It’s no secret that Hollywood used to have a problem with making decent movie adaptations of popular games. No movie made that case better than 1993’s Super Mario Bros. Since then, we’ve seen a lot of improvements in that space, but what sets the good adaptations apart from the bad ones normally comes down to how familiar the filmmaker is with the source material. We reported in February that a new Magic: The Gathering movie was in development. Now we can share that the director of this movie has a history with the cards.
Matt Johnson, most well-known for his web series and movie — Nirvana The Band The Show, is also a fan of Magic: The Gathering. In fact, he once played competitively in a limited Pro Tour Grand Prix. Speaking with Sean Fennessey on The Big Picture podcast, Johnson recounted a story of the time he got obliterated by Richard Hoaen during the Champions of Kamigawa Grand Prix.
In the podcast, he said that it was 2006, but he likely mixed up the dates as Champions of Kamigawa was released in October of 2004, and a Detroit Grand Prix was held in April 2005. Johnson made it to day two, but Richard Hoaen would go on to win 2nd place in that Grand Prix.
Matt Johnson said about the experience, “I made the decision right then to take filmmaking seriously, because I'm never going to be a pro Magic player. Then I just quit… broke my heart. For years, I've said I would trade my entire career to be a professional Magic card player. Now I'm making the Magic card movie. It's almost like someone was listening. It was like making a wish on a monkey paw. To me, that's my Star Wars. Getting to revisit a world that I know so well, that I love so much, that meant so much to me, is surreal.”
We don’t yet know much about the upcoming movie except that Johnson is directing and that writers Noah Gardner and Aiden Fitzgerald are also attached to the project. Additionally, an animated series is being developed for Netflix
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