20th Century Fox has managed to close a deal for the screen rights of the popular card game Magic: The Gathering with Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast (the developer behind the Magic: The Gathering ), in order to produce a series of films based on the game, with an aim to launch a massive franchise akin the the size of Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings , according to the Hollywood Reporter . So, I’m imagining either a saga or a trilogy, with screentime lasting up to three hours.
Fox has enlisted the writing and producing skills of Simon Kinberg to help with the production of the movie adaptation, who will also be keeping in touch with Hasbro executives as the franchise’s engineer to oversee the development of the movie series. Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner and Wizards of the Coast president Gregg Leeds will also be helping the production aspect of the project.
Having only just recently gotten back into Magic: The Gathering , I can’t help but feel that I’m noticing a little bit more to do with the game that what I otherwise would, like finding that one supercar in GTA: San Andreas and then seeing that every other sod now has the same “rare” car as you. I’m still trying to beat the main campaign of Magic 2014 on the hardest difficulty on Steam, so when I noticed this story appear on my Twitter feed, I was almost immediately drawn to it with piqued curiosity.
No mention of an anticipated release date has been detailed, as the project is still in its very early days. I have to say, I am interested in watching this when it hits the big screen, but I’m also quite wary, because movie adaptations in the past have been legendarily bad. Then again, the movie adaptation of the Space Marines from Warhammer 40,000 turned out to be quite enjoyable, so I’m willing to give this adaptation the benefit of the doubt.