D&D Movie/TV Casting Begins Soon For D&D Movie?

According to Screenrant, Paramount's (Summer 2021) Dungeons & Dragons movie is about to begin casting.

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There's a few tidbits to be gleaned from the article:

• Paramount is looking at A-listers for the male lead
• The new draft of the script is by Michael Gillio
• The director is no longer involved, and the studio is looking for a new one

There has been plenty of news, speculation, rumour, and more about this movie over the last few years; in fact, I've been covering the various rumours for at least 5 years!

• New D&D Movie: July 23rd 2021
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• Joe Manganelio is Writing the D&D Movie? And Is it DRAGONLANCE?
• The D&D Movie Finds Its Director
• The D&D Movie That Never Was
• D&D Movie Takes Cues From GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
• New D&D Movie To Go Ahead - Produced By Lego Movie's Roy Lee

 

[Oofta]

No magic.

Would the Fast and Furious movies qualify? Ragtag group that gets along for little or no reason, go on silly adventures and visit exotic lands, magic cars that can do things that are not physically possible.

 

[darjr]

https://twitter.com/joemanganiello/status/850375707012120578?s=21

 

[Mistwell]

No magic.

There is an oracle, bear people, horns of power, etc.. From the perspective of the characters, there is plenty of magic.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

That’s excluding marketing costs, but sure we’ll see how it goes.

Yes, marketing is part of the total cost, plus if any of the actors contracts state they get a percentage share of the profits, if actors still do those kinds of contracts. But a film making money is also more than just ticket sales. It is also streaming and on-demand and dvd/bluray sales, etc. Whenever I see talk about whether a movie makes money just on ticket sales, I always wonder about all the post-theatrical release money too. It is in that area that some movies become profitable and even earn sequels because of it, even if some of those sequels are only direct-to-video.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I dunno. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory looks like a D&D game to me. Same with the Alice movies.

One wonders what people actually think a D&D movie should look like.

Yeah, I am double posting, but I can't seem to get this site to work right and quote two posts at the same time. lol

Anyway, Willow is a D&D movie to me. And the LotR movies are serious D&D movies, while the Hobbit movies are more like what happens at the gaming table, with all the ridiculous stunts and stupid gags.

 

[Traycor]

But a film making money is also more than just ticket sales. It is also streaming and on-demand and dvd/bluray sales, etc. Whenever I see talk about whether a movie makes money just on ticket sales, I always wonder about all the post-theatrical release money too. It is in that area that some movies become profitable and even earn sequels because of it, even if some of those sequels are only direct-to-video.

These used to be bonus money, but now they are what makes a film profitable. Take Spider-Verse for example, which was considered successful and has already spawned sequels. It cost $90 million, plus a likely $100 million in marketing. So $190 cost, which would require $380 million to break even. World wide it's made $372, which means it just broke even. However, this film is apparently expected to make lots of money off tie-ins (which also defray marketing costs), and all the things you listed above. Sony considered it wildly successful. This might partly be because it was so well received, which means future films are likely to make more box office and cost less to market.

 

[Traycor]

I know Solo lost money on 400 million turnover, The Force Awakens grossed 2 billion but 1.3 of that was eaten up apparently. Looking at ratios is also interesting and by that I mean how much a movie made vs its cost. 200 million a movie used to be a lot starting around 1995's Waterworld, now its kind of half expected for a AAA title.

Analyzing individual films is always difficult, because the studio conceals the real budget and marketing costs. Sometimes they fudge the numbers higher to make a film look more expensive, while sometimes they drastically lower the numbers below the actual cost to make a film look profitable. Back when Nikkie Finke used to report at Deadline, she was brutally honest about what the real numbers were vs what was reported.

Personally think they need to tone down the marketing and special effects, make a good movie with interesting character. Basic storyteliing 101.

The industry sees this opposite. A film with no marketing crashes and burns, so a low budget movie will actually have a larger marketing budget than the actual film budget.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I dunno. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory looks like a D&D game to me. Same with the Alice movies.

One wonders what people actually think a D&D movie should look like.

But Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory looks nothing like Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and his Alice movies look even less like Lewis Carol's Wonderland (Indeed Dungeonland & Land Beyond the Magic Mirror are much closer to the books). On the other hand, they do look like every other Tim Burton movie ever made. He has no respect for source material.

Now, it's quite possible that your D&D games look like a Tim Burton movie (not movies, he has only made one movie lots of times), everyone's home games look different.

 

[Hussar]

Ahh, you care about the source material. Ok. That makes sense now.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ahh, you care about the source material. Ok. That makes sense now.

Source material goes along with expectations. If you adapt a novel one should make the attempt to do it faithfully. Liberties have to be taken with things like dialogue of course.