Hasbro CEO: "D&D is Really on a Tear"

Sorry, that laugh was a result of clumsy fingers on my phone.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Right, gotcha! Like, "we're tearing the competition a new a hole!"

Or is it more mild than that?

Or it could mean they ripped their expectations a new hole.

 

[Iosue]

Right, gotcha! Like, "we're tearing the competition a new a hole!"

Or is it more mild than that?

Much more mild. Grandmothers can say it in polite company without the slightest blush.

 

[Kramodlog]

We are over knitting the competition like a couple of gentle old rainbow farting unicorns?

 

[delericho]

I don't see John Carter as part of the barometer for the success or failure of a Spelljammer film.

Well, I would have said "Flash Gordon", but there hasn't been one of those in ages.

With regard to Ravenloft and licensing, Universal has their monster films and is going to make their own cinematic monster universe. If you want a big-name vampire, Dracula is off the table.

As mentioned, Dracula is public domain. Anyone can make a film featuring Dracula, even if the next studio down the road is also doing one. Which is why they keep making Dracula films (as well as The Three Musketeers, Sherlock Holmes, and anything by Shakespeare).

Also, Ravenloft has plenty of other darklords, and Azalin, Jaqueline Renier, and Soth all have good film potential.

They're likely to want to keep Soth back from a potential Dragonlance film. In any event, none of the others have close to the recognition of Strahd, so they're less appealing draws. And, besides, there's very little in Ravenloft that isn't drawn very closely from public domain sources - and intentionally so, in fact.

 

[pemerton]

They're likely to want to keep Soth back from a potential Dragonlance film. In any event, none of the others have close to the recognition of Strahd, so they're less appealing draws.

I'm not sure it's really about recognition, though, so much as story potential.

Guardians of the Galaxy had pretty much zero recognition: I've got Adam Warlock comics on my shelf - which is where Gamora debuted, I'm pretty sure, and I own and have read the Marvel Heroic RP Annihilation book (which sets out all the "cosmic" Marvel characters) and the Guardians were barely on my radar as a potential movie subject. Yet the film seems to have done pretty well.

Admittedly, "from the studio that brought you the Avengers" is a big help. Was it essential? I don't know.

But from the point of view of doing a D&D movie, I would be looking for compelling/appealing stories and characters, rather than - or at least as much as - recognition.

(That might still speak against Strahd, because maybe a Dracula clone isn't compelling. But weaker conceptual starting points have led to relatively successful movies!)

 

[delericho]

Guardians of the Galaxy had pretty much zero recognition: I've got Adam Warlock comics on my shelf - which is where Gamora debuted, I'm pretty sure, and I own and have read the Marvel Heroic RP Annihilation book (which sets out all the "cosmic" Marvel characters) and the Guardians were barely on my radar as a potential movie subject. Yet the film seems to have done pretty well.

Admittedly, "from the studio that brought you the Avengers" is a big help. Was it essential? I don't know.

With Guardians, that Marvel tie in was really important. The movie was also marketed spectacularly well. And despite that, it was a pretty big risk.

But from the point of view of doing a D&D movie, I would be looking for compelling/appealing stories and characters, rather than - or at least as much as - recognition.

I was coming more from a "who would pay for a license, when they can do just as well without" angle. In terms of story, yeah, Ravenloft has plenty of potential.

Of course, that's somewhat premature anyway - if there is a Ravenloft film, it must surely be some way after a more general D&D movie. So, really, the big questions are whether that is any good, and indeed whether it makes any money. If the answer to the latter, in particular, turns out to be "yes", then that opens the door for people asking, "what else do you have?"

 

[pemerton]

I was coming more from a "who would pay for a license, when they can do just as well without" angle. In terms of story, yeah, Ravenloft has plenty of potential.

Fair point. How much is a story worth, in licence fee/percentage terms? I have no idea: movie finance is not my field!

 

[MechaPilot]

Well, I would have said "Flash Gordon", but there hasn't been one of those in ages.

They're making a new Flash Gordon.

 

[aramis erak]

What does "on a tear" mean? Aren't tears bad?

It's commonly enough used in the western US as a term for a good thing.

Then again, in certain groups, so is "sick" (often written "sik," "sic," or "syk")...

 

[Wicht]

Then again, in certain groups, so is "sick" (often written "sik," "sic," or "syk")...

I am thankful I know no-one who writes "sick" in any of those fashions. Excepting "[sic]" which means something different.