Settlers of Catan Movie Project May Be in The Works

[StewShearerOld]

Settlers of Catan Movie Project May Be in The Works

Film producer Gail Katz has purchased the film and TV rights for Settlers of Catan.

Easily one of the best known <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/tabletop>tabletop games in existence, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/settlers%20of%20catan?os=settlers+of+catan>The Settlers of Catan was originally released in Germany in 1995. Since then it's enthralled countless players, been translated into dozens of languages and been adapted into a variety of forms including a two-player card game, a novelization and a variety of video game ports. Now, however, the series could be poised to enter an entirely new frontier: films.

That, at least, is if producer Gail Katz has her way.

Best known for her work on movies like Air Force One and The Perfect Storm, Katz recently acquired the film and television rights to Settlers of Catan. While no actual project has been announced as a result of the acquisition, Katz affirmed in a statement that she's eager to explore the possibilities presented by the "timeless world" of Catan. "I've been wanting to see an adaptation of the game for years, ever since my Catan-obsessed college-aged kids introduced me to it," she said. "The island of Catan is a vivid, visual, exciting and timeless world with classic themes and moral challenges that resonate today. There is a tremendous opportunity to take what people love about the game and its mythology as a starting point for the narrative."

The big question, of course, is what a film or TV show based on the game would actually be about. While, as Katz said, the world of Catan is certainly a "vivid" and fleshed out one, the game itself doesn't really have much of a central storyline. That being the case, one has to wonder if that couldn't wind up being an advantage for the project that eventually emerges from this. As countless video game movies have already demonstrated, Hollywood is kind of terrible at adapting game stories into film. Given a blank slate like Catan however, it would be more than possible for Katz and company to just come up with their own story and paste it into the world already established by the game. That's what the novel did and, by many accounts, it didn't <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Settlers-Catan-Rebecca-Gable/dp/1611090814/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424469377&sr=1-1&keywords=settlers+of+catan>turn out half bad.

Source: The Verge


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[cyber95]

A darkened room. A seedy looking man is lit by only candlelight.
"Do you wish to... make me an offer?"
Pan to the other side of the room, to see our grizzled hero.
"Yeah. I've got... sheep for wood."

 

[Virtual Boy]

You know what? This could be good. Give it a bit of a Game of Thrones vibe in terms of political intrigue and it might be really interesting.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I have never been more sure of a failed idea since the award winning poop and stale bread Space Shuttle to a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse.
Settles of Catan?! The board game people play when Risk is too fast paced and emotionally draining?! Seriously?! Why not just name the show 'Bored between college classes; The show!'

I mean holy fuck, might as well make a TV show off of Twilight Imperium where nothing happens for 10+ episodes.

 

[small]

i never understand projects like this, the connection to the board game is only to cash in on recognition from the name. if its a blank slate for a project why are you paying the hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars for the rights to the name in the first place, will it bring in that much extra cash having "settlers of catan" in the title?

now get to work on battleship 2 where we find out the results of the barbaric and vicious human attacks on the alien first contact mission which when horribly wrong when their communications were destroyed

 

[Li Mu]

I have never been more sure of a failed idea since the award winning poop and stale bread Space Shuttle to a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse.
Settles of Catan?! The board game people play when Risk is too fast paced and emotionally draining?! Seriously?! Why not just name the show 'Bored between college classes; The show!'

I mean holy fuck, might as well make a TV show off of Twilight Imperium where nothing happens for 10+ episodes.

I agree. Just because something exists, it doesn't mean that it must be turned into a movie. It's like some strange version of Rule 34. If it exists, they'll try and make a movie of it. If the movie already exists, they'll try and remake/reboot it.

 

[webkilla]

It will be a lovestory greater than Twilight: "The forbidden love that got wood for sheep"

 

[Tiamat666]

I have never been more sure of a failed idea since the award winning poop and stale bread Space Shuttle to a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse.

There is a German book based on the game, not sure if it has been translated into English. I was very sceptical about it at first. I mean, a book about a board game? WTF, right?
Then I read it and was very pleasantly surprised. It's a really well written book set in the early medieval age that beautifully ties into the theme of the board game, while still being a captivating story in itself. I thought it was really quite brilliant how this was achieved.

[a href="http://www.catan.com/for-fans/literature-multimedia/settlers-catan-novel"]It has been translated into English[/a]

 

[Bindal]

A movie about a boardgame.
Battleship, anyone?

 

[RoonMian]

A darkened room. A seedy looking man is lit by only candlelight.
"Do you wish to... make me an offer?"
Pan to the other side of the room, to see our grizzled hero.
"Yeah. I've got... sheep for wood."

Sheep for wood is at least better than having wood for sheep.

OT: Well, let's hope it will at least be better than the Battleships movie.

 

[Fat Hippo]

A movie about a boardgame.
Battleship, anyone?

This was my first though too. Goddammit, Hollywood has never had less ideas than it does today. I mean, I like Settlers of Catan, but this is just plain pointless. I'm not even sure it works on a marketing level, since I doubt Settlers has enough mass market appeal to fill seats. Monopoly (as terrible a game as it may be) would be more sensible in that regard (I have no idea whether a monopoly movie pitch has been made, though it seems almost inevitable).

 

[bdcjacko]

I'li get your rocks off with my wood.

Oh, you have longest road, is that what they are calling it now a days?

It has been a year of plenty.

 

[Elfgore]

My God... Robot Chicken got it right.


Seth Green truly is a genius.... at predicting stupid as fuck Hollywood trends.

 

[Stupidity]

I for one cannot wait for the new board game based on the video game, based on the movie, based on the board game.

 

[kat-pottz]

I feel like the only board game that would have a sufficient amount of naturally occurring human drama to make a movie out of would be Diplomacy. The unfortunate thing is that seeing as Diplomacy is even less known than Settlers it's unlikely any hollywood exec would green light such an idea.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Let me guess, this movie will be about an evil villain who conspires to build the largest army and the longest road, but just as he is about to complete his project the realm is saved by a plucky young hero who has secretly built two universities.

 

[Valmir]

I'D LIKE TO POINT OUT THERE IS ALREADY A SETTLERS OF CATAN BOOK, WHICH IN ITSELF IS PRETTY DECENT!!!! So enough with you hooligans and your "a board game into a movie makes no sense"

 

[Bindal]

I'D LIKE TO POINT OUT THERE IS ALREADY A SETTLERS OF CATAN BOOK, WHICH IN ITSELF IS PRETTY DECENT!!!! So enough with you hooligans and your "a board game into a movie makes no sense"

Nothing to do with "no sense" and more to do with "They did that already with Battleship"

 

[Pseudonym]

Slight spoiler warning, I suppose, but the summary of the book linked to on amazon has several flaws. For one, Elasund is not the only village the villagers have ever known (a significant part of them has traveled before), Candamir and Osmund do not lead their people on the search for Catan (though Candamir is captain of one of the nine ships) and the tension about who, if anyone, will get Siglind is resolved midway through the book and isn't as big a deal as the summary makes it out to be.

The book is pretty decent though. It certainly isn't great litarature nor does it have anything to do with the boardgame but it's pleasant to read. The charactars make sense and the book handels its religious subject matter in a good way. What I really cound't tell you is whether it describes the life of early medieval northern European tribes accurately. If the movie does something like the book it might even turn out halfway decent though I don't really see what sense it all makes. I understand everyones cynicism because Uwe Boll is a thing but on the other hand, I thought the pokemon anime was good so not all movie and tv adaptations of games must be awful.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

when you get down to the theme of the book, it's basicly a struggle for influence, right?
different sides, competing for resources, trying to outsmart eachother and wrest control over trade routes, striking smart bargains or holding a resource ransom for a high price...

That sounds like a movie to me.