You always wanted to know more about these folks on the Catan box art, right?
I’m a big German board game fan. From Settlers of Catan to Carcassonne to Terra Mystica, if your game has a stack of cardboard titles to punch out and Ziploc baggies of wooden cubes to play with, I’m ready to throw down. That said, I’ve never once desired to see any of these games turned into movies or TV shows. German board games aren’t about the story, they’re about mechanics. In fact they’re usually about relatively dull things, like building roads and creating trade networks.
Well, the fact that The Settlers of Catan would make a terrible movie isn’t stopping somebody from trying! Gail Katz, who has previously produced movies like Air Force One and The Perfect Storm, has acquired the movie and TV rights to Settlers of Catan. Katz valiantly tried to make adapting Catan sound like a good idea…
“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. 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.”
No word on any specific plans for Catan movies and TV shows yet, but I’d say this project is squarely in Uwe Boll’s wheelhouse. Better tie him down quick. What about you folks? Any fellow board game geeks have any idea how Catan could be made into a compelling movie or TV show?
Via Variety