Production company Cobalt Knight is on a roll, having recently acquired the movie rights for popular Mindclash Games board game franchises Trickerion: Legends of Illusion and Anachrony. The acquisition deal was struck earlier this month, on 11 April, but the press release for the deal did not indicate anything concrete in terms of potential dates or detailed plans for the future big screen transition.
Cobalt Knight seems to be on a mission of transitioning popular board games from the tabletop to the big screen. In late 2022, the company acquired the movie rights of yet another tabletop title – the critically acclaimed sci-fi strategy board game Terraforming Mars and Terra Mystica, with the intent to make either a movie or TV series based around it.
Is Cobalt Knight’s Head Too Far Up in the Clouds?
Let’s look at the concrete facts – rights are bought, and intentions are made. But do we have anything more solid than promises and good intentions – not quite. Cobalt Knight is a relatively new production company with nothing under its belt. Making plans is one thing, realizing them is another. Making movies (or TV series for that matter) is not easy, especially for someone with little reputation.
Maybe I’m being a little harsh – after all, those are board game titles, how different can they be from one another? As it turns out – a lot. Trickerion: Legends of Illusion and Anachrony, for instance, have two completely different settings. This is another concern because a movie production company (especially one without actual experience) usually specializes in the production of certain genres of movies. Very rarely do they get out of their comfort zones, usually with mixed to negative results – we’ve seen this time and time again over the years.
Trickerion, for example, is set in the late 19th century period and is a game centered around urban life, magic tricks, and a pinch of supernatural. Players take the roles of illusionists battling each other for the famed Trickerion Stone, which is said to grant magical powers to its owner.
Anachrony, on the other hand, is set in the late 26th century, after a post-apocalyptic event, where the remainder of humanity is divided into followers of different “paths” – Harmony, Dominance, Progress, and Salvation. Each of the warring factions attempts to power up the mysterious Time Rifts, in order to prevent yet another cataclysm.
All of these games definitely have big-screen potential. It is good that studios are taking interest in making them into full-fledged movies. But, again, Cobalt Knight is a small studio and the production value they can put into a movie or TV series seems rather limited. And while true that their intentions are good, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, as the saying goes.