D&D Movie/TV Spider-Man: Homecoming Writers Talk D&D Movie

Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley talked to Hollywood Reporter about the D&D movie, it's comedic themes, and how the directors are working directly with WotC.

They directed Game Night, and wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming. They mentioned that they had been supposed to fly here to the UK to scout locations in March, but the pandemic interrupted that.

They also mentioned comedic elements and characters in the movie, which currently has a projected release date of May 27th, 2022. No actors are yet cast.

It's not an out and out comedy, but it is an action-fantasy movie with a lot of comedic elements and characters we hope people will really get into and enjoy watching their adventures.

Daley plays a weekly D&D game, so he is familiar with the genre. But the pair are working directly with WotC.

We haven't been accosted by players yet, but we are working with the Wizards of the Coast, the brand holders of D&D. They are the experts. We have people there that we work with and it's pretty helpful, because as much as we know about D&D, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the 45 years of lore that's out there, so these guys are such a resource. If we need a particular spell that a [high]-level wizard could do, they could give us a list. It's a lot of fun.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I agree. The MCU has great humor for such a big universe with so many characters. Forgotten Realms could certainly follow that.

The writers of the scripts, and the actors who delivered the lines with great timing, made the humor great. Change the writers or the actors and a lot of the jokes would flop otherwise. That is why it is so hard to duplicate it in practice. The same was true for the LotR trilogy.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The writers of the scripts, and the actors who delivered the lines with great timing, made the humor great. Change the writers or the actors and a lot of the jokes would flop otherwise. That is why it is so hard to duplicate it in practice. The same was true for the LotR trilogy.

They'd definitely need good actors and characters to make it work.

 

[aco175]

It is all about character development. I would like less Monty Python (although I love that movie and humor) and more Indiana Jones type humor.

 

[Parmandur]

The writers of the scripts, and the actors who delivered the lines with great timing, made the humor great. Change the writers or the actors and a lot of the jokes would flop otherwise. That is why it is so hard to duplicate it in practice. The same was true for the LotR trilogy.

Well, they have half the equation in place, then, and actors are available.

 

[humble minion]

The Marvel movies are successful more because of the characters and the character arcs than the jokes to be honest - the jokes have to be the icing on the cake rather than the cake itself if D&D wants to follow that model. And the reason the jokes land is because they're about characters who are established and that they illustrate facets of those characters, rather than just being good zingers.

In fact some of the most highly-rated marvel films - Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, even Black Panther - have been some of the least jokey in the series.

 

[Dire Bare]

The writers of the scripts, and the actors who delivered the lines with great timing, made the humor great. Change the writers or the actors and a lot of the jokes would flop otherwise. That is why it is so hard to duplicate it in practice. The same was true for the LotR trilogy.

Um, so what you're saying is that, for a film to be great, the people involved in making it need to be great?

I just can't buy into that!

In all seriousness, add directors to the list. They also can make or break an otherwise great film.

 

[Mistwell]

The Marvel movies are successful more because of the characters and the character arcs than the jokes to be honest - the jokes have to be the icing on the cake rather than the cake itself if D&D wants to follow that model. And the reason the jokes land is because they're about characters who are established and that they illustrate facets of those characters, rather than just being good zingers.

In fact some of the most highly-rated marvel films - Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, even Black Panther - have been some of the least jokey in the series.

Winter Soldier isn't even in the top 30 grossing superhero movies. My guess is they're going for a Guardians of the Galaxy direction. Whatever model they use though it's going to be an ensemble cast direction rather than a single hero one.

 

[Umbran]

Spiderman Homecoming is pretty great. This might turn out fun.

Yeah. It had a good blend of comedy and other elements. And, I think that comedy was intelligent enough to not be "D&D jokes", but humor relevant to the characters and situations.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What I found interesting in the interview was that they were conscious that this isn't Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings. To reflect its nature as a tabletop game, they want it to feel a little looser and they want to use more contemporary language, both of which feel appropriate to me. I wouldn't mind seeing them cast some gifted improv folks to give them alternate takes after a scene is shot as scripted the first time. Lord knows my players continually go off what I think is the script as the DM.

 

[ad_hoc]

The Marvel movies are successful more because of the characters and the character arcs than the jokes to be honest - the jokes have to be the icing on the cake rather than the cake itself if D&D wants to follow that model. And the reason the jokes land is because they're about characters who are established and that they illustrate facets of those characters, rather than just being good zingers.

In fact some of the most highly-rated marvel films - Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, even Black Panther - have been some of the least jokey in the series.

Guardians of the Galaxy was a huge hit.

That is the model that a D&D movie should be based on.