Why a ‘Blair Witch’ Producer Is Turning ‘Mandala’ Comic Into a Game

Veteran Hollywood producer Kevin Foxe desires to kind a “insurgent alliance” towards the massive companies that management the movie trade and conventional media, he informed Decrypt—and he plans to make use of crypto and gamification to do it.

Foxe is the chief producer of the 1999 cult traditional horror movie “The Blair Witch Challenge.” In an interview with Decrypt, Foxe shared his philosophy on crypto and media, the Hollywood studio system, and why he’s seeking to increase the world of the 2014 Darkish Horse Comics graphic novel “Mandala” right into a massively multiplayer on-line role-playing recreation (MMORPG).

Practically a decade in the past, Foxe started collaborating with the creators of the “Mandala” comics—author Stuart Moore and artist Bruce Zick—to discover potential variations. The supply materials is tonally grim, merging components of the occult and religious mysticism with an apocalyptic, biting critique of company energy and surveillance states.

It follows protagonist Mike Morningstar as he fights towards the GRID, a “international mind-control system,” with a gaggle of superhero-like mythological characters often called The 13. Shortly after launch, horror-focused publication Bloody Disgusting known as the graphic novel a “killer” that “missed reputation for some purpose.”

Like different filmmakers and artists constructing their subsequent initiatives in Web3, Foxe doesn’t need the subsequent “Mandala” iterations to be of a singular sort. As a substitute, he has plans for a tv collection and a online game, in addition to different community-driven experiences that “gamify” the “Mandala” expertise.

“I envision with the ability to inform a narrative to an viewers throughout many platforms,” Foxe mentioned, including that he sees multimedia platforms appropriate for a mission that explores a number of universes and simultaneous timelines. “And I really like the thought of utilizing tech to inform tales,” he added.

With “Mandala,” Foxe collectively calls the mission’s many components an “enlightenment simulator,” which he hopes will assist its individuals acknowledge potential components of fact within the materials’s broader themes.

“I hate to sound like this, however we’re form of a insurgent alliance combating towards these massive company entities that may take our information and can take our privateness and are working towards all of that,” Foxe mentioned of his determination to develop “Mandala” in Web3.

Foxe mentioned {that a} “Mandala” tv collection, which was beforehand in improvement at Warner Bros. earlier than the AT&T acquisition in 2018, continues to be within the works—and his workforce retained the IP rights, he informed Decrypt.

“We walked away with it. Now we have all the content material, all the IP. I imply, that was one other sticking level for us, proper? The studio desires to then personal the IP,” Foxe mentioned of the mission’s departure from the studio system. 

“Having achieved various initiatives at massive studios who now personal my IP, I believed, ‘It is a time the place that has to vary.’ And blockchain does provide that,” he added. “It presents a chance to repeatedly personal your IP, however nonetheless invite the viewers in and hopefully reward them in ways in which the studio cannot.”

Mandala the MMORPG

Foxe’s imaginative and prescient for “Mandala” has all the time been about it turning into a recreation, he informed Decrypt.

“That was what it began as. It is going to be an MMORPG,” he mentioned. “However we’re additionally attempting to gamify the method alongside the best way as we transfer into Web3.” 

The “Mandala” workforce is seeking to construct the sport in “tranches,” Foxe shared, as a result of he sees crypto as shifting a lot quicker than the time it takes to construct a online game. His workforce is at present searching for a Web3-savvy “recreation associate” to assist construct out the title, however has already developed some recreation environments and characters utilizing Epic Video games’ Unreal Engine. 

“I continually look to Tim Sweeney and Epic as a result of I feel they’ve it found out,” Foxe mentioned of the Fortnite creator and its CEO. “We’re actually following their lead and hoping to work with them actual quickly.”

“Mandala” has already experimented with NFTs throughout a number of chains—there are profile footage (PFPs) on Ethereum, Polkadot, and Cardano, with plans to launch future NFTs on the Polygon-powered Immutable zkEVM community.

When requested if the present “Mandala” NFTs will play a task within the recreation, Foxe mentioned that such particulars haven’t been determined simply but—however urged that there are already “rabbit holes” for followers to discover within the metadata that defines the tokens’ distinctive attributes.

“We imagine in cross-chain, we imagine in interoperability,” Foxe mentioned. “And we imagine the viewers has to return collectively from wherever you’re to battle again towards the grid that’s trapping us all.”