Rand Miller’s Cyan Worlds Signs Deal With Legendary To Develop ‘MYST’ TV Series
Rand Miller’s Cyan Worlds has inked a deal with production company Legendary to develop a TV series based on one of the most iconic video games ever created, MYST. The rumors of such a partnership with Legendary has been swirling around since last month, but a report from Variety confirms the partnership between developer Cyan Worlds and Legendary. Legendary is one of the top Hollywood production companies with a score of high grossing box office hits which began with the critical and commercially successful Batman Begins in 2005 and most recently with Godzilla.
Cyan Worlds was co-founded by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller who programmed the original MYST on the old Macintosh HyperCard language. The success of the game was a watershed moment for the video game industry as MYST became one of the most popular video game franchises to date. Debuting in 1993 on the Apple Macintosh, the series has sold more than 15 million copies with several sequels and spinoff projects. As VentureBeat reports, it has direct brand awareness with 40 million players which is statistic that would make any marketing executive consider a partnership. MYST holds the record of the best selling game in the 20th century with its direct sequel, Riven, earning the 4th place spot. Even today the franchise continues to populate numerous top seller lists and the game has been ported to numerous systems including iOS and Android.
The franchise went on to have 5 releases in the core series. The titles included the original MYST, Riven, Exile, Revelation and End of Ages. Uru: Ages of MYST was a MMO that went through many cancelations and incarnations, but still exists today and is curated by developer Cyan Worlds with a strong cult following. 3 well received novels were written to flesh out the backstory of the MYST universe and a 4th book is still planned. Remastered editions of the original MYST have also been created to take advantage of modern gaming technology as opposed to the original hypercard building of the original release in 1993.
A TV series based on the MYST universe is another video game project from the Hollywood heavyweight as a feature-length film based on Capcom’s Dead Rising is currently in production. It will be released exclusively on Sony’s Crackle distribution service. There firm also has Mass Effect and Warcraft movies in production based off the respective games.
It is unclear at this time if the series will be a traditional broadcast show or if it will be one of the new digitally distributed projects such as the Adam Sandler and Crouching Tiger deals at Netflix.
Image Source | Cyan Worlds
