Gore Verbinski's 'Clue' dropped by Universal

Director Gore Verbinski's adaptation of the board game Clue has reportedly been dropped by Universal Studios.

Clue was one of the games that the studio planned to develop in a deal with manufacturer Hasbro, which also includes Battleship and Candy Land, Deadline reports.

However, Hasbro is now taking over the development of Clue and plans to produce the film alone with Verbinski's company Blind Wink.

Screenwriting duo Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless - who worked on Flash Gordon and Universal's Dracula Year Zero - are attached to the project.

The Pirates of the Caribbean director joined Clue in 2009, when Blind Wink executive Jonathan Krauss described it as a "global thriller and transmedia event that uses deductive reasoning as its storytelling engine".

Ron Howard's adaptation of Stephen King's Dark Tower is another big-scale project at Universal which recently broke down.

The studio refused to commit to making the trilogy and a seven-part television series.