D&D 5E D&D movie, take note...

I firmly believe they could make a series of movies based off the Companions of the Hall. They are arguably the most recognized D&D characters and would be easy to sell. They should start the first movie where Drizzt first comes to the surface and go from there. They show his backstory in mysterious flashbacks, keeping the drow mysterious and shadowy. The whole first movie would encompass the origins of the Companions up through the Crystal Shard.
This guy needs to play Drizzt: https://youtu.be/8yc7609Eq-k?t=15s
Casting would be rough as I believe it is one of the most important parts to making movies. Cast the right person and they make the character. Cast the wrong one...well, see Haley Berry as Cat Woman.

If filmed correctly and the dialogue and effects done right, it would smash the box office. You have to keep in mind also the sheer number of people who read the novels and play or have played D&D, that's a huge market. You have kids to 40-50 yr old people who would rush to see this. From there you continue the Companions Saga which opens the doors for all kinds of series or other movies.
Just my opinion but there ya have it.

Doomskull said:

If filmed correctly and the dialogue and effects done right, it would smash the box office.

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That’s a $500 million “if”...

gyor said:

Is the movie still happening, I don't remember the last time we got news on it.

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Last entertainment blurp I saw (and it was a short one) was June/July 2017. I think it was confirmation of the writers?
So, if that was the writers, give them 3 months to get to a script? So we should be hearing about actors and crews getting hired by now...

The problem with doing a Drizzt movie is it would be seen as a copy of lord of the rings, you have an allegory for Legolas, Gimly, Frodo and the female elf character they added, (sorryr dont remember name and not in a hurry to look it up.) It is basically a remake of Peter Jacksons films.

For a film to be D&D it has to separate itself from the existing arsenal of fantasy films. The vast majority of any film are people who have not read the source material. If you look at super her0 films which are more mainstream than D&D, I would wager less than 25% of the people who see them have actually read the comics they are based off of. (25% is a very generous estimate when considering the global film market.) I would guess less than 10% of the audience of a D&D film would have actually read the Salvatore books. In the eyes of a larger audience they would be copying LotR. D&D needs to take a story that is unique to the property and use only minor core elements as broad strokes. The existence of aracane and divine magic as separate entities for example and use those to weave a broad context that is simple to understand and then focus on characters beyond that. It should be a film where the general audience has no idea its D&D just something cool. and for D&D nerds like us we need to see the influence as easter eggs not the driving narrative. Only if it exists as its own entity will a film on the property have a chance.

Morrus said:

Why would you separate the "foreign box office"?

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Because the non-North American box office has become so important that movies that did mediocre in the US were given sequels purely on how well they played outside the US.

As for the topic of this thread, the premise for the new Jumanji reminds me of a fantasy book series I read back in the late 80's, maybe early 90's, that I just cannot remember the name of. Basically it was a group of friends who got together to play their regular gaming session and were somehow sucked into the gaming world being used, a place which turned out to be real. I would not even know how to begin a Google search for the series and author name, but it was a good set of books.

Edit: found it faster than I thought I would. Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg. The characters are transformed from their "real world" selves into their fantasy game characters. As of 2015, this was supposedly in development for a tv series, but I have not found any newer info on it.

Make the D&D movie about a motley crew diving into dungeons for mad lootz and throw in jokes about the rules/lore.

MichaelSomething said:

Make the D&D movie about a motley crew diving into dungeons for mad lootz and throw in jokes about the rules/lore.

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Maybe we should get Seth McFarlane to write it, Orville is doing a pretty great job of being a Star Trek satire. A "Dungeons and Drunkards" D&D comedy film could be a good way to market to audiences who don't take it seriously to begin with.

shidaku said:

Maybe we should get Seth McFarlane to write it, Orville is doing a pretty great job of being a Star Trek satire. A "Dungeons and Drunkards" D&D comedy film could be a good way to market to audiences who don't take it seriously to begin with.

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While I’m not big on McFarlane I do think there’s a case to be made for a D&D movie with its tongue firmly in its cheek. Action comedy, but in a clever way.

Bardbarian said:

For a film to be D&D it has to separate itself from the existing arsenal of fantasy films. The vast majority of any film are people who have not read the source material. If you look at super her0 films which are more mainstream than D&D, I would wager less than 25% of the people who see them have actually read the comics they are based off of. (25% is a very generous estimate when considering the global film market.) I would guess less than 10% of the audience of a D&D film would have actually read the Salvatore books. In the eyes of a larger audience, they would be copying LotR. D&D needs to take a story that is unique to the property and use only minor core elements as broad strokes. The existence of aracane and divine magic as separate entities for example and use those to weave a broad context that is simple to understand and then focus on characters beyond that. It should be a film where the general audience has no idea its D&D just something cool. and for D&D nerds like us, we need to see the influence as easter eggs, not the driving narrative. Only if it exists as its own entity will a film on the property have a chance.

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At that rate, what's the point of making a 'Dungeons & Dragons' movie if you're actively making it unrecognizable as 'Dungeons & Dragons'? If you want a property to stand out, you lean on its unique features, you don't ignore them for the elements everyone's seen a hundred times. "We don't don't want people to think we're just ripping off of 'The Lord of the Rings'. So, let's remove practically everything that makes us different from 'The Lord of the Rings'." That just sounds wrong to me.

ProfessorDetective said:

At that rate, what's the point of making a 'Dungeons & Dragons' movie if you're actively making it unrecognizable as 'Dungeons & Dragons'? If you want a property to stand out, you lean on its unique features, you don't ignore them for the elements everyone's seen a hundred times. "We don't don't want people to think we're just ripping off of 'The Lord of the Rings'. So, let's remove practically everything that makes us different from 'The Lord of the Rings'." That just sounds wrong to me.

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The idea is that it should be a story not something that looks like an adaptation of a game. Using comic movies as an example. When they add thought bubbles and frames like Ang Lee's Hulk or Suicide squad, you are reminded that what you are watching has low stakes because it it framed outside a reality inherent to its own existence. If the D&D film goes out of its way to call characters by class names like "lets us seek the druid to cast spirit guardians" its not how people talk and it draws us out of the narrative. Do you ever say let's go see Dave the mechanic when you go to Dave's house? no you say "lets go to Dave's place" This practice of callin out game elements makes storytellin awkward. Instead they need to treat the material as if the categories and names in the rule books don't exist and rather the people in those stories have their own definitions. Think of it as they are not selling the property of D&D but the world of Greyhawk, and guess what? That world exists in the D&D fold. So the D&D product is a delivery device for the story elements they actually cared about form the movie.