New D&D Movie To Go Ahead - Produced By Lego Movie's Roy Lee

Ghost2020 · Aug 3, 2015

DO NOT call it DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS...good lord no.

If they base it on the Crystal Shard, one book per movie, perfect.

The Forgotten Realms: The Crystal Shard, etc that's the best bet.

Anything beyond that is just not going to help. They need to actually get away from the name that was used 3 times already for not well received movies.

Chimpy · Aug 3, 2015

Oh gawd, this sounds like recipe for disaster. Yeah as the above poster mentioned, I hope it's not got D&D in the title.

I actually think a film set in FR could work, but it needs to be well written, well directed and well produced.

Wulfang · Aug 3, 2015

Ghost2020 said:
DO NOT call it DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS...good lord no.

If they base it on the Crystal Shard, one book per movie, perfect.

The Forgotten Realms: The Crystal Shard, etc that's the best bet.

Anything beyond that is just not going to help. They need to actually get away from the name that was used 3 times already for not well received movies.

I'd have to agree, but not exactly for the reasons you mention. Most people probably don't even know those movies exist lol. But the title just doesn't say anything about the movie, other then its a fantasy story. So yeah I hope they call it something like "The Crystal Shard" and just put D&D in sub-text , essentially like they do for the novels.

Umbran · Aug 3, 2015

Chimpy said:
I actually think a film set in FR could work, but it needs to be well written, well directed and well produced.

Isn't, "to work, it needs to be well-written, well-directed, and well-produced" true for the majority of movies?

Trickster Spirit · Aug 3, 2015

Ghost2020 said:
DO NOT call it DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS...good lord no.

If they base it on the Crystal Shard, one book per movie, perfect.

The Forgotten Realms: The Crystal Shard, etc that's the best bet.

Anything beyond that is just not going to help. They need to actually get away from the name that was used 3 times already for not well received movies.

Sylvain_L said:
I'd have to agree, but not exactly for the reasons you mention. Most people probably don't even know those movies exist lol. But the title just doesn't say anything about the movie, other then its a fantasy story. So yeah I hope they call it something like "The Crystal Shard" and just put D&D in sub-text , essentially like they do for the novels.

They won't do this, nor should they - as Sylvain points out, almost no-one's ever even heard of the Made For TV or Direct-to-DVD D&D movies, but more importantly, their entire brand strategy for the last several years has been to leverage the Dungeons and Dragons name.

They're going to double down on the D&D name, not avoid it. That's what the whole point of "turning D&D into a cross-media experience" has been about. I expect the movie titles to look like the Hobbit movies: Dungeons and Dragons: The Crystal Shard, Dungeons and Dragons: Streams of Silver, etc. etc.

halfling rogue · Aug 3, 2015

I know they're all about the D&D brand and the IP etc, but I don't see how a (can we say, let's face it) generic fantasy will be very successful. I don't care what you call it, unless it's called Lord of the Rings it's not likely to make a big splash. That's not to say I won't see it

I've said this before, and I know WotC/Hasbro executives don't see it this way, but I think the soul of D&D is the game. So it's hard to package that in a brand that seeks to extend beyond the game. It's rather easy with video games because...games. But with other media (that doesn't directly impact the game on console or around the table...ie movies/tv) I think you will fail if you shoot for "This is Dungeons & Dragons". Like others on here I think the best way to market a Forgotten Realms/Sword Coast movie is to downplay "This is D&D" and maybe (creatively) come up with a way to convey "This is a realm of D&D", and unfortunately at that point we've already lost some sheeple.

Which brings me back to the game being the soul of D&D. If they were to make a movie, I would love for it to be something that really reflects the game. Center it around a gaming group that gets transported to the Forgotten Realms. Or translate some way of allowing the gaming group to effect the Realms, whathaveyou. (Isn't this exactly what was taking place in LEGO Movie? How awesome was that?) Make the movie reflect the feeling we get playing the game. That means a certain level of lightheartedness you'd find around the table should be injected. Heroic deeds and epic fails. Have the audience get wrapped up in that aspect rather than trying to force feed them some weird names and some backstory lore that scrolls along the screen or read by an ominous voice.

Really, if you're only going the fantasy route (with no 'game' aspect to it) then you have to knock it out of the park, like grand slam style. You need to hit on all cylinders; story, acting, effects, writing. It's a tough genre. Otherwise, I'm expecting the same ol thing, which, even if it's halfway decent, will likely fail (unfortunately).

Seriously though, a D&D movie ala LEGO Movie would be perfect. The 'outside' real world effecting the 'inside' game world without the knowledge of the inside world. That way you could have your fantasy movie, have it in FR, even have your IP characters you want to pimp and you still make the game the soul of the movie. I think it could be done.

martinlochsen · Aug 3, 2015

Wrath of the titans... my god... this will be horrible. Not that I would expect anything else from a d&d-movie.

Trickster Spirit · Aug 3, 2015

halfling rogue said:
I know they're all about the D&D brand and the IP etc, but I don't see how a (can we say, let's face it) generic fantasy will be very successful. I don't care what you call it, unless it's called Lord of the Rings it's not likely to make a big splash. That's not to say I won't see it

I've said this before, and I know WotC/Hasbro executives don't see it this way, but I think the soul of D&D is the game. So it's hard to package that in a brand that seeks to extend beyond the game. It's rather easy with video games because...games. But with other media (that doesn't directly impact the game on console or around the table...ie movies/tv) I think you will fail if you shoot for "This is Dungeons & Dragons". Like others on here I think the best way to market a Forgotten Realms/Sword Coast movie is to downplay "This is D&D" and maybe (creatively) come up with a way to convey "This is a realm of D&D", and unfortunately at that point we've already lost some sheeple.

Which brings me back to the game being the soul of D&D. If they were to make a movie, I would love for it to be something that really reflects the game. Center it around a gaming group that gets transported to the Forgotten Realms. Or translate some way of allowing the gaming group to effect the Realms, whathaveyou. (Isn't this exactly what was taking place in LEGO Movie? How awesome was that?) Make the movie reflect the feeling we get playing the game. That means a certain level of lightheartedness you'd find around the table should be injected. Heroic deeds and epic fails. Have the audience get wrapped up in that aspect rather than trying to force feed them some weird names and some backstory lore that scrolls along the screen or read by an ominous voice.

Really, if you're only going the fantasy route (with no 'game' aspect to it) then you have to knock it out of the park, like grand slam style. You need to hit on all cylinders; story, acting, effects, writing. It's a tough genre. Otherwise, I'm expecting the same ol thing, which, even if it's halfway decent, will likely fail (unfortunately).

Seriously though, a D&D movie ala LEGO Movie would be perfect. The 'outside' real world effecting the 'inside' game world without the knowledge of the inside world. That way you could have your fantasy movie, have it in FR, even have your IP characters you want to pimp and you still make the game the soul of the movie. I think it could be done.

Such a movie could be done and done well, but I doubt it's what Warner Brothers has in mind. That worked for The Lego Movie, because basically everyone is familiar with what' it's like to play with Legos. A film with more than the barest placement of easter-egg-level in-jokes referencing game mechanics wouldn't be funny to anyone but D&D players though. And I suspect Dungeons and Dragons is attractive to Warner Brothers precisely because they ARE looking for a generic fantasy franchise; the fact that D&D is also Planescape is also Dark Sun is also Eberron is also Ravenloft is too much to drop on the uninitiated in one go. Better for them to focus on Forgotten Realms for, say, the first three movies, then launch a spin-off series in another campaign setting.

Umbran · Aug 3, 2015

halfling rogue said:
Really, if you're only going the fantasy route (with no 'game' aspect to it) then you have to knock it out of the park, like grand slam style. You need to hit on all cylinders; story, acting, effects, writing.

Maybe I am wrong, but my personal thought is that a gimmick used in another movie by the same producer will come across as cheesy, and will not mean you don't otherwise have to hit it out of the park. The LEGO movie did hit it out of the park, that conceit aside, so we cant' say it was the gimmick that did the trick.