Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
Presumably operating on the principle that anyone who could make the founding of BlackBerry into one of the most funny and watchable “business biopics” of the last few years could possibly do the same for mana, land tapping, artifacts, etc., Hasbro has reportedly approached BlackBerry director Matt Johnson to helm the Magic: The Gathering movie it’s been threatening for a while at this point. This is per Deadline, which made it clear that no contracts have been signed, and none of this is set in stone, but that the toy company is interested in recruiting Johnson to take on the project.
It’s an interesting pick: Johnson has spent most of his career working to his own pace and tempo, creating web shows and comedy films firmly in the indie space. (BlackBerry represents his most overtly commercial effort, and it’s about as independent a take on the idea as you can get.) Approaching him to direct the lead-off project for what Hasbro and Legendary are hoping to be a whole universe of Magic live-action films is a bold swing, is all we’re saying. (If nothing else, Johnson is clearly a guy who likes working comedy into his projects, while the lore of Magic: The Gathering tends to be about as humorless as it gets. We’re not saying there’s no comedy in Magic, but it tends to happen at the margins and in card flavor text, not in the capital L Lore.)
Which is all to say: We will absolutely go see a Matt Johnson Magic movie, but we were also the people who remain extremely bummed that more people didn’t go see the funny, inventive Dungeons And Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, so we’re not sure we’re the best demographic to use to gauge mainstream interest on stuff like this. Still, Hasbro clearly thinks it’s got something here: The game company started talking up plans to expand Magic out into a multimedia property back in February, announcing a whole host of potential projects that will kick off with this hypothetical live-action film at some as-yet-unknown future date.
