The Witcher will be the first in a series of movies based on The Witcher book series.
The Witcher, once an obscure series of Polish dark fantasy books, has been propelled into global popularity thanks to CD Projekt Red’s incredible video game series. As seems to slowly be becoming the norm with big video game franchises, The Witcher is getting its own movie and TV series, which will kick off in 2017 with a flick based on two Witcher short stories.
Reportedly, The Witcher video game developer CD Projekt Red will have nothing to do with the movie, which is being produced by Platige Film – the folks behind The Mummy film franchise. Platige Image – Platige Film’s parent company – is also responsible for all of the incredible cinematics from all three Witcher games, and the film’s director – Tomek Baginski – directed the intro cinematic for The Witcher 2.
The two stories the first movie will be based on are The Witcher (1986) and The Lesser Evil. The Witcher (1986) was the very first story written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, and follows Geralt as he takes on a contract to confront a monster risen from the double-coffin of a mother and daughter who died in childbirth several years before. The Lesser Evil concerns Renfri, a cursed daughter of nobility described as a brutal Snow White.
Veteran writer Thania St. John, who recently wrote for TV series Grimm, will work on the script as well as the TV and film follow-ups.
Usually, video game-to-movie efforts are… well, not great, but this time it looks like they are looking at the source material and building the film’s base on that. The Witcher video games had incredible cutscenes, so I’ve no doubt that Baginski can put together an awesome film. If nothing else, it will have plenty of blood, gore, and nudity.
Source: Eurogamer
