For the readers of Passport to Wall Street, we have interviewed Tomasz Bagiński--a Polish director, creator of the Oscar-nominated short film The Cathedral, winner of the BAFTA award, but also an Executive Producer of the series The Witcher on Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and a director of Platige Image, a company that cooperates with the CD Projekt group.
Piotr Popęda: The name Platige Image and yours appear almost everywhere - regardless of whether we are talking about the Netflix series, the CD Projekt game trilogy or Cyberpunk. How do you explain your role of this silent hero?
Tomasz Bagiński: When it comes to Cyberpunk, my contribution was minimal. My role actually only concerned the teaser for the game released a few years ago. The teaser turned out to be a hit, but I share this success with the entire team that worked on this project, both from Platige Image and from CD Projekt RED. I have worked with CD Projekt since 2002. Back then people who tried to develop something on the market of modern film, digital animation or games constituted quite a small group and many of us knew each other. We all grew together with the market, so hearing the same names in relation to new interesting projects from Poland is nothing unusual. I have always been much closer to this untamed, growing, full of youthful energy environment of game and animation creators than to the academic environment of Polish film that is tied down by old systems dating back to the communist era. During the past almost 20 years, Polish film industry has changed, and many new, cool creators also appeared, but it was more of an evolution than a revolution. The old business and social relationships affect this industry to this day, although to a much lesser extent. On the other hand, the market of games and game developers grew without this burden, full of enthusiasm and really fantastic people.
Both CD Projekt RED and Platige Image owe their successes not only to the massive work of many talented people, but also to Sapkowski's saga that offers great opportunities for interpretation and is an inexhaustible source of ideas. How similar are the game and the TV series or maybe there are more differences than similarities?
These are two different adaptations drawing from the same source, i.e. great books written by Andrzej Sapkowski. The freedom of interpretation is inherent in the very assumptions of the Witcher's world, which is, after all, an adaptation of various European fairy tales and folktales. I think these three worlds represented by books, games, and the series fuel the synergy around The Witcher better in a setting of diversity than if they were exact copies in different media forms. Moreover, in my opinion, an interesting and original look at the source material is the key to a good adaptation. Some of the not-so-successful adaptations of games we've witnessed in cinemas are due to the films being too source-like, too faithful, lacking a voice of their own. Not everything that works in games works on the big screen - and vice versa.
The highly anticipated premiere of Cyberpunk 2077 is ahead of us. It is a completely different, futuristic story in comparison to The Witcher trilogy. What do you think about this new world?
I will definitely play Cyberpunk. We'll see how much of my time it'll consume. I have my favorite genres when it comes to games, and Cyberpunk fits my preferences quite well, so like the rest of the world, I can't wait for the premiere and I plan on spending some time during the Christmas break exploring this new world.