D&D Movie/TV D&D Movie: Game of Thrones, Princess Bride, Holy Grail, The Goonies

Chris Pine, who stars in the upcoming (March 2023) Dungeons & Dragons movie has spoken about the film's influences in an interview with Collider (video below), describing it as 'poppy' and 'eighties heartfelt'.

“Oh man. Well, what I will say is we had a hell of a fun time making it. There was a lot of laughs. The way that I've been describing it, it's like Game of Thrones mixed with a little Princess Bride, just a smidge of Holy Grail; it's somewhere in that ballpark. It's a lot of fun. It's got a lot of thrills. It's poppy, it's eighties heartfelt, there's a bit of Goonies in there. My character, he's the ultimate party planner. I think it's going to be really good. I mean, who naughty word knows, but I think we got a good shot and John and John are killer guys. They know comedy and they know heart and we had a great cast and we had a good time making it. And that's all you can ask for.”

The movie also stars Hugh Grant as the bad guy, along with Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Regé-Jean Page.

 

[R_J_K75]

Hey, I liked the first half of the Conan movie. The second half was a bit... errrr.

The opening scene where they are on their trial with the egg was good, just caught it on cable few months back, but as a whole it was trash. Still waiting for King Conan with Arnie that is supposedly in production....at least last time I checked.

 

[Shiroiken]

I bought it when it came out 2007ish? I have no other background in the setting, but I thought it was good. Keifer Sutherland and I think Lucy Lawless voiced characters, so it was good cast. You are correct it seemed as though parts were left out, the story was truncated or a sequel that never happened may have been planned. I enjoyed it. Based on my experiences in the world the last 5-10 years, people (myself included) have become overly critical at times.

Well, it was the first book of a trilogy, so the ending would have been similar to Fellowship of the Ring. It's an ending, but not the ending. Unfortunately it failed so hard Dragons of Winter's Night and Dragons of Spring's Dawning never happened.

 

[R_J_K75]

I don't think he didn't care. I think he wanted to give an interesting answer without saying anything that would violate his contractual obligations. A bit stressful.

This makes sense. My first reaction was that he looked high, doing his best "the Dude" impression, but then I also thought he's thinking of what he can legally say without spoiling things or violating his contract,

 

[Parmandur]

This makes sense. My first reaction was that he looked high, doing his best "the Dude" impression, but then I also thought he's thinking of what he can legally say without spoiling things or violating his contract,

Exactly. H

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

He just means it's between the two in terms of seriousness.

So literally the entire spectrum of movie tones. He literally said the entire scale. Thanks for that worthless bit of information I guess?

sigh This is why it annoys me that they always interview actors and directors but never the writers who actually know wtf they are talking about.

I'm less interested in another comedy D&D movie and more interested in some traditional swords and sorcery fantasy. But then, I guess the tone of Critical Role is probably more what they are going for.

See for me the more I hear this movie being described as "a comedy" the more concerned I grow that it will be any good. Comedies are either absolute s&#% or great, and there is never anything in between. They are also the standard genre for either "eh, we don't care about this movie, let's just throw a star people recognize" or are most prone to "we can just tweak this for the normies because it's a comedy and no one cares right?"

 

[Dausuul]

It's not like he's saying, "Oh, well, it's a shot by shot remake of Game of Thrones with dick jokes".

Which is... pretty much just a shot by shot remake of Game of Thrones.

(Yes, Tyrion. Varys is a eunuch. We get it. Enough already.)

 

[Charlaquin]

"And on top of that, a talented cast."

Do i have to remind you that Jeremy Irons was in the first d&d movie? Thora Birch, as well. And if you've seen Requiem for a Dream, you know that Marlon Wayans has some acting chops too.

Are you suggesting that film wasn’t a masterpiece?

 

[R_J_K75]

Are you suggesting that film wasn’t a masterpiece?

The scene where Snails landed face first makes it a masterpiece alone. I always felt that character was written for that scene rather than vice versa; i.e. heres the character and ultimately this is their fate. Wayans may be a good actor but some actors just aren't good for some roles or they suffer from taking poorly written roles, which I think is the latter in this case. Heres to hoping 22 years has put the right cast with the right script, and director. But yeah D&D 2000 was really terrible. I dont think Ive seen it since the theater, so you know its bad when I saw the SyFy sequels multiple times on cable before that mess.

 

[Charlaquin]

The scene where Snails landed face first makes it a masterpiece alone. I always felt that character was written for that scene rather than vice versa; i.e. heres the character and ultimately this is their fate. Wayans may be a good actor but some actors just aren't good for some roles or they suffer from taking poorly written roles, which I think is the latter in this case. Heres to hoping 22 years has put the right cast with the right script, and director. But yeah D&D 2000 was really terrible. I dont think Ive seen it since the theater, so you know its bad when I saw the SyFy sequels multiple times on cable before that mess.

It’s one of my favorite so-bad-it’s-good movies.

 

[R_J_K75]

It’s one of my favorite so-bad-it’s-good movies.

Is it worth a re-watch? Mine is "the Devils Rain" with the ensemble cast of Bill Shatner, Ernie Borgnine, Vinnie Barbarino, Tom Skerrit and none other than Haight-Ashburys own demonologist Anton LeVay. Came across it on cable 3AM drunk on Scotch. Its worth a watch.

EDIT: the OG "Bad Lieutenant" with Harvey Kietel is another.