Dreamworks Pictures has acquired the screen rights to a film version of the board game Monsterpocalypse, a project the company reportedly wants Gothic auteur Tim Burton to work on.

Monsterpocalypse is a kaiji - the Japanese word for "strange beast" or "monster" - themed collectible miniatures game, in which players battle different skyscraper-sized monsters amidst a city landscape.

The game's creator Matt Wilson is currently set to co-produce the Monsterpocalypse-inspired movie with Burton being touted as a possible "creative catalyst" for the project.  Whether Burton would direct, produce, serve as an artistic consultant, or take on all three of these positions is unclear at this point.

If Burton is hired, Monsterpocalypse would join Ridley Scott's Monopoly movie as another film adaptation of a board game involving a high-profile filmmaker.  Depending on how successful both of these projects are, other board game movies in-development could become higher priorities for movie studios.

Burton is currently serving as head juror at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival and is currently working on a 3D feature-length version of his acclaimed 1984 short film, Frankenweenie.  He is also signed on for another collaborative project with Johnny Depp, the soap opera-inspired Dark Shadows movie, and continues to be rumored as a potential director for Disney's Malificent as well.

With so much on his plate, Burton looks like an unlikely candidate to direct the Monsterpocalypse movie, should it begin production soon.  He could still lend his twisted artistic sensibilities to the project and help craft the look and design of the film - something Dreamworks executives would surely appreciate.

Can Monsterpocalypse make for an interesting cinematic adaptation?  The concept of the game alone - defeat the evil creatures - is the basis for just about every monster movie ever put on celluloid, so it wouldn't be that much of a stretch - story-wise, that is.

Would the film also be an action-driven, 3D visual effects-extravaganza above all else?  Should Monsterpocalypse make its way to the big screen that's all but a given.

We'll keep you posted once more information on the Monsterpocalypse movie has been released.

Source: Deadline