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.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh yeah. Based on chris pine's description, it's going to be a train wreck.

Sounds pretty awesome to me...?

 

[Parmandur]

Or it’s a story that deals with the oft violent politics of the nobility in a fantasy realm, and is also funny and earnest and full of action.

I think trying to take the specifics of the comparisons too seriously or literally is a fast path to being way off track from the intention of the statement.

Yeah, this was a side question to an interview on other topics, so he hadn't prepped to say anything about D&D and was off the cuff. Pretty compelling, given that.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I dont know why Hollywood thinks its so hard to make a D&D film. Just make a fantasy film with D&D monsters and spells. Real easy.

 

[Hussar]

Disagree. GoT and Holy Grail are on two opposite extremes of style. There's a whole lot of middle ground you're excluding. My point is if you're going to use an example that falls on one extreme, then decide to go with that. Otherwise you end up with something bland that tries to be too much.

GoT wouldn't nearly be the same or have the same impact if there was humor in every scene, and QftHG wouldn't be nearly the same if they put in parts of brutal non-joking rape scenes in between storming the castle in a giant bunny.

OTOH, it would have been a show I was interested in watching. Different strokes and all that.

I mean, you could look at it like GoT in SCOPE - large scale, kingdoms in peril, lots of cast and extras - and Monty Python in terms of humor - smart, sharp, creative and very on point.

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

This thread is exactly why I despair of fandom. Kick at a soccer game you folks would.

 

[Mortus]

Sounds like the wild serious/comedy tone mix of the Game Night movie. Hmm…that has potential for a good flick. I would have preferred a mostly serious tone like the LOTR trilogy, but I’m sure this won’t be the last D&D movie attempt.

 

[Azzy]

But saying that something is Game of Thrones meets Holy Grail isn't saying that. It's just saying that it has elements of both.

Right. And he isn't even saying that—he specifically said "just a smidge of Holy Grail".

Smidge. A tiny amount.

 

[Scott Christian]

I think the trepidation from many (here and elsewhere) comes from Chris Pine's non-devoted descriptions. So many people feel passionate about D&D, that they also want people working on a D&D project, especially one as big as this, to feel just as passionate. But Chris (for whatever reason) came off as uncaring. (I am not saying he was, but his interview could definitely be interpreted that way.)

Who knows? Maybe it just causes flashbacks of when Jason Mamoa did interviews for Conan.

 

[Parmandur]

I think the trepidation from many (here and elsewhere) comes from Chris Pine's non-devoted descriptions. So many people feel passionate about D&D, that they also want people working on a D&D project, especially one as big as this, to feel just as passionate. But Chris (for whatever reason) came off as uncaring. (I am not saying he was, but his interview could definitely be interpreted that way.)

Who knows? Maybe it just causes flashbacks of when Jason Mamoa did interviews for Conan.

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.

 

[Hussar]

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

 

[R_J_K75]

comes from Chris Pine's non-devoted descriptions.

Id think if you are a good actor even if you could care less about the source material you should be able to pull it off. That beard had me sold. But yeah the last Conan sucked to the point after an hour it couldn't even hold my attention.