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It's Finally Happening - Myst The Movie is Now in the Works!

by Alex Billington
September 30, 2010
Source: Deadline

I will never forget the months of my youth that I spent, often frustrated, scouring the mysterious island from Myst. I knew, even back then, that they would one day turn it into a movie, I just didn't think it would take 17+ years. Deadline reports that producers Hunt Lowry (A Time to Kill, Cypher) and Mark Johnson (Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Chronicles of Narnia) have partnered with Adrian Vanderbosch and Isaac Testerman of Mysteria Film to acquire the rights to the Myst series from Cyan Worlds to develop into a live-action feature. After hitting shelves in 1993, Myst has gone on to become the biggest selling adventure game ever.

The producers haven't even hired a writer for the adaptation yet, but are actively looking for one to develop the project. They're hope, oddly enough (you will see why), is to establish a distinctive world from the Myst mythology (that expands beyond the initial island from the first game) similar to Chronicles of Narnia (that's where it's odd). Personally, I'm hoping this turns out a lot better than the Narnia films. They add:

"Our aim with this project is to stretch the genres it operated within, much like the source material did," Vanderbosch said. "It is such an innovative property and by utilizing the novels as our primary resource, we have the opportunity to offer audiences the essence of MYST without being limited only to the famous island of the first game. Our focus has always been on creating an entirely new visual experience driven by engaging characters and an epic narrative."

Despite my love for the first and second games, which I played fervently until I reached the end, I never got deep into the mythology or the novels that they're talking about. One focus of the film will be the influence of a human who enters Myst and inadvertently brings down the civilization. The mythology in the games focuses on a civilization known as the D'ni and the infinite number of worlds they could create and control. Myst the game puts the player in the role of the Stranger, who uses a special book to travel to the island of Myst. There, the player uses other special books written by an artisan and explorer named Atrus to travel to several worlds and rescue its owner from his imprisonment inside one of the books. Yea, it's quite crazy.

Simply the fact that I can vividly remember all of the words and the crazy island from the first game is proof that it has the potential to be incredible. I want to see a Myst movie, I just want to see it done well. However, I'd rather see them making comparisons to the atmosphere in Pirates of the Caribbean (Gore Verbinski) or The Road (John Hillcoat) rather than Chronicles of Narnia, since that just doesn't work. I think this has the potential to be an amazing movie (or franchise if done right), they just need to find the right filmmakers and get a good budget to pull it off. We'll definitely be following this closely. Any other Myst fans out there?

Related categories: Discussion, Movie News, Opinions

3Z3VH

Myst IV: Revelation and Uru had much richer, and more complete stories to them. I loved all the Myst games, and hope, as you do, that they do this RIGHT. I don't understand why the creator of the game (the guy who plays Atrus) isn't being considered for writing the screenplay.
3Z3VH

One thing is for sure, the movie is DESTINED to have great music !
bob

I loved Myst, Riven and the 2 novels. The 4 books and games narrated a solid story arc with a very definitive finale @ the end of Riven. For those of you who haven't read the books, the first is a back story of the D'ni civilization and it's downfall Atrus's grandmother was the main character in the book, the second is more a setup for the games, as it follows Atrus learning the world creating skill from his father. Until he manages to trap his father in the Riven world and escape with Catherine his wife to Myst, but to make sure his father couldn't follow them by using his Myst book, he jumps into a fissure before teleporting... that the start of the first game
Dogson

I loved Myst, Riven and the 2 novels. The 4 books and games narrated a solid story arc with a very definitive finale @ the end of Riven. For those of you who haven't read the books, the first is a back story of the D'ni civilization and it's downfall Atrus's grandmother was the main character in the book, the second is more a setup for the games, as it follows Atrus learning the world creating skill from his father. Until he manages to trap his father in the Riven world and escape with Catherine his wife to Myst, but to make sure his father couldn't follow them by using his Myst book, he jumps into a fissure before teleporting... that the start of the first game
Jeremy

I think this will be done right. There is actually a production blog for the project that was started by Mysteria years ago. I've been following it for a while. I really think they have the right idea. You can judge for yourselves: mystmovie.com
ekko90

FUCK YES!!! Ive personaly kepted thinking about this turning into a movie!! I'm glad there finally doing something about it!! I cant wait!!!
http://www.tigsource.com Alehkhs

Yeah, I've been following the process of getting to this point over at the writers' site, http://mystmovie.com/
beavis

hopefully, it's done well. there's lots of potential with this franchise.
Voice of Reason

yyyyaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnn
Xerxex

well this sounds pretty cool.
LINKFX

super double meh
B

the producers are probably really big "Lost" fans.
Jeep-Fu

Sweet! I love the Myst games (even though they no longer work on my computer >.<) and would love to see a (faithful) Myst movie. Now let's just hope Hollywood doesn't screw the pooch with these movies like they have so many others.
somedude

Loved the games, I dont think this will transfer over into a movie well at all.
http://Watcinema.com Adam Watson

The power of the Myst franchise is in it's novels, they are amazing and epic. I can see the Narnia parallels but its mood is much darker and its approach is more cerebral. I've wanted to make movies out of the Myst books for years.
case

I still have all of the Myst games, and the novels were exceptional pieces of work... honestly, if I had to choose a movie in the foreseeable future that I wanted to play a character in, it would be this one!
Tomi

When playing the game as a kid, one key element that made it special for me was how creepy I constantly felt. I felt alone on this island, with a strange vibe surrounding me. It would be really great if they could retain that feeling, but this would take a special director with a unique style and view... not the blockbuster cheese fest that is Narnia for instance. The game was minimal, keep the movie minimal also.
Sabes

This could be pretty cool.
Labrynian Rebel

Okay first of all this will not be "Myst: The Movie" the events of Myst and Myst itself will NOT appear. I've been following the myst movie project for a long time and it's based on the Book of Ti'ana and the main character will be Ti'ana and the location is going to be Dn'i and New Mexico, in fact Myst doesn't even exist yet! This is what happens: There is a race of people who have the power to create worlds from writing books. One day their world is dying so they write a new world, which they call "Dn'i" where they migrate to. They eventually build a huge city in "The Cavern" which is, as the name implies, a huge freakin' cavern underground. Unknown to the Dn'i people there are people living on the surface (that's us, yes the Dn'i are living underneath New Mexico) Anyways what happens is that a girl named Ti'ana finds her way down into The Cavern and is the first surface dweller to enter Dn'i. This is a problem because the Dn'i view all native peoples of the worlds they create as inferior barbarians. Ti'ana is eventually included into Dn'i society but because of that one thing leads to another and the Dn'i civilization is destroyed. Ti'ana moves back to The Cleft on the surface in modern day New Mexico and raises her half Dn'i half human child Gehn. Gehn writes many worlds and views himself as literally the god of these worlds and does a lot of evil stuff with his god complex. Gehn's son, Atrus eventually falls in love with a women named Catherine who is a native of Riven, one of the worlds Gehn created. Catherine and Atrus then work together to trap Gehn on Riven with no escape by destroying all the linking books on that world. Catherine and Atrus then move to Myst, a world written by Ti'ana. Then Ti'ana dies and is buried on Myst. Remember when Atrus and Catherine were trapping the evil guy with a god complex on Riven? One of the books was dropped in the Star Fissure which is a chasm in Riven that leads to the void between worlds, this exists because Gehn wrote Riven and he's a pretty crappy writer, hence the error. Anyways that book linked to Myst, and the book eventually ends up in New Mexico. Every world has a "linking point" where people from other worlds always appear, kind of like the front door of a world. Well our universe's linking point is New Mexico, hence why everything shows up there. ANYWAYS then the video game "Myst" takes place. "The Stranger" (that's you, the plater) find a book that fell out of the sky while walking around in New Mexico, you open it up and are transported to the world of Myst where you find that Atrus and Catherine are gone, and their two sons, Sirrus and Achenar each trapped in their own prison world both claiming that the other brother brought Myst to ruin. So if you want Myst The Movie to happen, it would take place after Book of Ti'ana The Movie and Book of Atrus The Movie. That's two movies away.
Jimmy Love

Great a 2 hour movie about figuring out puzzles. This is not the item you seek! argh back to that hut, oh wait which way oh Damn it! yeah sounds like riveting entertainment to me, Well if there gonna do this then they gotta let John Goodman do Pyst!
The Credenza Kid

Fuck up Myst and we'll be Pyssed.
Hobbes

@ Labrynian Rebel I thought I read Adrian saying that they will put the cavern under some desert in the middle-east, as it is in the books, not in the USA. For URU, Cyan had moved this to new mexico for better communication around the game I suppose.
Hobbes

I mean, because the location in new mexico looked like a real one in new mexico.
Hobbes

@ Jimmy Love I suggest you read the comment just before yours. I think you'll have a different opinion after that.