Get Ready For a Magic: The Gathering Movie
The gods at 20th Century Fox are sending mana from heaven in the form of a Magic: The Gathering movie. Announced Monday, the studio has acquired screen rights to the fantasy card game from Hasbro in the hopes of launching "a massive franchise on the scale of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings."
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Simon Kinberg, the man who helped develop the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises at Fox, will be producing the adaptation. No word yet on how the adaptation of a dated card game that is largely played by aging men in the back rooms of strip mall comic book stores will play out, but the unlimited possibilities of the Multiverse will surely provide a rich plot. And while the idea that the franchise will be on the same scale as Harry Potter and LOTR is laughable, get ready for conversations about "Planeswalkers" to become slightly more socially acceptable.
For those concerned about Kinberg's ability to turn the beloved game into a film, never fear: this is not his first role in adapting weird games for the big screen. He also helped write the script for the low-budget Ouiji movie which will be released later this year.
