Myst TV Adaptation to Be Helmed by X-Men: First Class Screenwriter

Deadline is reporting that writer Ashley Edward Miller has joined the previously announced television adaptation of the Myst video game series from Village Roadshow Entertainment Group.

You may know Miller best as the writer of the X-Men: First Class screenplay. He also wrote the screenplay for 2011’s Thor and has written for television series such as Fringe, Andromeda, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. On top of his reported involvement with this Myst series, he is also drafting a screenplay for the upcoming Big Trouble in Little China movie.

At the moment, it sounds like the plan is for Miller to write the pilot episode for the Myst television show and to serve as showrunner for the series moving forward. However, Miller has not officially commented on the extent of his involvement with the series at this time.

This adaptation is quite fascinating for a couple of reasons beyond Miller’s participation. Many of you will no doubt remember Myst as the game that stunned the masses in the ’90s with its advanced technology and mind-boggling puzzles. We named Myst one of the PC games that changed history due to the way it helped introduce and refine CD-ROM technology.

What you may not know or remember is that Myst actually featured a fascinating and deep mythology. The original game focused on a young geologist who makes a series of stunning discoveries in a recently uncovered ancient civilization. However, future installments in the series (as well as supplementary material related to the game) reveal that the plot points of Myst are really just part of a much larger narrative. In fact, it’s been stated that the Myst canon contains over 10,000 years of history.

As such, it makes sense that Village Roadshow has indicated their interest in using this series to go well beyond the story of the original game and explore the depths of the larger Myst universe. While there is obviously plenty of room to do so through the course of a multi-season television series, the production company seemingly has plans to tell this story through film adaptations as well.

Is the Myst series really substantial enough to support that much content? Well, Myst certainly isn’t as popular now as it was when it was first released, but there’s enough content here to work with to kind of go “beyond” that game and really make Myst its own thing. As such, this could be an interesting opportunity to use the Myst name as a hook but really turn this project into its own thing.