For the scope and scale of CD Projekt Red’s recently-released RPG masterclass Wild Hunt, there’s still plenty of lore buried within The Witcher IP, which itself links back to the adorned fantasy novels penned by Polish scribe Andrzej Sapkowski. It’s a resource-rich pool of all of the double-crossing bandits and powerful dynasties that the genre is celebrated for, and The Sean Daniel Company – production house behind The Mummy and Paramount’s Ben-Hur remake – is keen to mine that source material with a live-action adaptation of Sapkowski’s sprawling series.
News comes by way of an official press release from SDC, with a tentative release date now in place for 2017. Remaining true to the roots of the property itself, the studio is primed to work in tandem with Polish production company Platige Films on the video-game-to-movie project, who has referenced HBO’s Game of Thrones as a model for success.
No mention of a cast for The Witcher feature film, though it’s understand that it’ll follow Geralt of Rivia, the core protagonist across the vast majority of Sapkowski’s fantastical universe. Rather than adapting a specific story strand from the novels or the video games they inspired, SDC’s picture – pitched as the first in a series, mind you – will instead base its storyline on core themes and take strides toward adding a brand new chapter into the lore. The Cathedral’s Tomasz Baginski is behind the lens, working from a script penned by Thania St. John, whose writing credits cover numerous TV shows: Grimm, Chicago Fire, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The Witcher now joins a growing number of video game adaptations simmering in the works. From Assassin’s Creed to Splinter Cell, Sony’s troubled Uncharted film to 2016’s Warcraft: The Beginning, Hollywood is witnessing a renaissance with the platform-to-platform process, but which of the above will be able to crack the curse?
