D&D Movie/TV D&D: Honor Among Thieves Director/Cast Interviews begin as marketing ramps up!

[Henadic Theologian]

I call BS on this quote. There's no way the people making the movie would actually say that about-

The Dungeons & Dragons Movie Intentionally Emasculates Its Leading Men

The Dungeons & Dragons movie's writing team reveal they intentionally 'emasculated' the leading men in the film and put the women on the front lines.

www.cbr.com

...huh. Okay then.

Yeah Daley created his own headache with a poor choice of words.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah Daley created his own headache with a poor choice of words.

It was a joke. They were just playing with the fact that they think it's fun, in movies that have comedy in them, to undercut the macho hero or leading man types. And it is.

More than half of the movies with George Clooney or John Hamm in them undercut them and no one's thinking those two guys aren't cool or admirable now. Hell, every Indiana Jones movie does this.

The angry dudes who insist that WotC doesn't want white people playing D&D were going to be mad at this movie anyway. No dollars have been lost.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It was a joke. They were just playing with the fact that they think it's fun, in movies that have comedy in them, to undercut the macho hero or leading man types. And it is.

More than half of the movies with George Clooney or John Hamm in them undercut them and no one's thinking those two guys aren't cool or admirable now. Hell, every Indiana Jones movie does this.

The angry dudes who insist that WotC doesn't want white people playing D&D were going to be mad at this movie anyway. No dollars have been lost.

He could have put that better.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He could have put that better.

Yes, but they're also doing dozens of interviews a day at times. Everyone gets loopy at some point on a press tour.

 

[Parmandur]

And Pine was the male lead in Wonder Woman. Perhaps this is his schtick?

Chris Pines indefatigable dedication to self-deprecating humor is a real strength in his acting: so too many guys in his position take themselves waaaaaay too seriously. Which is all that the directors were saying.

 

[Parmandur]

If it makes a billion, D&D could end up being the next MCU. Now, I've been thinking that $600M or so would be the absolute highest worldwide gross it could go, and there's no way it could get to $1B. But then I thought about it some more, and it's probably not impossible.

Fifteen years ago, Paramount took a chance on another nerdy property, that while popular in some circles, certainly didn't have what was considered mass appeal to general audiences. Iron Man, of course, broke through the barrier of just being for Marvel fans, appealing to a wide audience with a fun, engaging story with an amazing performance by RDj, earning $600M worldwide in 2008 (about $900M in today's dollars).

Last summer, Top Gun Maverick had early opening weekend estimates in the $75M-$80M range and a project worldwide gross in the $400-500M range, and of course it went on to a $150M opening and $1.5B worldwide total. Paramount had a similar media blitz with Top Gun, with interviews appearing in all kinds of mass market magazine/web-sites.

Now, I'm not saying that D&D is going to get close to Top Gun numbers, but would a performance around Iron Man be possible? Paramount certainly knows how to open a tentpole film, and the media blitz I've been seeing 4 weeks prior to release tells me that they think they have a film that could break through to general audiences, and that they are giving the movie the full push to get there. Even the release date move seems now to be calculated on having the SxSW screening generate additional buzz leading up to the release (something they absolutely wouldn't do if they didn't think they had a good movie on their hands).

And then there's the synergy with Keys from the Golden Vault on DDB. D&D:HAT is being described as a heist movie, and DDB is full of articles about running the perfect heist, heist movies to inspire your game, etc. If half of DDB subscribers see the film opening weekend, that would be $60M in box office right there (double that if most go with a SO or friend).

I'm still sticking with my estimate of around $500M worldwide for the film (which would still be considered a hit), but if the film is as good as Paramount thinks, maybe a billion isn't crazy to think about.

Yeah, I think Captain America 1 numbers would leave everyone involved happy, and leas to a sequel: but it's not too far outside of bounds to think this could go big.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Chris Pines indefatigable dedication to self-deprecating humor is a real strength I'm his acting: way too many guys in his position take themselves waaaaaay too seriously. Which is all that the directors were saying.

I know that, but you use words like humble for that, not emasculated, being emasculated is not a positive thing, being humble and being able to laugh at ones self, but those things aren't emasculating, they are virteous.

 

[wicked cool]

"In that vein, I was really struck in “Honor Among Thieves” that the lead female characters — Michelle Rodriguez’s Holga and Sophia Lillis’ Doric — are at the forefront of the action scenes, and the men are often hanging back.




GOLDSTEIN: That was not an attempt at wokeness on our part.

DALEY: Swear to God, it wasn’t. We liked that Holga is the bruiser that does the dirty work for Edgin, and he doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. We also love emasculating leading men.

GOLDSTEIN: Not for woke reasons!

DALEY: Just because it’s funny and fun and fresh. It was the dynamic we had with Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman’s characters in “Game Night.”

GOLDSTEIN: Or Tom Holland versus Robert Downey Jr. in “Spider-Man.” We like our male heroes to be challenged and not simply heroic."

This had me laughing my ass off. Y


This latest interview didn't help that goal, suggesting you emasculinated your lead male character is turning a lot of folks off the movie. I've been doing damage control online, having read the prequel novels, Edgin isn't emasculated, he's just a Bard, but it's a mess.

They need a home run at the movie festival to cause the movie to go viral in a good way and reassure audiences that Edgin is an awesome character.

I think if it bombs that comment by the directors will be a component of why. You have to know your audience

 

[Parmandur]

I know that, but you use words like humble for that, not emasculated, being emasculated is not a positive thing, being humble and being able to laugh at ones self, but those things aren't emasculating, they are virteous.

Well, sure, it I wouldn't read too much into that flippant interview comment.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Well, sure, it I wouldn't read too much into that flippant interview comment.

Agreed, but a lot of folks are reading a lot into that comment, because they've seen it happen so often over the last decade, were male heroes have been emasculated.