Monday, June 04, 2007

Taboo may be legally taboo


One of the major items of importance in Game Night is the game of Taboo. Half the film is about our characters playing the game and one of the major themes of the film is the idea that in relationships far too many times we treat the important topics as taboo subjects. So the game is a major symbol that we need to show.

So today I called an extremely pleasant woman at Hasbro to see about getting permission to use the game in the film.

She said I had to email her a synopsis of the film, an explanation of why I wanted to use the game, and a PDF of the applicable pages. Then she sends them up the ladder to seek out permission, but it could take some time.

The problem is that our script includes a coke head snorting up in the bathroom and loooooots of cuss words. Fortunately the sex parts come after the Taboo parts, so I was able to minimize those a little in my synopsis. But I get the feeling Hasbro may not approve of usage of the game. So I guess I'd better figure out how to hide the logo.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:04 PM

    That sucks! I was wondering when you would get around to addressing this. Does it have to be Taboo? couldn't you make a game like Taboo with a different title and buzzer? I'm sure you thought about this already. But I don't think it would be that big a deal to substitute but I haven't read the script so I could be totally wrong. Think how fun it will be to make up your own game!

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  2. Unoftrunately, it pretty much has to be Taboo.

    Half the script is based around the characters playing the game and one of the major themes is the fact that there are elephants in the room nobody is talking about - taboos. That's kind of where most of the script came from - that word.

    You never know. They might like it.

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  3. Anonymous7:58 PM

    My students worked on short films this year and were able to score a major bands permission to use a song in their film. They gave them the festival rights for free. The subject matter was touchy, so i was surprised. I think you have a good chance.

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  4. You should have told them that you were doing a high-profile short, and that the first company to pony up $50 got their game in the movie.

    It's all about product placement, and making them realize that having their game out there is a plus.

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  5. Ah, the old Tom Sawyer method.

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