It was inevitable that the people behind HBO’s insanely popular (and remarkably good) fantasy series Game of Thrones would branch out and land big Hollywood jobs. Alan Taylor moved from helming some episodes of the show to directing big-budget tentpoles like last year’s Thor: The Dark World and next year’s Terminator: Genesis, and now one of the writers on the series has been tapped by 20th Century Fox for a massive potential blockbuster.
Bryan Cogman, a producer, story editor and writer on GOT, has been hired to pen the Magic the Gathering film adaptation, which Fox acquired the rights for back in January. The film is being produced by Hasbro and X-Men: Days of Future Past scribe Simon Kinberg.
For those unfamiliar with the property, Magic the Gathering is actually a fantasy trading card game, created in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. It quickly became a cult phenomenon and has showed no signs of slowing over the last two decades. Each game represents a battle between wizards known as “Planeswalkers,” who employ spells, creatures, and artifacts to defeat their opponents.
I’ve personally never played Magic the Gathering, but I can clearly see the film potential in the property. Cogman has written some of the best episodes of Game of Thrones, so he’s certainly a great choice to write the film and will hopefully find a way to translate the game into an entertaining movie franchise on par with something like Lord of the Rings.
Magic The Gathering currently doesn’t have a director or release date, but with Cogman now in place, we can expect to hear more information on the film soon. Tell us, do you think Cogman is a good choice to bring this property to the big screen? Sound off in the comment section below.