We heard that Hasbro and Twentieth Century Fox were moving forward with a Magic: The Gathering movie, and now we have the full press release that makes it officially official.
Press Release
Twentieth Century Fox and Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) have joined forces to make a series of films based upon Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast’s fantasy-adventure property, MAGIC: THE GATHERING. Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past), whose Genre Films banner is based on the Fox Lot, will serve as the franchise’s creative steward and produce in close partnership with Hasbro.
The announcement was made today by TCF production president Emma Watts, and Stephen Davis, president of Hasbro Studios.
MAGIC: THE GATHERING is the world’s best strategy game, creating endless worlds and compelling characters that resonate with more than 12 million players and fans worldwide. As Hasbro’s number one game brand, and one of the biggest fantasy properties in the world, the global powerhouse offers tremendous potential for the film franchise.
Hasbro President & CEO Brian Goldner, Stephen Davis and Wizards of the Coast President Greg Leeds will produce the franchise together with Genre Films execs Aditya Sood and Josh Feldman. Fox creative executives Kira Goldberg and Ryan Jones and Hasbro Studios’ executive Daniel Persitz were integral in making the deal and will be overseeing development of the films.
“MAGIC: THE GATHERING today offers serialized entertainment on a variety of platforms including books, comics and globally popular digital and card games so the property is naturally suited to a series of films based on fantastic fan favorite stories from the past as well as new stories in development,” said Hasbro Studios’ President Stephen Davis. “We look forward to working with the creative team at Twentieth Century Fox, the talented Simon Kinberg and the Genre Films team to bring this franchise to the big screen and we’re confident MAGIC: THE GATHERING fans around the world will be thrilled with what we have in store for them.”
About Twentieth Century Fox Film
One of the world’s largest producers and distributors of motion pictures, 20th Century Fox Film produces, acquires and distributes motion pictures throughout the world. These motion pictures are produced or acquired by the following units of 20th Century Fox Film: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox International Productions, and Twentieth Century Fox Animation.
About Hasbro, Inc.
Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS) is a branded play company dedicated to fulfilling the fundamental need for play for children and families through the creative expression of the Company’s world class brand portfolio, including TRANSFORMERS, MONOPOLY, PLAY-DOH, MY LITTLE PONY, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, NERF and LITTLEST PET SHOP. From toys and games, to television programming, motion pictures, digital gaming and a comprehensive licensing program, Hasbro strives to delight its global customers with innovative play and entertainment experiences, in a variety of forms and formats, anytime and anywhere. The Company’s Hasbro Studios develops and produces television programming for more than 180 markets around the world, and for the U.S. on Hub Network, part of a multi-platform joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA, DISCB, DISCK). Through the company’s deep commitment to corporate social responsibility, including philanthropy, Hasbro is helping to build a safe and sustainable world for future generations and to positively impact the lives of millions of children and families every year. It has been recognized for its efforts by being named one of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” and is ranked as one of Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens.” Learn more at www.hasbro.com.
9 Comments
Now we wait for info about the details of the story.
story and cast come in booster packs
the good ending is mithic rare
Perfect, thank you.
I never got into Magic. I loved Netrunner and some other CCGs (not Pokemon or its like either).
What kind of story could actually be a “good” story? I’m only imagining something along the travesty that was the “Dungeons and Dragons” movie.
There is actually quite a bit of lore established for Magic. There was a sorta storyline for each block (group of sets), plus snippets from flavor text, novelizations of the stories and so on. The setting of the game isn’t fixed either, with multiple planes (worlds/dimensions/whatever you want to call it) represented in different blocks. But even though it doesn’t take place in a single setting, some aspects are consistent throughout the various settings, similar to some aspects of D&D’s various settings.
The building blocks for a good story are there, it would just have to be handled by someone who isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel like whoever made the first D&D movie.
Honestly? I’m not holding my breath for a great movie, but it COULD happen.
@Ken
You are optimistic. Remember the Battleship movie? Hasbro needs to fire the exec who thinks movie tie-ins to games are a good idea.
I’m not really sure how to feel about this. It has had a book series so it has been proven that more can be done with this franchise, but I’m not too sure about a movie. I really feel that if they were going to expand into this media it would probably benefit more as an ongoing TV show. It would have to be live action/CG. it would be a detriment to do it as an animated piece. though the best way is if they can actually pull off a full film franchise, kind of in the vain of how the Avengers film came about. It would be a flop in my eyes if they only can do a single movie and have to stick in world building, character building and a planeswalker war in an upwards of 2.5 – 3 hour movie.
I somewhat disagree about it being detrimental if it were animated. I agree it COULD go wrong if they went with the wrong animation style, but I think if they went with the right style of animation it would probably look better than trying to mix live action and CGI on a TV series budget.
I’ll agree with you there on the live action/CGI on a TV series budget, especially if it was on the SyFy network. It would need to be a decently large network for the Live/CGI to work. Also true on the animation style. if they went with new TMNT style or the Green Lantern animation, I don’t feel like that would work very well. The way it seems is if they did a solid animation that took its tones from the 80’s or 90’s that could work, things like the original Ninja Turtles or the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, I could even see it working with the animation art style used in Ben 10.