D&D Movie Takes Cues From GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

We already know that the new Dungeons & Dragon movie, being produced by the producer of the LEGO movie, is going to be set in the Forgotten Realms. Producer Roy Lee said, while at DICE 2016, that it will have a tone akin to Guardians of the Galaxy. "This new Dungeons & Dragons will be a Guardians of the Galaxy-tone movie in a Tolkien-like universe. Because when you think of all the Hobbit movies and The Lord of the Rings, they have an earnestness to them, and to see something fun, a Raiders romp inside that world, I feel is something the audience has not seen before."

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There's more info in this article on Collider, but the pertinent facts are:

• The movie will take place entirely in the realm rather than having people transported from our world into the realm.
• The Yawning Portal will feature prominently and “it’s going to be one of people’s favorite set pieces.”
• It's an ensemble piece.
• Scriptwriter Leslie Johnson says "I believe they see Dungeons & Dragons as something that could be cultivated as a multi-universe movie where there will be spinoffs from the first movie being in Forgotten Realms and subsequent movies being in different worlds."

That last item is interesting. Different worlds? A Dragonlance or Ravenloft movie, perhaps?

 

[jinnetics]

Nice. Do go on...

 

[Jester David]

Sounds perfect to me.
Guardians of the Galaxy (or Farscape) is just the tone I want for a D&D movie.

Because the heroes of D&D aren't serious. They're sarcastic and irreverent, often as ready with a pop culture reference as a serious retort. However, the stakes are real and the villain is a genuine threat; actual action and drama happens, but the protagonists aren't overly serious.
D&D is fun. It's a game. It isn't a drama and we cannot take it seriously. LotR and Warcraft can be all serious and straight with dialogue straight from a Ren Faire, but a D&D movie should have the party walk up to Saruman and the fighter should call him out for hiding in a tower.

Or, as was said on Twitter, this is just what the John Rogers D&D comic book was like.

 

[icosahedron20]

Chris Pratt as a bumbling wizard where everything goes wrong but turns out right.

 

[GrumpyGamer]

I expect this tone to work very well. In my experience, most role playing games at some point in the campaign descend into silliness and eventually need to be pulled back in order to complete the plot - this seems to be a staple of having a bunch of people around a table having fun. This same spirit should be part of the movie.

I think we should get a chance to see how this works with the Minsc and Boo in Ravenloft comic.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

All sounding good. An irreverent but earnest tone sounds a lot like The Gamers movies, which is no bad thing by my book.

The Yawning Portal means Waterdeep on screen, and perhaps Undermountain as well.

 

[Acr0ssTh3P0nd]

Scriptwriter Leslie Johnson says "I believe they see Dungeons & Dragons as something that could be cultivated as a multi-universe movie where there will be spinoffs from the first movie being in Forgotten Realms and subsequent movies being in different worlds."


YES. YES YES YES.

When they announced the movie, I said they should do that. Start in the FR, move out to do different universes after 3-4 FR films with different tones for each. Dark Sun for the actually-serious, gritty, small-struggle big-world film, Eberron for the "Airships! Robots! Lightning rails!" movie, Planescape for the weird, slightly-trippy "a thousand dimensions" movie...


My god. This could actually be good.

 

[Mortellan]

Quite interesting. Hope it works out. Can't do much better than Undermountain for dungeons in FR. Now, I won't buy the spin-off tease until I see movie #1.

 

[Marius Delphus]

Michael Fassbender might make a good Strahd....

 

[callinostros]

Didn't they try (and fail miserably) with adding humor (of which GotG was full of) with Marlon Wayans/Snails?