Since he left Marvel last year, Avi Arad has been pretty busy – not only with producing duties on the likes of Spider-Man 3, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man, but with setting up projects at his new company, Arad Productions.
Ever the consummate businessman, Arad has so far targeted properties that have considerable appeal to children (and, if we’re frank, nobody else). The first movie he produced, post-Marvel, was an adaptation of kids’ dolls, Bratz, and the result was everything you might have imagined, and feared.
Next up, Arad will bring Japanese toy, Robosapien, to the big screen, with an eye on the Transformers market and another on a late 2008 release date. But, with Bratz’ $22 million worldwide gross in mind, he’s now set his sights on a property that isn’t based on a toy: EverQuest.
Known in the Empire office as the MMORPG that isn’t World Of Warcraft, EverQuest is a fantasy epic that debuted in 1999 and is absolutely huge, with thousands of characters, landscapes and magical abilities to draw upon.
So we don’t envy the task of screenwriter Michael Gordon (300) in trying to make sense of the game for a two-hour movie. Gordon came up with the original pitch for the movie, which will feature some seminal characters from the game apparently, so he must know what he’s doing.
Traditionally, videogames haven’t translated well to the big screen – even if the movies are modest hits, a la Resident Evil, they’re usually godawful. But Arad and Sony Pictures are clearly confident that EverQuest has the Lord of the Ringsy potential, not to mention the fanbase, to buck that trend.
The movie will be released in 2010 or 2011. Probably.