Terraforming Mars, a strategy game in which players compete to use resources and innovative technology to make the red planet habitable for human life, is the latest board game being set up for the screen treatment.
Per a Deadline exclusive, Cobalt Knight has optioned the screen rights to the board game; and while the company is reportedly leaning towards a series adaptation, they are also open for a feature take. Cobalt Knight was founded to develop a slate of television and film projects based on video games, board games, manga, comic books, novels, and short stories.
Terraforming Mars takes place in the 2400s, when giant corporations, sponsored by the World Government on Earth, initiate huge projects to raise the temperature, the oxygen level, and the ocean coverage until the environment is habitable. In the game, participants each play one of those corporations and work together in the terraforming process. The screen adaptation hopes to further explore the board game’s existential themes like class struggle, imperialism, and ecological crises.
“The Terraforming Mars world offers incredible storytelling potential,” says Cobalt Knight co-founder and former video game producer Christopher Kaminski. “We are excited to explore the unique human drama that inherently comes along with running a company tasked with literally creating oceans, building prosperous cities, and balancing the ecology of plant and animal life.”
“In many ways, the game exhibits strong parallels to the Age of Discovery when European superpowers were sailing around the globe trying to lay claim to everything they touched,” added other co-founder Christopher Knox. “This makes it the perfect choice for adaptation, using a distinct and hyperrealistic setting to revisit a familiar narrative conflict.”
Enoch Fryxelius, co-developer of Terraforming Mars and CEO, added, “Jacob [Fryxelius, designer] and the rest of us brothers have invested many years in Terraforming Mars. It’s much more than just another sci-fi board game – it’s a vision of a possible and positive future for humanity not so far down the road. It’s based on real science ideas and ideas borrowed from science fiction. This could be us in 200 years. We are so excited to see this vision come to life on the screen. We hope this will expand the TM community even further. And we hope that more people will be gripped by the vision of a new home for humanity on Mars.”
