Village Roadshow are set to start developing the popular 1993 video game Myst into the cinematic world, having purchased the rights according to Deadline.
Originally created by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller via Cyan Incorporated, the company they founded, Myst is a surreal puzzle solving game with lore that alludes to strange, time warping texts, extinct civilisations and 10,000 years of interconnected events.
The primary lore follows Atrus, the brilliant but wet-behind-the-ears grandson of Anna, a woman who triggers a world-shaping set of events when she discovers the D’ni civilisation in a cavern deep below the New Mexico desert.
The purchase will allow Village Roadshow to develop the franchise in many new directions including TV, film and “other emerging distribution platforms” making it interesting to speculate as to what they exactly have in mind, Myst being very much an anonymous first person title where the bulk of the enjoyment comes from puzzle solving and story discovery.
As one of the precursors to the peaceful ‘walking simulator’ genre of games (at least before the style took a dark turn with Amnesia: The Dark Descent), Myst has been referenced and entered the general consciousness for its complex and layered backstory shrouded in secrets which are the reward for puzzle solving; I’m pretty sure JJ Abrams is a fan, for whatever that’s worth.
What do you think, Wasteoids? Interested in seeing Myst break out from the computer domain and find a home on the big and small screens? How would you adapt the conceptually ambiguous franchise for a passive audience?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!