In a competitive situation, I hear Hulu has landed Myst, a drama series based on the classic 1990s video game, with a script-to-series commitment. The project hails from Legendary Television, The Amazing Spider-Man and Sinister Six producer Matt Tolmach and Divergent writer Evan Daugherty.
Written by Daugherty, Myst blends elements of science fiction and fantasy. It will explore the origins of the island of Myst from the game where a man wakes up on a mystery island with absolutely no idea who he is, where is, or how he got there.
Legendary Television acquired the rights to Cyan Worlds’ adventure game Myst last fall. Legendary brought in Tolmach, who has a first-look TV deal at the company, and feature writer Evan Daugherty, who was interested in penning the adaptation.
Daugherty developed the project with Matt Tolmach Productions’ Tolmach & David Manpearl as well as Legendary TV’s scripted team of Lauren Whitney, Peter Johnson and Cory Lanier, along with Cyan Worlds.
The pitch was taken out, garnering interest from multiple buyers before landing at Hulu, which commissioned a script which, upon approval, would trigger a straight to series order. Hulu & Legendary TV declined comment.
Originally released in 1993, Myst, a first-person journey in the interactive world of the island of Myst through the eyes of “Stranger,” was the biggest PC game seller of the 1990s, until The Sims rose to the top in 2002. It spawned a franchise with multiple sequels, selling over 12 million copies through 2003.
Tolmach has been based at Sony on the feature side since segueing from his post as the movie studio’s co-president of production to a producing deal in 2010. Television had not been a priority though Tolmach had been developing and selling a few TV projects independently. He stepped up his efforts when he entered his first formal TV agreement, a first-look deal with Legendary TV.
Legendary and Tolmach also recently acquired the rights to Greg Rucka and Michael Lark’s dystopian comic book series, Lazarus, to develop as a TV series. Legendary Television has two series in pre-production – Colony, from Carlton Cuse, at USA; and Love, from Judd Apatow, Paul Rust and Lesley Arfin, at Netflix. Tolmach’s features in the works include Jumanji, written by Chris McKenna; The Bringing; The Rosie Project with LEGO Movie’s Phil Lord and Christopher Miller; Dodge And Twist; and Royal Wedding with Roger Michell.
Hulu has been rapidly expanding its original slate with the upcoming series 11/22/63, from J.J. Abrams; Amy Poehler, Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner’s Difficult People; Jason Reitman’s Casual; and Jason Katims’ The Way.
Damn, that does sound cool, but it might not ever see it unless it’s released to DVD or another ad-free format.
Congrats to all!
Congrats to Cory who has been championing this for a long time!!!
Twee!
Evan’s an outstanding writer. His original Huntsman script was awesome before the studio messed with it.
This project has been shopped around for at least a decade, please don’t try to convince us that Hulu stepped into a bidding war for it.
Awesome! Now they should re-release the games for newer operating systems…haven’t been able to play them in a long long time…
Good idea! I never did finish the damn thing…
They did and there are 6 of them now
Thanks for the tip, I see it’s available for iPad!
They did. Its on steam. They actually converted it into a 3d game instead of just clicking images.
Riven from Good Old Games (they update games to run on newer computers) works perfectly on Windows 8.1. You should try it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. They may have Myt III & IV as well. Otherwise, a virtual machine with Windows XP is a great tool to run old games (VirtualBox, for example). If you have an XP image or DVD lying around. Older Windows versions would likely be good too, but you’re more likely to run into errors after installing them. So yeah, don’t give up on Myst! :)
Hey, it’s digital!
Maybe now they’ll release it for Android.
congrats hulu! :D
I wonder where this leaves Daugherty’s involvement in Tomb Raider, Myst is a passion project for him.
The first ever dialogue-free TV show!!!!!!!!
This would not exist without Cory steering the ship. Congrats to him on his journey with the project. Well deserved that it has ended up at the right place.
Sounds amazing, get me a true premium option without ads and I’m in!
Nice!
Also, you can get an updated version of realMyst from Steam.
Too bad it is on a platform that forces subscribers to endure advertisements, rather than either having no commercials like netflix/amazon or allowing viewers to fast forward through unwanted programming like cable/broadcast. I will NOT be watching until I am given the option not to be told what I should be buying. HULU is unwatchable as far as I am concerned and anything that ends up there is dead to me and my whole household.
I have HuluPlus, Netflix, and Amazon, for TV I prefer HuluPlus, for Movies I prefer Netflix, and for just plain crazy things I prefer Amazon, as for ads GET OVER IT! it happens, you miss something cool just because of a few ads? how narrow minded. Are you really being told what to buy? you can’t make up your own mind? WOW!
Consumers want choice. I’ve gotten used to an ad-free format and with so much stuff to watch just on Netflix streaming, I’d have a hard time justifying paying for a whole new service that has ads. More likely, I’ll justify paying for Amazon when they release The Man in the High Castle, but Hulu isn’t going to get my business till they lose the ads.
Everything becomes available on some format or other eventually. If you’re “liberal minded” about formats, the eventually can be pretty soon, arr matey. Would prefer to be honest about these things but I’d rather visit the bay than watch ads.
I am NOT going to “GET OVER” being disgusted at services that want to force me to watch advertisements. I will, however, boycott and tell everyone I know to boycott any products that are from companies that force me to watch ads without the possibility of skipping/fast-fowarding/opting out.
The fact is that I can make up my own mind and that is exactly why I would object to companies forcing me to sit through pitches for their garbage. When I need something I do research about the available products on the internet and make my decision based on personal criteria and independent reviews.
I will never pay for hulu as long as it contains unskippable advertisements period. I am not missing out on anything “cool” since I cannot enjoy a program that forces me to endure ads. “Cool” programs don’t force you to endure torture.
Agree. Like an idiot, I signed up for HULU thinking it was another Netflix…didn’t realize it had commercials. WTF?!! I found myself watching stale off-network crap, paying for the privilege, and then paying as well to watch ads. I canceled after a month. I know, I’m a dope…but the HULU biz model is even dopier.
That must be why it’s expanding subscribers, I like Hulu Plus because if I can’t watch FIRST RUN ABC programs on a certain night at a certain time (old school 50’s way of thinking) I can watch the latest episode the next night WHEN I WANT to watch it, without a DVR. I always miss Fresh off the Boat and LMS to I watch the latest episode Saturday night when it’s convenient for me. People really do have to get over the ads; they are coming more and more. Netflix does a good job on movies where I really don’t want ads, but for TV its old crap I don’t care to watch even without ads.
My prediction is that Hulu will be forced to jump one way or the other: compete toe to toe with Netflix and Amazon by losing the ads, or compete with YouTube by going no-subscription/ad supported.
The latter would give Hulu more of a chance since Netflix and Amazon have such a big head start, and YouTube hasn’t been able to figure out how to get beyond teen makeup tips and cat video content (not that that couldn’t work for an ad-supported business model attracting the young eyeballs that advertisers want.)
LOved Myst as well as the sister releases Exile and Ryven Very cerebral gameplay. Too bad the more popular games of today still feature mostly shooting and action instead of allowing the player to THINK along the way.
Wow – viva Corey Lanier! I remember when he got the rights to this back when he was an assistant a few years ago…Talk about follow thru – seems to have paid off!
This game, plus Hulu, plus LEGENDARY?? I’m in!! How has this not happened sooner? It’s a no brainer!
The problem is that this article is unclear whether this is factual (series made from the games) or just the writer’s ignorance that there are books as well. If they plan to make it like the games instead of the books, then I kind of see them going some sort of Lost route, but with a single man, alone with secrets. I hope they don’t go that route.
At this point, any story following the books would be fine by me. I would honestly love a female lead. Start straight from Ti’ana with the chronological beginning right through to the fall of D’ni. I can’t see any other story being long enough for a series beyond one season. I mean, Game of Thrones pretty much follows the books, and it has done very well, so why cant Myst. Myst is a much better and more original story by far.
I would have to say that if these elements are the ones tasked with taking Myst to television, they’re well aware that there are books in the franchise they optioned and will mine everything for development.
I don’t think Cyan would have sold the rights if Legendary intended to make up their own thing with no connection to the books. I mean, I’ll personally start worrying if Legendary messes up their Warcraft adaption (The Myst series can’t be launched before that, would be too soon… and since it’s also based on games with tie-in novels it might be somewhat comparable). I’m sure if they can make a good movie they can also make a good TV show.
Myst? We want Castlevania! Kid Icarus! Metroid!