Both Witcher games so far have had really impressive and awesomely action-packed opening cinematics, and the people behind those striga-hunting, king-assassinating animated shorts are now gearing up to create an actual live-action Witcher movie with actual live actors.
The Witcher 3 Developer Diary Highlights Insanely Detailed World
According to Polish news site The News (yes indeed!) rumors of a Witcher movie being in production started circulating when notes on the website for the Polish Film Institute mentioned preparations for Vietzhmin, the Polish term for "witcher", as hardcore OG Polish players (yeah, that's right) who played the game with English subtitles might remember.
Platige Image Studio's Facebook page then confirmed production: "We have started to prepare for the production of a full-length live-action feature film The Witcher, for which responsibility will be Tom Baginski and Platige crew Films. A scenario based on Andrzej Sapkowski's prose."
Handsome Geralt Is Canon, Devs Say
[Editor's note: Platige Image is behind perhaps the finest video game cinematic ever made, the one for the Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings opening. Watch it here.)
Which prose is not yet known, as the witcher Geralt found his origin in several short stories (most of which were collected in the anthology The Last Wish) before the novel series kicked off in earnest with Blood Of Elves. Fans of the games might find themselves a bit lost, as the books are set a decade and change before the games. The white-haired woman seen in the trailer for Wild Hunt is Ciri, who is 12 in the books and is the first girl witcher ever. Having only read Blood, I am now reminded that I am basically spoiled that she likely won't die. Oh well!
An adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher books has already been attempted as the 2001 film The Hexer, the trailer of which is embedded below. Will this iteration fare any better? Let's hope so!
