Iron Man Director Jon Favreau credits his success to D&D

[TerraDave]

An interesting interview with the director and actor in the LA Times.


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-favreau5-2008may05,0,6653890,full.story



Note to mods: I am putting this here as a "famous guy played D&D" thread, not a thread on the movie itself.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Interesting interview. Thanks for posting.

I'm glad to see him own up to D&D and especially go into detail about what it did for him. He goes beyond a sheepish 'Yeah, I was one of those geeks' and presents the positives from playing.

 

[sckeener]

When I was young, it was exciting, but as I got older it felt like it was keeping me from progressing. You're social in your small circle, but it's asocial to the wider world.

I'm always surprised when people say stuff like that....I mean sure I know D&D players that have gone no where with there life...but I've also know D&D players that succeed on a massive scale....

Two of my best DMs can be expressed in that way. Both are very social, but one centered his entire life around the game. He worked to game. The other has a PhD in mechanical engineering and is VP at his company. When he goes out to lunch/diners with business contacts, it feels like we are gaming because he has stat sheets of who he is going to be talking to...birhtdays, kids, spouses, employment history, personal facts, education, etc....it was sweet...it was like gaming in real life with tangible benefits...i.e. convince the NPC to give up the goods or take the deal. Both ran very rich campaign worlds.

So...to be brief, I would think Mr Favreau's comments above would depend on the person...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So...to be brief, I would think Mr Favreau's comments above would depend on the person...

He was talking about D&D's effect on himself.

 

[bento]

I thought this was an interesting part of the article, addressing how to prep for a game as much as it was making a big-budget movie:

According to Favreau, the great challenge of making a hero movie is getting to work right away on the massive special-effects scenes. Then you sharpen the script that fills the quieter moments in between. Fail to make the story work, and the film is hollow; fail to make the big scenes as spectacular as possible, and the fans won't show up.

"You have to get the set pieces ready because it takes over a year to get the action stuff on the screen," he said. "You can't wait until the script is perfect. The film won't get done. In a sense, the script connects the dots. . . . It explains why a lot of action-orientated films don't always make the most sense. Some dots never get connected."

Drive the story to the really cool encounters rather than letting the players hap-hazardly find them.

 

[sckeener]

He was talking about D&D's effect on himself.

The first sentence is about himself, but the 2nd sentence is a generalization of the D&D social life....in effect saying that the game we are playing is "asocial to the wider world".

and my personal view (and example above) is gamers make up all stratas of society.

 

[ashockney]

A Game I Would Enjoy...

How great would this game be to watch:

Favreau - DM

Players:
Fighter - Vin Diesel
Rogue - Robin Williams
Cleric - Mike Myers
Wizard - Stephen Colbert

Let the hilarity and awesomeness ensue...

This could literally change the complexion of D&D to the world.

 

[Shawn_Kehoe]

The first sentence is about himself, but the 2nd sentence is a generalization of the D&D social life....in effect saying that the game we are playing is "asocial to the wider world".

and my personal view (and example above) is gamers make up all stratas of society.

I'm pretty sure he was speaking from the point-of-view he held in high school. I've known lots of roleplayers who drop out of the hobby during those years.

 

[Mark]

Gotta spread the word about this!

 

[TerraDave]

How great would this game be to watch:

Favreau - DM

Players:
Fighter - Vin Diesel
Rogue - Robin Williams
Cleric - Mike Myers
Wizard - Stephen Colbert

Let the hilarity and awesomeness ensue...

This could literally change the complexion of D&D to the world.

OK, this is scary.