D&D Movie/TV What would a good D&D movie be like?

[Jester David]

I don't think there has been any meaningful release of them in the USA. If you didn't know of their existence- as I didn't- you wouldn't know to look for the DVDs. And those DVDs may not be available here, either...

The DVDs are on Amazon and it looks like they're available to stream.
I recommend Hogfather especially. Excellent film. Going Postal is also pretty solid. (But I'm biased, as I'm a fan of Richard Coyle from his work on Coupling).

 

[Hussar]

Yeesh. You could stand to lighten up. Firefly injected a lot of humor into its stories and interactions (Jayne Cobb is as much comic relief as he is a serious character) - that's what Hussar's talking about, not parodying any source material. Game of Thrones can be oh so serious and straight (and yet still incorporate humor every once in a while - like Podrick's discussion with Tyrion after visiting the brothel), but D&D could easily shoot for a lighter tone.

As far as previous properties, I agree with other posters that they might do better to stay away from a particular story line or set of characters except as supporting characters rather than protagonists. And they should stay well away from the landmine that is Drizzt Do'urden. They want a movie that give them fame, not notoriety for racial insensitivity.

This is mostly what i'm talking about. Anything Joss Whedon isn't terribly playing it straight. It might not be 4th wall breaking, but, Buffy is comedy. Again, I'll ask, would you expect a D&D movie to be like a Christopher Nolan movie - dark and pretty darn grim, or would you expect Sam Raimi - pretty light hearted and bright?

I think people are drastically overestimating the cultural insensitivity of Drizz't Do'urden. Remember, he's the good guy. Sure, there's these black skinned bad guys too, but, they're black. As in actually black, not a colour you find in nature. Banking on the popularity of the character, I think you could likely get away with a lot. Heck, if you can have Conan movies, which are based on a HELL of a lot more insensitive material than Drizz't novels, I think we can get over having black colored characters.

Me, I'm hoping for a rollicking adventure, fun and funny. Like the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. I don't want D&D to go the way of DC movies and TV where everything is done is blacks and browns and every movie is this portentious, pretentious film that takes the matter way too seriously. I want the D&D movies to be in the vein of Indiana Jones, Star Wars, heck, Transformers and, as someone mentioned, Fast and Furious. High adventure, lots of explosions and monsters. Spectacle.

 

[Hussar]

The DVDs are on Amazon and it looks like they're available to stream.
I recommend Hogfather especially. Excellent film. Going Postal is also pretty solid. (But I'm biased, as I'm a fan of Richard Coyle from his work on Coupling).

I think they're all on Netflix as well.

 

[billd91]

I think people are drastically overestimating the cultural insensitivity of Drizz't Do'urden. Remember, he's the good guy. Sure, there's these black skinned bad guys too, but, they're black. As in actually black, not a colour you find in nature. Banking on the popularity of the character, I think you could likely get away with a lot. Heck, if you can have Conan movies, which are based on a HELL of a lot more insensitive material than Drizz't novels, I think we can get over having black colored characters.

Depends on how things are done.
A cast of all black actors... in which their all-black society is depraved and evil, debauched and worshipping demons... Hmm, that does sound touchy.
Or white actors in some kind of blackface, either with makeup or applied digitally... That may not go over well.
Or redefine the Drow to not have black skin and ignite the pyre of fanboy nerdrage... probably the safest option from a general society point of view, but how much will the rage poison the well (did similar rage help make the atmosphere toxic for the latest Fantastic Four reboot)?
Drizzt may be a hero, but so he's the one black male who has rejected his evil society and joined some goodly white people on the surface... oh, the hell with it.

The narrative will spin out of WotC and Hasbro's control. So I think they'd be best served to keep him out of the movies.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The DVDs are on Amazon and it looks like they're available to stream.
I recommend Hogfather especially. Excellent film. Going Postal is also pretty solid. (But I'm biased, as I'm a fan of Richard Coyle from his work on Coupling).

The DVDs carried a notation that they may not be available outside of Europe.

Richard Coyle was the best damn thing on Coupling.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Depends on how things are done.
A cast of all black actors... in which their all-black society is depraved and evil, debauched and worshipping demons... Hmm, that does sound touchy.
Or white actors in some kind of blackface, either with makeup or applied digitally... That may not go over well.
Or redefine the Drow to not have black skin and ignite the pyre of fanboy nerdrage... probably the safest option from a general society point of view, but how much will the rage poison the well (did similar rage help make the atmosphere toxic for the latest Fantastic Four reboot)?
Drizzt may be a hero, but so he's the one black male who has rejected his evil society and joined some goodly white people on the surface... oh, the hell with it.

The narrative will spin out of WotC and Hasbro's control. So I think they'd be best served to keep him out of the movies.

Again, casting black or other dark-skinned actors as Drow diffuses a lot of the issue. See the aforementioned Omecs, as well as many of the Klingons post Star Trek Next Generation.

As for Drizzle being the ONLY rebel...well, it is probably most a accurate to say he is the only rebel who has gotten written about as a protagonist.

 

[fuindordm]

That's why I'm thinking that Guardians of the Galaxy is a good model. The situations are serious but the heroes are funny as hell.

 

[Celtavian]

Did they have issues with the Dark Elves in Thor: The Dark World? I didn't hear any racial outcry over that film. You can do dark elves. Just do a mixed cast and use make-up like they did in Thor. It's not like you could cast people of African descent and not use make-up on them. They don't naturally have white and silver hair or violet or red eyes. It would still take a great deal of make-up/effects to duplicate drow elves no matter who you cast. It would be a very appealing world. You would also attract the MMORPG crowd given dark elves have been in two of the most popular MMORPGs. Everquest dark elves were definitely based on D&D. WoW dark elves not so much. Still dark elves are a known group. It would be cool for D&D to introduce them in cinema in a different way than Thor: The Dark World.

D&D has already attempted what some are suggesting on this thread. They've tried to write a fantasy movie sort of D&D based. They all failed. If they don't try to use established properties with followings outside of D&D, I'll bet they fail again. This idea of writing something from scratch when they have popular, established characters in novels would be another example of squandering their intellectual property. If they don't use one of their established novel lines with a fan base outside of D&D expect the next D&D movie to end up like all the others. That's my prediction.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This idea of writing something from scratch when they have popular, established characters in novels would be another example of squandering their intellectual property.

...or expanding it.

 

[delericho]

As for Drizzle being the ONLY rebel...well, it is probably most a accurate to say he is the only rebel who has gotten written about as a protagonist.

Well, apart from Liriel Baenre (Daughter of the Drow) and Jarlaxle (occasionally).