D&D Movie/TV Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves could change D&D forever

[Haplo781]

Elminster? Don't want to derail but can you PM me or just post a link? My Google-Fu is failing me.

He had an affair with his girlfriend's daughter, who at the time was his apprentice. Among other incredibly icky things.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Even the MCU seems to be treading water - looks like Stark may have snapped the life out of it along with Thanos.

You sure about that? I mean, if you pull out the COVID movies (Black Widow, Shang Chi, Eternals ... all of them making about $400 million worldwide box office, which was pretty pretty good for the time), it seems that the movies are doing okay.

No Way Home (with Sony) made 1.9 billion, which is 800 million more than Far From Home.
Strange 2 made almost a billion, which was 300 million more than Strange 1.
Thor 4 made 760 million, which was 90 million less than Ragnarok but 115 million more than Thor 2.
Probably the only serious disappointment was Wakanda Forever, which still made a healthy 830 million, but also suffered from ... well, I think we all know.

I think that people are confusing the outsized performance of the Avengers movies with the more regular performance of the other Marvel movies.

 

[Jer]

I think that people are confusing the outsized performance of the Avengers movies with the more regular performance of the other Marvel movies.

A lot of the criticism of post-Endgame Marvel is less about the money and more about how directionless it feels. (That's actually how I took "treading water", but maybe I'm wrong).

Which - sure. The movies aren't all building to a climax the way the first couple of phases of Marvel movies did. But since I actually like having standalone stories I'm actually happy with it. And we all know we're getting back to the "everything is connected together and leading inevitably to the big bad guy" path sooner rather than later - the trailers for the next Ant Man & Wasp movie have set that up. I'd personally like a little more water treading myself.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He had an affair with his girlfriend's daughter, who at the time was his apprentice. Among other incredibly icky things.

And yet they keep booking him at European film festivals!

 

[Rabulias]

I think WotC's best IP and story properties are the ones already seeing use: the villains. Demogorgon, MInd Flayers, and Vecna get name-dropped in Stranger Things (which I hope does not create confusion in audiences if we see them for real in a film or TV show sometime). The Red Wizards of Thay and Szass Tam are showing up in Honor Among Thieves. Unused as yet, but surely Strahd counts for something here.

After the villains, it's the places. The Realms, Eberron, Krynn, Ravenloft, Greyhawk have an essence about them that transcends any particular characters. And by places, I include famous dungeons here too: the Tomb of Horrors, the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, the Temple of Elemental Evil, the Ruins of Undermountain, etc., are wonderfully evocative names (even if the actual dungeons behind them are not always that great) that could be used. And let me say also that even a great dungeon would not necessarily make for a great film. IMO, dungeon crawling could be a tedious thing to watch. It needs to hit just the highlights in a show or movie; the Five Room Dungeon concept might be apt in this context.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think you could do a dungeon crawl in a film or TV show, but it'd need to either be Indiana Jones (which spreads out its dungeon crawls to only a small portion of each movie) or something scary like The Descent. But it probably shouldn't be the entirety of a film or especially a TV season.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Dave Made a Maze is absolutely a movie about a dungeon crawl:

I think you could do a dungeon crawl in a film or TV show, but it'd need to either be Indiana Jones (which spreads out its dungeon crawls to only a small portion of each movie) or something scary like The Descent. But it probably shouldn't be the entirety of a film or especially a TV season.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Dave Made a Maze is absolutely a movie about a dungeon crawl:

A great one, too.

 

[Xyxox]

I think WotC's best IP and story properties are the ones already seeing use: the villains. Demogorgon, MInd Flayers, and Vecna get name-dropped in Stranger Things (which I hope does not create confusion in audiences if we see them for real in a film or TV show sometime). The Red Wizards of Thay and Szass Tam are showing up in Honor Among Thieves. Unused as yet, but surely Strahd counts for something here.

After the villains, it's the places. The Realms, Eberron, Krynn, Ravenloft, Greyhawk have an essence about them that transcends any particular characters. And by places, I include famous dungeons here too: the Tomb of Horrors, the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, the Temple of Elemental Evil, the Ruins of Undermountain, etc., are wonderfully evocative names (even if the actual dungeons behind them are not always that great) that could be used. And let me say also that even a great dungeon would not necessarily make for a great film. IMO, dungeon crawling could be a tedious thing to watch. It needs to hit just the highlights in a show or movie; the Five Room Dungeon concept might be apt in this context.

Take it for what you will, but Strahd would be an awful choice for a movie. Besides being a direct ripoff of Dracula, the number of tropes would just never be accepted by modern audiences.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Take it for what you will, but Strahd would be an awful choice for a movie. Besides being a direct ripoff of Dracula, the number of tropes would just never be accepted by modern audiences.

The reincarnated love isn't actually part of Dracula's story but Francis Ford Coppola inserted it into his Dracula movie so, yeah, it'd look like a swipe from that, rather than potentially being the other way around.

But yeah, given how much of Ravenloft is wrapped up in book and movie Dracula tone, other than him having a problem with a lich rival, it'd take some serious work for it to look novel to a new audience.

 

[Xyxox]

The reincarnated love isn't actually part of Dracula's story but Francis Ford Coppola inserted it into his Dracula movie so, yeah, it'd look like a swipe from that, rather than potentially being the other way around.

But yeah, given how much of Ravenloft is wrapped up in book and movie Dracula tone, other than him having a problem with a lich rival, it'd take some serious work for it to look novel to a new audience.

Not to mention there are so many more original concepts that could be turned into movies, I see no future for Ravenloft on the Silver Screen

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Not to mention there are so many more original concepts that could be turned into movies, I see no future for Ravenloft on the Silver Screen

Ravenloft feels like a good place to trap the characters from a D&D TV show for a later season.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Would you believe that 1979's Love at First Bite featured Dracula believing Mina to be his reincarnated true love?

But I doubt that's where Coppola got it - if anything, I think he drew more inspiration from Frank Langella's Dracula movie in the same year.

The reincarnated love isn't actually part of Dracula's story but Francis Ford Coppola inserted it into his Dracula movie so, yeah, it'd look like a swipe from that, rather than potentially being the other way around.

Strahd worked as not-Dracula when I6 came out, but translating Strahd to pop cinema today would be tough. Even though Curse of Strahd did well to visually change him to no longer look as much like a Dracula, his character and tropes firmly exist in the shadow of Dracula.

But yeah, given how much of Ravenloft is wrapped up in book and movie Dracula tone, other than him having a problem with a lich rival, it'd take some serious work for it to look novel to a new audience.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, I had forgotten that about Love at First Bite. I always think of the crazy disco stuff, but that was his motivating factor, wasn't it?

In any case, between Dracula and Castlevania, I have a hard time thinking what would distinguish Strahd in the audience's eyes. That's probably an argument for them doing something new with him next time he appears, after covering the traditional bases with Curse.

 

[Xyxox]

Would you believe that 1979's Love at First Bite featured Dracula believing Mina to be his reincarnated true love?

But I doubt that's where Coppola got it - if anything, I think he drew more inspiration from Frank Langella's Dracula movie in the same year.

I think the trope goes back to the Dark Shadows television series where Victoria Winters was believed to be the reincarnation of Josette by Barnabas Collins. At least, that's the earliest expression of a vampire finding the reincarnation of a dead love that I can recall seeing.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If Curse of Strahd is an expansion of I6, I'd love to see a modern take on The House on Gryphon Hill to follow up on it.

Oh, I had forgotten that about Love at First Bite. I always think of the crazy disco stuff, but that was his motivating factor, wasn't it?

In any case, between Dracula and Castlevania, I have a hard time thinking what would distinguish Strahd in the audience's eyes. That's probably an argument for them doing something new with him next time he appears, after covering the traditional bases with Curse.

Oooh, yeah, forgot about that one. That is a cultural juggernaut that has since faded (perhaps mercifully, considering the Tim Burton film).

I think the trope goes back to the Dark Shadows television series where Victoria Winters was believed to be the reincarnation of Josette by Barnabas Collins. At least, that's the earliest expression of a vampire finding the reincarnation of a dead love that I can recall seeing.

 

[The Scythian]

I think the trope goes back to the Dark Shadows television series where Victoria Winters was believed to be the reincarnation of Josette by Barnabas Collins. At least, that's the earliest expression of a vampire finding the reincarnation of a dead love that I can recall seeing.

While the revived undead sorcerer Imhotep isn't a vampire in the 1932 Universal film The Mummy, he does come to believe that a woman from Cairo is the reincarnation of his long-lost love and uses his magical powers in an attempt to bring her under his sway. A young archeologist who is in love with the woman attempts to save her, aided by an older and more knowledgeable archeologist. The reincarnation element is new to The Mummy, but the rest is pretty clearly inspired by Dracula, to the extent that Universal cast the same actors who played Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing a year before as the young archeologist and his mentor, respectively.

 

[Xyxox]

While the revived undead sorcerer Imhotep isn't a vampire in the 1932 Universal film The Mummy, he does come to believe that a woman from Cairo is the reincarnation of his long-lost love and uses his magical powers in an attempt to bring her under his sway. A young archeologist who is in love with the woman attempts to save her, aided by an older and more knowledgeable archeologist. The reincarnation element is new to The Mummy, but the rest is pretty clearly inspired by Dracula, to the extent that Universal cast the same actors who played Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing a year before as the young archeologist and his mentor, respectively.

I had considered that and it does fit the overall undead theme, but thought I would stick to strictly vampires. The Dark Shadows writers likely compiled the two classic horror movies into a single workable trope line.

 

[Rabulias]

Take it for what you will, but Strahd would be an awful choice for a movie. Besides being a direct ripoff of Dracula, the number of tropes would just never be accepted by modern audiences.

But yeah, given how much of Ravenloft is wrapped up in book and movie Dracula tone, other than him having a problem with a lich rival, it'd take some serious work for it to look novel to a new audience.

I understand the Dracula comparisons that would be made with Strahd, but I would say I said using Strahd the villain had potential, not an adaptation of Ravenloft or Curse of Strahd. I get that so much of his personality is tied into that back story, but using Strahd in a new twist on the Dracula/vampire trope, and done in a D&D setting could be good, but it would have to be done carefully.

 

[Stormonu]

I think Strahd as a Thanos-style end villian could be an interesting D&D cross-movie plot. Maybe it all being a ploy for him to escape Ravenloft. A Ravenloft mini-series, following Van Richten and the Weathermay twins through the various domains could make a very interesting series.

Of course, it's always about the execution. FR, Greyhawk, Dark Sun, Planescape, Ravenloft, Dragonlance and so on all have the potential for good stories, we just have to get actors, directors and writers who can all put it together into a story folks will enjoy.