Not to be outdone by Duncan Jones wrangling Warcraft to the big screen, 20th Century Fox and prolific producer Simon Kinberg have targeted fantasy card game Magic: The Gathering as a potential franchise{
First launched back in 1993 by role-playing games company Wizards Of The Coast, the collectible card combat series has gone on to become a massive international phenomenon, with players hunting down cards with the best tactical abilities featuring wizards and other creatures. Initially catching on in comic book shops, the tournaments and influence of the game has spread far further, turning into a huge industry, with Hasbro snapping up the original company and licenses.
Kinberg, who you’d be forgiven for thinking would already have enough on his plate shepherding the X-Men and Fantastic Four Marvel-based universes for the studio, is on board to act as the man behind the curtain for any **Magic **plans, overseeing development on the resulting film – or, as the company no doubt hopes, films – alongside the Hasbro executives.
**Magic **has proved unsurprisingly adaptable to online and video game formats, and the basic narrative of wizard combat could well lend itself to film. We may have a fantasy fight on our hands, though Jones is out ahead, with shooting on Warcraft already underway…