D&D Movie/TV Joe Manganiello: Dragonlance TV Show No Longer In Development

Actor Joe Manganiello has confirmed that the anticipated Dragonlance TV show that he had been working on is no longer being developed. In an interview with ComicBook.com. According to Manganiello, following poor sales of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen and the Warriors of Krynn board game last year, "Dragonlance is not a property [WotC] are interested in developing further currently". This decision was also prompted by Hasbro's sale of its media studio, eOne.

In March last year, Manganiello confirmed during an official D&D video update that he was working on a TV show for WotC, and a D&D live action series was greenly by Paramount in January. It's not clear if these are the same property.

Manganiello also talked about his approach to the property, and the new designs he had for the world, the dragons, and even the casting. "I want to make [the show] because I want to see it and I just want to feel that excited and electric about something. The characters...like the casting, I have a look book with over 1,000 pages, but it's not what you expect. The design concepts I had for the world, for the armor, for the swords....I had a fresh take on what the dragons were going to look like, it was going to be nothing like anyone has ever seen."

He has been working on a script for years, and was told by TV executives that his pilot was one of the best fantasy scripts they had ever read. He even offered to buy Dragonlance from WotC.

You can watch the whole interview at the link above.

 

[Remathilis]

Also, I think it's kind of hilarious that I got so much pushback on the GRRM thing and no response whatsoever to "Kender are awesome, and if you don't like them, you just hate fun." That's probably the first time I've ever said something positive about kender on the internet and not gotten pounced by a horde of people about it.

Or maybe Kender hate is 40 years old and no one wanted to take old bait

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Shame, but if they were relying on Dragonlance game sales to drive the audience for this they had it backward.

 

[KaiCor]

This. TBH i think most of traditional settings would be better fit for animated show, than live action one. Lot cheaper and lot easier to be faithful to source material than doing it live action. You could probably do whole 8 episode season for the price of just special effects budget in live action. Fantasy shows are expensive. Especially if you are going for epic fantasy with big flashy spells and dragons.

Special effects have always been valued, and will be valued even more. But they can get cheaper to produce. You know most people like show, not sense.

Hello everyone, this is my first post.

 

[GrimCo]

They can be cheaper, but if you wan't good ones, you need to pay good cash, and it eats decent amount of budget. When you look at the budgets for fantasy shows these days, they are around 10-15 million $ per episode. Although there aren't precise numbers, high end estimates are 400 000$ per episode for Castlevania. So entire season of animated show can be done for one third of the cost of one live action episode.

Budgets have grown so much that shows must become hits with general audience or they aren't profitable.

Animated show cuts costs drastically, gives you more freedom visually and it is easier to recoup costs.

 

[Athiev]

one of the two is out of print as far as I can tell… you can use that fact for your argument if you want to, but the sales rank is misleading since you are not taking it into account

It's currently for sale on Kindle, which has a separate rank system and isn't directly comparable, but the book ranks about 23,000 in the Kindle store, compared with Fellowship of the Ring ranking about 1200. But Kindle sales are obviously murkier.

If you want, we can look at sales of the most recent Dragonlance novel, from a year or two ago. That ranks 95,513. Again, way behind Fellowship of the Ring.

 

[michaeljpastor]

I think you missed my point. I agree there is no strong case to be made to studio executives. We agree. That is why it did not go forward! Not because the lackluster sales of the cheesy board game and adventure. That had nothing to do with it.

I just want people to stop making the silly statement that studio execs nixed it because the board game. That’s all. I sure they had solid business reasons.

It's Hollywood. It could just as well be unsound decisions. And the nixing of it over the board game is just one possible reason, and a very reasonable one.

 

[Parmandur]

It's Hollywood. It could just as well be unsound decisions. And the nixing of it over the board game is just one possible reason, and a very reasonable one.

More importantly, it is the one that has been shared by the person who would know.

 

[Mannahnin]

I wouldn't adapt the DL novels to be honest.

I was 15 when I first read them and they weren't very good vs otherv80s and 90s fantasy. I've tried rereading them since and they're kinda bad. Along with some of my old favorites aged 15-17 (David Eddings, Gemmell, Feist etc).

Eddings and Feist, sure, but I won't stand for this Gemmell slander. He's a bit popcorn pulp, but good at that. And his Troy series was genuinely good good.

 

[michaeljpastor]

More importantly, it is the one that has been shared by the person who would know.

It's one of things he said that I believe was his observation/opinion, as opposed to feedback or news given to him by others. Notice the change in body language and tone of voice, and the way he trails away at the end of the sentence, with a reluctance to attribute it as a definitive fact. It may only be his observation, but I think a correct one.

 

[teitan]

Lame