ಠ_ಠ Magic: The Movie

[EpicLevelCommoner]

There seems like there's been a lot of good back story/lore to MTG over the years. I could see something about Urza and Mishra being made into a movie that's not bad. It seems much more likely that this is a cash grab by Hasbro and will closer resemble a 2hr Jace commercial.

This is the problem I'm seeing. Magic's lore is so rich that it already takes multiple books to attempt to give it justice. Take into account that each block is only minimally interwoven with others (akin to the Elder Scrolls series), Fox and Hasbro should be having a tough time with just drafting a script.

What I'd like to see: Brother's War or Phyrexian Invasion

What I expect: Jace brooding over whether to get a booster pack at his LGS.

[Aggro_zombies]

They won't do something like the Brother's War or the Phyrexian Invasion because there's no potential tie-ins. Those plot threads are over in MtG canon and I doubt Wizards wants to go and revisit them by reprinting Invasion block wholesale or something. If we get anything, it'll be Jace, because they can make Jace-themed product tie-ins to milk people becoming interested in the game after watching the movie. Of course, the issue with that is that modern Magic does worldbuilding very well but modern story lines are fucking woeful, so the writers are probably going to be able to just come up with whatever they want using Wizards' characters and settings.

The only real question is whether it'll be worse than the D&D movie.

[phazonmutant]

Inquisitive slightly burnt out from el pulvo Christian Slater FTW.

Is it just me, or does Slater look constipated?

[virre]

The only real question is whether it'll be worse than the D&D movie.

That would be quite an acheivment.

[PirateKing]

Here's to many long years in development hell! Say hi to live action Akira while you're there.

[Kayradis]

[Dan Turner]

I am fully expecting a story kind of like this:

Kid is playing Magic finds out his opponent is actually a real planeswalker and he is here to train the kid on how to become one. May as well rip off the sorcerer's apprentice here. Figure it to be a 94 Minute ad for WOTC


[sarcasm]Time to buy up every card I can find to sell to teenie boppers leaving the theater[/sarcasm]

[Erdvermampfa]

This is going to be pretty embarrassing and will further reinforce the stigmatization of Magic players in general. Wizards and related businesses have a pretty generalized image of their customer base and I can already conceive how this will feed the general negative perception of the magic subculture.

[Barook]

Of course, the issue with that is that modern Magic does worldbuilding very well but modern story lines are fucking woeful, so the writers are probably going to be able to just come up with whatever they want using Wizards' characters and settings.

The story becomes worse and worse with each block. This time, they ripped of Warhammer 40k. Partying so hard that you create a new god? Yeah, sounds familiar...

Richard Garfield has done one hell of a job to make the core game strong enough to survive 20 years of Wizards' bullshit. The amount of mishandling the franchise outside of the game is astounding.

This movie is going to be a disaster, both in terms of quality and financially. Where's the mass appeal of such a movie?

[Lans89]

LoL, awesome!

[snorlaxcom]

At least I can say I played Magic before it was cool....

[jandax]

Can't wait to download a shaky cam version of the film and go to tournaments where no one talks because we're all to ashamed to be playing

[Plague Sliver]

You guys forgot the best part. Movie tie-in planeswalker cards with movie footage.

Robert Pattison as Jace, signed by...Robert Pattison.

Twilight fanboys and fangirls embracing M:TG, driving up sales.

/trying to find the silver lining

[Amon Amarth]

I'm not enthusiastic about this film's prospects for not sucking. If we got someone like Duncan Jones (doing the WoW film) then I could be more excited but Fox is involved and god damn if that doesn't make me shudder. Still, it's not like there isn't a lot of good lore or storylines available in Magic. Obviously Brother's War or The Weatherlight Saga would be sick. But even something newer like the original Ravnica block was pretty sweet. Whatever they put out it's got to be a step up from the books. Damn.

[Anvil]

I'm predicting a more of a planewalker origin story.Venser-esqe as in a person finding out he/she's a planeswalker and ultimately having to save a plane/his native plane.

I wonder, will there be a promo card a la pokemon ( first movie you got a movie promo MewTwo ) ? :P

[Koby]

"a series of films"

Oy vey.

[Slag]

Clearly, the easiest plotline for a mtg movie would be the patchwork 7th edition background story. It's all written right there in the southern paladin's flavor text:
"So, through some clips of the eastern and western paladins trashing some peasant villages, and probably the eastern paladin eating a baby, we can see that they are bad guys and need to be killed in an epic battle scene, so the other paladins decide to go get a magical army to beat them. The northern paladin goes and talks to the elves and they're like "yeah, I'm on board, and because all my elf guys are like legolas, and we've got some armadons." The southern paladin goes to talk to the lord of atlantis, and is like "come join us, because bant is clearly the good guy color combo," but the LoA is like "naw, I'm going to be a wild card for this flick." So the armies go to war for like the last hour and a half of the movie, and the good armies seems to be losing despite the fact that they have spined wurms and the bad guys have goblins and cockroaches, because red is the other bad guy color, and there are dragons, because dragons are in right now, and magic has a bunch of dragons. But then the LoA shows up and helps the good guys, and everyone is cheering and killing the bad guys and probably the southern paladin dies because he only has one eye, anyway. Then everyone leaves the theatre exhilarated, but on further review the movie wasn't that great." 3/3

[PirateKing]

I'm on board only if they get the whole production team that did the 80s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon show. Because that was bad in the best of ways.

[majikal]

I'm kind of shocked that they didn't give the option to Disney, since Hasbro does pretty much all of the merchandising for that company.

And for what it's worth, Disney would treat it right. Give it to Lucasfilm or Touchstone and you've got gold (as long as actual George Lucas doesn't touch it).

[Leftconsin]

I'm predicting a more of a planewalker origin story.Venser-esqe as in a person finding out he/she's a planeswalker and ultimately having to save a plane/his native plane.

I wonder, will there be a promo card a la pokemon ( first movie you got a movie promo MewTwo ) ? :P

I think this is most likely. The writers of the film probably won't assume that the audience knows what a planeswalker is or does. Thus we get something like Star Wars IV, V, and VI where Obi-Wan and Yoda explain the Jedi stuff to Luke (and the audience at the same times) as he is becomes one.