With the continued and escalating success of The Witcher videogame series, the adventures of white-haired horndog Geralt of Rivia may soon be as well-known in the rest of the world as they are in Poland. And a new audience might soon get a taste of the monster-slaying creation of Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, because it’s being made into a film.
Geralt’s last digital adventure made it into our list of the best PC RPGs.
This won’t be the first movie adaptation. A film and TV series, The Hexer, were developed in 2001 and 2002 in Poland, though they did not make a fan out of Sapkowski. Comic books, card games and tabletop games have also spawned out of both the novels and CD Projekt Red’s series.
Unlike The Hexer, this new film is an American venture, inspired by the short story, ‘The Lesser Evil’, which is apparently where our pal Geralt got his charming nickname, The Butcher of Blaviken.
It doesn’t look like license holders CD Projekt Red are involved, which is a surprise, but the studio behind the film part of the company that developed those incredible cutscenes for the games, Platige Image. And remember that rather violent intro cinematic from The Witcher 2? That was directed by the same chap directing the film, Tomek Baginski. It’s worth noting that the film will be live action, however.
The film is due for release in 2017, and will be the first in a series.
Cheers, Eurogamer.