So Fox bought the rights to a Magic The Gathering Movie...

[Sarah Kerrigan]

The movie is to be written by Simon Kinberg, writer of a few of the Star Wars Spinoffs and producer of X-Men. They claim they want to launch it was a huge franchise like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.

Seeing as this ever may see the light of day, what does everyone think? As a huge Magic Player, I am excited, but a little weary.

For extra fun, whom would you cast as a few of the planes walkers and what set would you want it to be based off of? Me and a few friends have narrowed down David Tenant (Doctor Who) as Venser, and a tie between Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy, Pacific Rim) or Russell Crow (everyone knows him)for Gideon Jura. For sets, we're all thinking Ravnica or even Innistrad.

What does everyone else think?

 

[BQE]

Ravnica has come back twice, but if I had to guess then the movie would be about the planeswalkers with the most coverage nowadays, not the old Weatherlight stuff from the past.

Liliana, Garruk, Jace, Ajani, Chandra, probably Nicol Bolas due to his influence and maybe a few others that have seen multiple runs such as Elspeth.

 

[Tanis]

I could see this working if they used some of the books as a base.

There's a LOT of material there, though I'd rather have a proper Dragonlance movie myself.

 

[madwarper]

Personally, I'd like to see them start from the Brother's war.

 

[chinangel]

the irony is that Fox News will probably blast it.

On the other hand this could be really good or really bad since most of MTG doesn't really have that much of a story, though there are books.

Basically, I can see this going horrible as they're probably just going to build a 'Lik LOTR but wif MAJEEKS!' idea.

 

[Jarlaxl]

Ravnica has come back twice, but if I had to guess then the movie would be about the planeswalkers with the most coverage nowadays, not the old Weatherlight stuff from the past.

Liliana, Garruk, Jace, Ajani, Chandra, probably Nicol Bolas due to his influence and maybe a few others that have seen multiple runs such as Elspeth.

...just give me some Sorin Markov. Hell, "The Wacky Adventures of Sorin Across the Multiverse" would be great.

Every other new 'walker can take a long walk off a short plane.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

They paid the money to slap the title on whatever fantasy piece of a crap they turn out.

This seems to be the only way original movies get made, they get made and they just buy the title of something popular.

 

[RJ 17]

My guess is that they're going to make an "original" story and have an actually set made based around the events of the movie, kinda the way a lot of movies these days have a videogame based off of them.

As for casting...eh, I really don't care. With regards of what/who I'd personally like to see in it:

Chandra
Lilianna
Jace
Garruk
Tezzeret
Nicol Bolas
Sorin
Koth
What'sHisFace the Silver Golem

As for what set I'd like them to base it around: either the Eldrazi story or the return to Mirrodin story. I think Ravnica would be much more suited for a TV series than a movie series.

 

[blackaddicus]

What'sHisFace the Silver Golem

That would be Karn.

As a magic player myself I am having conflicting thoughts about the prospect of MTG films. On the plus side it would be good for the brand, as player numbers will explode from people who liked the movies. However on the negative side, it could get out of hand and quickly, end up in a cavalcade of mediocrity that had befallen several movie franchises.

In reality, though, it's going to piss me off to no end that some kid will say, "Oh, have you ever played Magic? I was there in the beginning, right after the first movie...". When i turn up to a FNM or tournament after a a break, that will likely will happen with my chosen field of future work.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

The movie is to be written by Simon Kinberg, writer of a few of the Star Wars Spinoffs and producer of X-Men. They claim they want to launch it was a huge franchise like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.

Seeing as this ever may see the light of day, what does everyone think? As a huge Magic Player, I am excited, but a little weary.

For extra fun, whom would you cast as a few of the planes walkers and what set would you want it to be based off of? Me and a few friends have narrowed down David Tenant (Doctor Who) as Venser, and a tie between Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy, Pacific Rim) or Russell Crow (everyone knows him)for Gideon Jura. For sets, we're all thinking Ravnica or even Innistrad.

What does everyone else think?

Magic the gathering is not a very good for a film. The story and lore is all a secondary consideration to the effects and balance of the cards. There is a single major narrative thread one could easily follow with the series. How much do you include? The goblins, the planewalkers, the characters from entirely useless cards?

Unless they want to make the film about playing the game itself, although Yu-Gi-Oh shows how much of a BAD idea that is.

 

[sky14kemea]

They paid the money to slap the title on whatever fantasy piece of a crap they turn out.

This seems to be the only way original movies get made, they get made and they just buy the title of something popular.

Like the Last Airbender movie?

OT: I don't know much about MtG, except the card game. I don't see how that can be made into a full length fantasy movie, nevermind a whole franchise on the movies. Do the books about it have a built up world/characters/story in them to back it up?

 

[Reed Spacer]

So is this going to be a movie entirely devoted to the characters whipping cards at each other?

 

[Realitycrash]

I want them to include Yawgmoth. Because Yawgmoth was awesome. Phyrexia in general is awesome.
But no, I don't hold too high hopes about the movie.

 

[RJ 17]

In reality, though, it's going to piss me off to no end that some kid will say, "Oh, have you ever played Magic? I was there in the beginning, right after the first movie..."

I would sincerely have to hope that such a thing would never happen. If it does, well I believe that's the day I'll be arrested for assault charges and/or child abuse for straight-up slapping a kid I don't know right across the face.

Bottom Line: this is going to be like every other movie based off a game (be it videogame or otherwise): there's potential for greatness, but far greater potential to fuck things up.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Usually Hasbro has a really good handle on those things. We'll see... For now i give them the benefit of the doubt.
There's a bajillion ways they could make this movie and with the modern Planeswalkers they've enough icons they can use as the face of MTG.

So probably the movie will be about Jace Beleren and the whole Nicol Bolas shebang. Probably the 2 most popular beings that are still alive. Or Elspeths journey.

 

[BARADOK]

Urza saga, without a doubt. Best characters, best setting, multiple deck series. Basically the most important set in the game. If you aren't old enough to have played during the Urza days, get some play time in with these cards and you will see some amazing things happen.

 

[Mersadeon]

Oh I hope so much that this will be good. I would love to see more people get into it!

My bet: it's gonna be about Ajani. Although, given how the new Magic game is all about Chandra, maybe it's her - I haven't played it yet, so I don't know what part of her story is told in that. It definitely won't be Liliana or Tezzeret - the time for blatant bad guys in the main role has passed in my eyes, especially since this is essentially a superhero movie.


My biggest hope? They do the original Mirrodin Saga. Although I don't think that will happen, it would be awesome. Mirrodin was what really got me to transition from a casual to a Magic-freak, so I would love to see it on the big screen.

In the end though, even if the movie itself is bad, at least we're gonna get really nice landscape shots. Just think of it - all of the newer planes (Ravnica, Innistrad, Lorwyn/Shadowmoor, Zendikar) have incredibly goodlooking places.
Now I kinda hope it will be Zendikar - it has by far the coolest landscape, to the point that I have prints of the land-wallpapers on my walls.

 

[el derpenburgo]

I am a huge Magic fan but this is just ridiculous.

It is very clearly a bottom of the barrel sort of thing from Fox, who probably wanted other genre fiction material to adapt but was knocked back on account of being a third rate studio. Wizards of the Coast on the other hand probably see this as a gimme, since they would never have dreamed of such luck.

I would love nothing more than sci-fi/fantasy adaptations to just pack it in now, so many have sucked balls and personally I am sick of them. There's a strange irony that fantasy settings have become unoriginal in current years, and the more that are made, I think will keep diminishing the overall effect of those kinds of movies. If this movie ever sees the light of day there is no doubt it will be shit. No thought in the production process, no real artistically driven design, it will be helmed by Joe McZ-List because it will sell just as many tickets if it was helmed by bloody Spielberg. That is the nature of this fantasy adaptation genre now, the saturation has just killed it.

Magic already works in our heads as an abstract fantasy world described by a rich tapestry of game mechanics and card artworks. Not a lot of genre fiction has that kind of depth going for them. I'm not saying people are silly for thinking this movie could actually be good, but I am saying people are silly for thinking the concept of the Magic planes can be translated at all to movie form.

edit: I should point out I haven't read any books, I just play the game. But I do pay attention to the flavour and flesh out what's been put on the cards with my own interpretations, which is what I think sets apart Magic's fantasy setting from everything else.

 

[Pickles]

I really really want this to be awesome, because magic has a wide enough variety of settings and characters to make it interesting.
But I'd be incredibly surprised if this turned out to be anything better than awful.

 

[Rob Robson]

Ravnica has come back twice, but if I had to guess then the movie would be about the planeswalkers with the most coverage nowadays, not the old Weatherlight stuff from the past.

Liliana, Garruk, Jace, Ajani, Chandra, probably Nicol Bolas due to his influence and maybe a few others that have seen multiple runs such as Elspeth.

That would suck massively.

Newer MTG is stale and shallow, anything good will start and end with the Weatherlight, Gerrard, Urza, Barrin, the ship's crew, Karn etc.

The ideal period being Tempest ---> Prophecy and everything in between.

Nemesis is still the best novel from the Magic: The Gathering series, and Urza's Saga/ Mercadian Masques the most intense two-block period.

Also I want the scene on this card in a movie: