwell Grange, depending on whether the country of release used American or British English.
A murder mystery game is a type of party game in which players investigate and solve fictitious murders. In many variations, a player secretly plays as a murderer while the others attempt to determine the murderer's identity.
HeroQuest, is an adventure board game created by Milton Bradley in conjunction with the British company Games Workshop in 1989, and re-released in 2021. The game is loosely based around archetypes of fantasy role-playing games: the game itself was actually a game system, allowing the gamemaster to create dungeons of their own design using the provided game board, tiles, furnishings and figures. The game manual describes Morcar/Zargon as a former apprentice of Mentor, and the parchment text is read aloud from Mentor's perspective. Several expansions have been released, each adding new tiles, traps, artifacts, and monsters to the core system.
MindTrap is a series of lateral thinking puzzle games played by two individuals or teams. Invented in Canada, it is the main product of MindTrap Games, Inc., who license the game for manufacture by various companies including Outset Media, Blue Opal, the Great American Puzzle Factory, Pressman Toy Corporation, Spears Games and Winning Moves.
Clue VCR Mystery Game is a 1985 VCR murder mystery game based on the board game Clue, known as Cluedo in the UK.
Selchow and Righter was a 19th- and 20th-century game manufacturer best known for the games Parcheesi and Scrabble. It was based in Bay Shore, New York.
Clue The Musical is a musical with a book by Peter DePietro, music by Galen Blum, Wayne Barker and Vinnie Martucci, and lyrics by Tom Chiodo, based on the board game Clue. The plot concerns a murder at a mansion, occupied by several suspects, that is solved by a detective, while the ending is decided by the audience.
Cluedo DVD Game is a deduction/murder-mystery interactive DVD movie game based on the Cluedo franchise. It was published by Hasbro and Parker Brothers in the US in 2006, and designed by Rob Daviau. Previously, the Cluedo DVD Game had been released in the UK in October 2005, shortly followed by a French edition. It supports 3-5 players, and each case runs about 60 minutes.
Clue Mysteries are two books released in 2003 and 2004 based upon the Clue board game. Both were written by Canadian author, Vicki Cameron. Cameron lives in Ontario.
Clue: Parker Brothers' Classic Detective Game is a North American-exclusive video game published for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis video game consoles. It is based on the popular board game of the same name.
Cluedo: Discover the Secrets is a 2008 board game designed by Hasbro to modernize the world-famous game Cluedo. Though the game's main title is still simply "Cluedo" or "Clue", many retailers list the game with a "Reinvention" suffix, to distinguish it from the original game. The game was created to update what Hasbro considered to be an old-fashioned game, and it became available in October 2008. However, the traditional version of the game remained on sale as well.
Mystery Mansion is the name of a series of board games in which players search furniture and other objects inside a mansion to locate a hidden treasure or stash of money.
Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion is a Windows point-and-click adventure game based on the Cluedo franchise, known as Clue in North America. It is a reinterpretation and adaption of the Clue board game as an adventure game including many of the original characters. The game was distributed with a variety of covers, each featuring a different murder weapon.
There have been two distinct mobile adaptations of the Hasbro board game Clue.
Clue Classic is a single-player, interactive video game based on Hasbro's Cluedo franchise. It was developed by Games Cafe and published by Reflexive Entertainment on June 3, 2008.
Mysterium is a cooperative board game designed by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko. It blends aspects of murder mystery games and card-based guessing games. One person plays the ghost of a murdered individual who can communicate with the other players only through a series of visions in the form of illustrated cards. The other players, who take the role of psychic mediums, must interpret these cards to identify a suspect, location, and murder weapon. Following its release, Mysterium received positive reviews. It has since received two expansions Mysterium: Hidden Signs and Mysterium: Secrets and Lies, which introduces a new card type to identify: the story.