Vin Diesel plays D&D

Yah, he's certainly a step or two above Christian Bale in terms of name recognition. Not that I don't like Christian Bale (too bad Reign of Fire isn't likely to help his career any) but Vin Diesel, especially with the release of xXx is certainly better known.

I like Vin Diesel, but have little desire to see xXx - due to the fact that (once more) the trailer gives away the whole movie.. including showing what is most likely the climax action scene.

Yes, I know this has been happening since movie trailers have been around, but I refuse to hand over my money to support the behavior.

Thank the powers-that-be for Signs.

FD

Vin Disel panders to the DND.

I know everyone is excited about a "cool" guy dong DND, but I think there is more going on. (and I didn't want my opinion swamped over how cool this or that movie was) Besides, why would a real DNDer need to buy $800 worth of stuff he should already have on his book shelf.

Right now, Vin "brand name" is that he playing up a "I could be anyone" image. One of his first demo tapes was called "Multi Facial" where he demonstrated his ability to do seterotypes from a Italian mafia guy to a gangbanger.

He was also featured in newspaper article that basicaly said that leading men in movie are getting more diverse. Now picture this ...

He sees the Scorpion King and says "Yeah, I could do that." (it's not hard to imagine the man's voice, is it?) He's made his own movies, he probably wants to do it again. If he could make it a franchise, even better.

He sees the SK's modest profits and figures it would be worth it if he could make a similar movie. He also knows part of SK's profit margin came from the built in WWF fan base for the Rock. He wonders how he could garner his own built-in fan base. Then pehaps he saw the decent returns on the first night of the DND movie before word got out that is was lame. Hmmmm.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. His decides to use his "I could be anyone" image again by saying "Look, I play DND! Come see my fantasy movie! My own DM even wrote the script."

And his DM is the writer? More like his writer is his "DM." Besides if he was in the know, he would have heard that words "movie" and "DND" don't work well together.

Am I serious? Sorta. Sometimes though I think we gamers need to get over our self-image issue and go.

I on the other hand fully belive that Diong is a gamer and I am camped outsider her house on a wireless laptop right now. (about that self-image issue -- I take it back )

Mistwell said:

Technically, by Hollywood standards, Mr. Diesel has not even had his "break-out" role yet, much less his "most bad-ass action guy" role. Most of the nation probably still doesn't know his name... he is around the same level as, say, Christian Bale.

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I don't know who the hell Chrisitan Bale is but I had never heard of Diesel until this news broke anyway, so I can't argue with you.

"Look, I play DND! Come see my fantasy movie! My own DM even wrote the script."

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Yeah, gamers are such a huge market- why not pander to us.

I would rather keep my "self-image issue" then be paranoid.

FD

Was something wrong with the other Vin Diesel plays D&D thread?

GQ make themselves sound like geeks!

"spell manual"?
"Half man, Half Orc"?

I don't mind Vin playing DND (though I have my suspcions) but the GQ writer made himself sound innane in trying to be so serious. Instead he came off sounding cheesier than you usual, like a cross between stereo instrucitons and a bad B-move.

Furn_Darkside said:

Yeah, gamers are such a huge market- why not pander to us.

I would rather keep my "self-image issue" then be paranoid.

FD

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bling and......

"Was something wrong with the other Vin Diesel plays D&D thread?"


bling

Guys, I'm just talking from the industry perspective here (where I live). I'm sure many of you have no idea who Christian Bale is (and like I said, most of the US still has no idea who Vin Disel is). However, despite your opinions, Mr. Bale's filmography is twice as long as Mr. Diesel's, and box-office intake is nearly quintuple. Both of those things go into the decision-making about whose agent your are going to approach, and whose name goes on the list of potential actors for new projects.

Mr. Diesel is doing well, but he has yet to have that film that launches him into the hearts and minds of America's moviegoers as a whole, instead of a few small niches of America. That's where Mr. Bale is at right now as well. I'd venture to say that "The Rock" has more name recognition still than either of them, and that none of them are anywhere near A-List yet. But I think both Diesel and Bale have the potential to reach the A-List in the next decade. They are both, currently, considered rookies however, though playing in the pro leagues.

I will voice up and say that I'm happy that Vin Deisel plays D&D, like anyone else who plays should be, but up until now, I was pretty indifferent about him.

He was interviewed by some local DJ's on the radio a few months ago in my town, and he seemed very down to earth and likable.
I'll even go so far as to say I thought FaF looked halfway decent (although not good enough for me to have actually seen it).

But the trailer for xXx almost made me cringe. Frankly, I think some porn stars probably could do a better acting job, for all I can tell from his stupid one-line in that trailer. I'm sorry, but the scene with him on ski's did not win me over to the camp that "Vin is a good actor." Sorry.

The fact that he plays D&D is great. But I for one am not wetting my pants about it, nor do I really think it entitles him to make a great movie related to D&D. Probably all it will do is get a few more players to accept D&D as "non-geeky," which I think is already happening anyway. I've said before, and I'll reiterate that I don't think young people taking up PnP RPG's fit the dorky stereotype they once did. In fact, the biggest dork I ever knew said he thought D&D was "nerdy." Most "cool" people don't look at it that way anymore, IMHO.

Look at Vin. A great actor he is not, but a cool guy, he surely must be.