lol no.
The idea that audiences don't want to see stories where good triumphs over evil is just ridiculous.
The first dnd movie didn't bomb because it was "straight", it bombed because it was poorly made and half of it didn't make any sense.
I agree, just like those famous bombs, Lord of the Rings and the Avengers.
Lord of the rings has been done though. The film has been made. A D&D movie that tries to be a replication of of Lord of the Rings will bomb. It’s been done. Lord of the Rings invented the cliches, it has originality because it was the first fantasy film of that scale with that cast of that quality. It had never been done before. Im sorry to say a D&D film ain’t gonna be the next LotR no matter how hard they try, if they play it straight down the line.
My point is that a film about 4-6 adventures that meet in spurious circumstances and quest or defeat the BBEG is not sophisticated enough for a modern audience in a fantasy world. Avengers had a ready made cast of characters already known and liked from their existing films - and this style easily backfires (Justice League)
It has to thread a very fine line between being recognizably d&d otherwise what’s the point, and cliched in which case it will be cringeworthy. The best way to do this in my opinion is with humour and some kind of conceit that allows the story to be told in a new way.
I’ll let you into a secret. I love fantasy as a genre but there’s a reason not many fantasy films like LOTR get made. They cost a lot of money, can easily cross the line into being silly, they require the audiences to make huge suspensions of disbelief, have large amounts of jargon that make total and utter sense to a fan and are completely irrelevant and confusing to everyone else.
I’ll let you into another secret. Generally fantasy writing isn’t very good. It tends not to win awards or receive literary approval (unless awarded by the community itself) and the fans are fairy rabid who are easily pleased as long as the books conform to certain expectations. They tend to be pretty similar and again tend to be bought by a pretty specific group of individuals.
Not a great combination.
You can claim you want the next Lord of the Rings but I think you’re asking to be disappointed.
deadline.com
