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.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

That's performance though, not writing. Harrison Ford sells it, some other actor would not.

Oscar Isaac is a fantastic actor and even he couldn't sell the "humorous" dialogue he was given to recite in the Last Jedi.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Oscar Isaac is a fantastic actor and even he couldn't sell the "humorous" dialogue he was given to recite in the Last Jedi.

The trick is, don't let committees and focus groups write your movie. Since we know this movie isn't being written by committees and focus groups, we don't need to worry.

But it's not a matter of good actor/bad actor, it's a matter of putting the right actor in the right part. Oscar Isaac was never a good choice for Star Wars, he is far too much an actour for the part. (If they had stuck to the original plan and killed Poe off early on it wouldn't have mattered).

Harrison Ford is not a "fantastic" actor, but he can pull off on screen charisma and doesn't take himself too seriously.

 

[Kelewandar]

I just hope they don’t try to come up with an original story. There’s so many great novels and storylines that have been written for this game. To me at least, the best way to respect this game we love would be to delve into that content. After that, regarding humour, I’m all for that. You can find plenty already in those stories !

 

[Quartz]

Sure, but what I'm saying is, I don't believe that there's any major 1800s British accent that I outright couldn't understand far better than any foreign language. Maybe if we found someone from a particularly weird part of the Highlands, or the Outer Hebrides (not really Britain anyway), or some weird little village with a unique accent you could, but no 1800s accent with more than, say, 20,000 speakers, is going to flummox me.

How about Weegie or Doric?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yanna ken Feegle?

 

[Mistwell]

Yuck. I want no comedy in my D&D movie. My anticipation level for this just dropped to zero.

You wanted super-serious D&D? Not a fan of the humor in the Lord of the Rings movie? Or...every fantasy movie ever? You want what, The Lighthouse as a D&D movie? No wait, that had some comedy too. Trying hard to think of a movie which has "no comedy" at all in it. Also trying to think of a version of D&D rules which had "no comedy" in it as well. Are you sure you mean "no comedy"?

 

[Retreater]

You wanted super-serious D&D? Not a fan of the humor in the Lord of the Rings movie? Or...every fantasy movie ever?

The parts of forced humor of the LotR films are the worst part about it. But overall, the tone is ok and the humor is (mostly) not immersion breaking. But then you have the humor of any of the Star Wars movies (with the exception of the in character banter of Han Solo) or worse, the D&D movie.
So trying to add humor to appeal to a mass audience I think is a bad idea. Make the movie you want, make it true and to capture the essence of the source material. The audience will come on board.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The "essence of the source material" i.e. a typical D&D game - would be marginally less serious than Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

 

[Mistwell]

The parts of forced humor of the LotR films are the worst part about it. But overall, the tone is ok and the humor is (mostly) not immersion breaking. But then you have the humor of any of the Star Wars movies (with the exception of the in character banter of Han Solo) or worse, the D&D movie.
So trying to add humor to appeal to a mass audience I think is a bad idea. Make the movie you want, make it true and to capture the essence of the source material. The audience will come on board.

As long as you're OK with in character banter, I think it will be fine. I think most of it will be in character banter, based on the prior works of these guys.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There will be pratfalls.

You know where D&D has this thing where you make a skill or ability check, and if you don't roll high enough you fail? Watch a movie. See what happens when one of the protagonists tries to do something and fails: comedy.

D&D has pratfalls built into it's core mechanics. You can't be faithful to D&D if you don't have pratfalls.