Topic: Magic The Gathering Movie

[Shiroi Koumori]

The MTG novels are good, so they can make use of those.
Word of advice to the ones making those films (they want it to be a series): Don't fuck up.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/fox-bring-magic-gathering-big-670529

[Ratty]

Interesting. I never played it but have known a lot of people who do over the years. Been thinking about reading the books lately, would you say the earliest ones are good? I prefer to read series in order of release. Fingers crossed this means we get to see some awesome Merfolk action! And maybe they'll finally release a line of artbooks, some of the art is just so gorgeous http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/downloads.aspx?x=mtg/daily/downloads/wallpapers it's a shame to have them only on tiny cards.

PS- One interesting thing about this is that when the people at Fox were saying "Those Hobbit movies are making money hand over fist, we gotta get us one of those fantasy franchises." it's a lot like what was said when the LotR trilogy came out and a terrible Dungeons & Dragons movie got made.
Now, Dungeons & Dragons and Magic the Gathering are both owned by the same company (Hasbro) so Fox consciously chose to get the license for MtG rather than D&D. And I don't think it was because the D&D license was more expensive or anything, because I'm pretty sure MtG is far and away the more profitable franchise at this point. So either Fox didn't want to associate with the terrible D&D movies that were made before, or they thought the D&D brand was too nerdy/niche in comparison to MtG.

[Mooning Freddy]

Making a story out of a card game is not an easy task. It could be interesting, and it could be awfully mediocre.
Isn't magic the gathering a dark fantasy? I'd dig one of those dark mature rated stories like The Witcher. At the very least they're not boring.

[Shiroi Koumori]

@Ratty: I would admit that the MTG books I have are in random order rummaged from 2nd hand shops, since the books do not have that much of a fan following in my country. Usually, the best way to read them is by the order they were published. But since I do not have that luxury, it is alright to read them in random order but when you are reading the cycle books, be sure to read them in the proper order for each cycle or else it will make your head hurt. There are references to events in the previous cycles but as far I as have experienced with the  "Time Spiral Cycle" (the only ones I have as a set), they explain the past events concise enough to understand what is going on in the current cycle.

Here's a wiki list of the books:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magic:_The_Gathering_novels

MTG's art is so gorgeous. I sometimes just admire the cards for their art and not for their strength in battle.

Trivia: John Howe, one of the conceptual designers for Peter Jackson's LOTR and The Hobbit movies, did some illustrations for MTG. http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&artist=%5B%22John%20Howe%22%5D

@Freddy: That is why I hope that they follow the novels. And I do hope they don't get tongue-tied with the character names.

[Aridale]

Well thats interesting. I love MTG and have played since 3rd edition. Its not somethin I do very much or very often anymore but Im still into it. I never thought theyd make a movie tho. That seems kinda pointless but I guess it could be good. They have a lot of backstory to expansions so they shouldnt have a problem makin a series of movies much less just one. As for the books Ive only read one. Cant even remember what it was called. I just remember the main character was called Garth "One Eye" and it was pretty good. Good enough I still think about it occasionally years (and I mean years) later

[Intersection]

You can't make a movie out of a card game. And I'm saying this as an erstwhile MTG fanatic (I've been on a break since the Innistrad block). I've seen too many of these attempts fail, and for no better reason than the simple "game ≠ movie" rationale. The novels are decent, but hardly movie-worthy.

Still, if you think there's any reason to believe in the franchise's cinematic success, I'd be glad to hear what you have to say. MTG might just be a first...

[Shiroi Koumori]

I am just trying to think positive and hope that MTG will not go the D&D path of cinematic failure.

[son_the_vampire]

So if they were to move forward with this, which era should they start at? I would love to see them take it as far back as Volrath the Fallen or even earlier and work their way up! I'll stay tuned in.