Netflix has hired directing brothers Aaron and Adam Nee to write and direct a live-action Catan movie for the streaming service. The Nees, known for directing The Lost City (2022) with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, are the first major creative hires since Netflix secured exclusive global rights to the board game franchise in October 2025.
The deal with Netflix covers not only a live-action film but also animated films, scripted television, unscripted projects, and video games based on Catan. The original board game, created by Klaus Teuber in 1995, has sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. Players compete by developing settlements on a fictional island, collecting resources, trading, and building roads.
How Netflix will adapt Catan's gameplay mechanics into a feature film remains unclear. The Nees have worked across multiple genres, including Band of Robbers (2015), a crime-comedy reimagining of Mark Twain stories. They have also written Masters of the Universe and an upcoming Netflix spy film starring Kevin Hart and Henry Cavill.
The adaptation could take several directions. Netflix may approach it as a traditional fantasy adventure, a story about rival settlements competing for island control, or a politically driven tale about trade. Whether it will keep the board game's lighter tone or pursue a more serious direction has not been announced.