After enjoying a good twenty years of popularity amongst tabletop gamers, “Magic: The Gathering” has gotten the green light on the road becoming a major motion picture. According to the Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Fox recently acquired the film rights to the Hasbro’s gaming franchise. For those of you who clicked this link in the hopes that a Criss Angel biopic was finally in the works, I’m sorry to disappoint you—but not that sorry. “Magic: The Gathering” is a card game in which two players try to murder each other with an arsenal of spells, monsters, and enchantments. It’s still a bit early to speculate as to how exactly a film adaptation of such a game will take place, but Fox has tapped—pun intended—Simon Kinberg to produce, which isn’t a bad place to start. Kinberg is well-versed in the world of adapting geek culture into film, with a resumé that includes work on “X-Men: First Class” along with its subsequent sequels “Days of Future Past” and “Apocalypse;” as well as the upcoming “Fantastic Four” reboot.
The filmmakers have a wealth of source material to draw from, given that each series of cards comes complete with a detailed back story. As I’m sure Kinberg along with key members of Fox’s upper management are reading this post, here are some potential storyarcs that could be developed into a moderately cool film.
Urza’s Saga – As the Urza expansion introduced fans to the idea of a planeswalker, powerful warriors that can shift back and forth between the different worlds of Magic’s expansions, it would make sense to begin a film franchise here. Not to mention that the saga chronicles an epic conflict between two powerful brothers and has the potential to spawn a few sequels—I would hope that Gerrard and the crew of the Weatherlight would get their own film. Put together a decent cast, outfit them in green motion capture bodysuits, and this could be something amazing.
Innistrad – What would happen if a film managed to successfully merge the period drama of “Downton Abbey” with the action-oriented “Underworld” series? Based on the popularity of both franchises, I could see how a film set in the Innistrad expansion could be an interesting direction for the film adaptation to take. Innistrad is a quasi-Victorian realm in which humans are basically livestock for a noble caste of vampires whose vicious excesses would put Jordan Belfort to shame. Innistrad’s storyline involves the return of an avenging angel who liberates Innistrad’s humans from their vampire oppressors, which could lend itself to a movie adaptation—especially with some heavy focus on a human-led resistance that could appeal to fans of “The Hunger Games” and “Battlestar Galactica.”
Ravnica: City of Guilds – By far my favorite expansion in the game’s history, Ravnica takes mythical creatures like elves, goblins, and angels and throws them into a world-spanning urban sprawl in which ten guilds bicker and skirmish for political power. The original storyline follows the dissolution of a neutrality treaty among the ten guilds, which plunges the city into a violent civil war. Though the original storyarc could be a bit complex for a film adaptation, a huge city populated by fantastical, superpowered beings could, in the right hands, be veered into the same mind-bending territory that Alan Moore explored with his graphic novel “Top 10.”
Though the cynic in me thinks that this is just another one of Hollywood’s attempts to capitalize on a geek subculture with a built-in fanbase, I’m optimistic about two things here. One, Kinberg seems like the kind of guy who could make sure this film is at least enjoyable; two, The CEO of Hasbro and the president of Wizards of the Coast are slated to be on the production team. Let’s just hope this project doesn’t end up like Urza’s assault on the plane of Phyrexia. Am I right guys? Guys?