
“Rolling in the sheeeeeeeeeeeep.”
You’ll have to excuse our Adele paraphrasing, we’re just excited to hear that Sony (SONY) Pictures is in negotiations to acquire the rights to adapt the internationally popular board game The Settlers of Catan into a feature length film. How, you may ask, can Catan translate into a full blown movie? We have no idea. But if they can make an okay-enough film out of Angry Birds, they can do anything.
Variety reports that Gail Katz (The Perfect Storm, Air Force One) will produce after acquiring the rights back in 2015. Dan Lin (It, The Lego Movie) and Jonathan Eirich will also come on board as producers. Blaise Hemingway will pen the screenplay.
Per the outlet, Sony is fast-tracking the project with eyes on launching a new franchise. Again, we have no idea how they will construct a story or create characters for it (there damn well better be knights), but their best bet is to make a family friendly animated feature. The aforementioned The Angry Birds Movie pulled in nearly $350 million worldwide, per Box Office Mojo, and Catan has sold more than 25 million copies in 38 languages across the globe. People dig this shit.
“We’re excited to be working with Sony to bring the iconic world of Catan to life,” Katz told Variety. “As huge fans of the game, we’re struck by the endless possibilities of stories that it could inspire. It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to work in a world beloved by millions of people, and expand its story for the screen.”
Klaus Teuber originally designed the game in 1995 and Germany soon honored it with its game of the year award. Since then, it has branched out into hundred of additional expansion and companion games while Catan tournaments have popped up around the world. Sorry Pokemon, but ya’ basic.
The objective in Catan is to leverage scarce resources in order to build a dominant community against rival players over the ever-changing fictional island of Catan. It’s like a quicker-paced Risk with more interaction between players. It’s awesome, trust us. We’ve spent many a Friday night eschewing social lives in favor of perfecting our dice throwing skills.