Dragonlance Joe Manganelio is Writing the D&D Movie? And Is it DRAGONLANCE?

Actor Joe Manganelio (from True Blood, Magic Mike, and more) appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, and reported that he is co-writing a movie script. While he doesn't namecheck D&D, his description sounds a lot like it, and he did recently meet up with WotC. "Last year with a playwright I went to Carnegie Mellon with, I actually made a draft of a film, and now we're talking to all the right parties. I had a two-day creative summit with the Wizards of the Coast...we had like a two-day summit about where the movie could go or TV series, products, synergy, the whole deal… Obviously, there's a spectacle. There's dragons breathing fire and lightning. But what makes a great superhero or fantasy movie is the human aspect. It's got to be about something. We root for those characters in Game of Thrones. Fellowship of the Ring was about friendship, this undying love for your friends. That's something everyone can identify with. When a movie is about something human and real emotionally people are going to want to see. Then you get some dragons breathing fire, and hey, I'm in." And to add fuel to the fire, he even tweets a photo of a DRAGONLANCE script! (thanks to darjr for the scoop)

The D&D movie is being directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps, Monsters vs. Aliens, Shark Tale), produced by Rob Lee (The Lego Movie, How To Train Your Dragon) and was/maybe still is being penned by David Leslie Johnson (Wrath of the Titans). Previous reports indicated that "This new Dungeons & Dragons will be a Guardians of the Galaxy-tone movie in a Tolkien-like universe. Because when you think of all the Hobbit movies and The Lord of the Rings, they have an earnestness to them, and to see something fun, a Raiders romp inside that world, I feel is something the audience has not seen before." and that "producers are eyeing a Vin Diesel-type for the film’s lead characters".

Of course, we also know that Vin Diesel plays D&D, as does Joe Manganiello.

So is he co-writing the D&D movie or is that something else? To add to the rumour pile, he tweeted an image of a DRAGONLANCE script (shown below). Of course, he could be playing with us. But maybe there is something in it? His name isn't that script, nor is David Leslie Johnson's. Let the speculation begin!

Manganelio at WotC in February

Manganelio tweeted this image



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[imdeadagain]

The Drizzt series is not high fantasy, I see it more as entertainment, I would like to see a Fafhrd/Gray mouser series too. Pure D&D would not sell to the general public imho.


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[Lanliss]

Am I on my own in thinking that the Drizzt stories are not that bad?


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So far as I can tell, the general reason people hate him is not because he is actually bad, but because so many people copy him, creating "Drips, the Drow Fighter( Who trained a Panther)", "Drazt, the Drow Ranger, with a panther", "Drozt, the Drow Rogue, with a panther", and so on. Never read the books to have my own opinion.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Note to self: create a sci/fantasy dark elfin character named...Dr. Izzle (?) who has a Panzer.

 

[Lanliss]

Note to self: create a sci/fantasy dark elfin character named...Dr. Izzle (?) who has a Panzer.

If it is sci-fi, Dr. Izzt would work fine, or DR. Urden if you want to be less obvious.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If it is sci-fi, Dr. Izzt would work fine, or DR. Urden if you want to be less obvious.

Dr. Urden it is! And yes, the Panzer will be painted black.


Shoot...that may be a perfect character for a Moorcockian Dancers at the End of Time or Zelaznyan Amber campaign...

 

[tuxgeo]

A dark elf named Dr. Izzie who has a Ponzi.

"Is 'e really a Doctor? Is 'e really a dark elf?"
"We don't know! He might be glammered!"
"Yeah, that makes it more likely that 'e's really a dark elf: they can do that."

(So the Ponzi scheme steals all their money. . . .)

 

[Ilbranteloth]

Am I on my own in thinking that the Drizzt stories are not that bad?


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I enjoyed most of the books well enough. There's a wide range of opinion on the quality of them, of course. Then again, compared to the other D&D books at the time...

On the other hand, the quality of the source material isn't really the driving factor, it's the sales of the source material that makes more of a difference since it tends to indicate a built-in audience.

The biggest challenge that's always existed with making a D&D movie is what is it going to be about? It really is about creating characters and a story that will resonate with people. Instead of the idea that a D&D movie is "about a fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard" with "a human, an elf, a dwarf, and a halfling" fighting dragons and villains. I think a TV series would have a better chance of success, in the way Game of Thrones has, since it can cover far more ground than a 2-1/2 hour movie can. They might have the intention of a sequel, trilogy, or more. But that's all dependent on the first one doing well.

The Marvel movies do well in part because of the well known characters. You still have to write a (mostly) decent movie to go with it. But the widely known universe gives them plenty to work with. Dragonlance and Drizzt are the two most well known characters/stories simply because of the number of novels sold.

Dragonlance is epic in scope, but would be harder to turn into a universe to allow other movies. But there are a lot of novels and stories already written to keep options open for a while.

Forgotten Realms would theoretically be easy to turn into a universe for multiple movies, but it's characters tend to be in isolated storylines. Greenwood's work covers the most ground, with a lot of characters that come and go, but many of them ramp up the power level too high. I think that the Drizzt novel could work in that regard. The character is well known to a built-in audience. But ultimately, I don't think he would draw in much in the way of an outside audience.

I hope they avoid the epic approach, and go for a more loosely related episodic stories. The Indiana Jones movies and the National Treasure movies I think point to a sort of framework that would work well. Personally, something along those lines with a younger Mirt and Durnan, with the addition of the Knights of Myth Drannor set largely in the Dalelands would be a good starting point. The villains should be the Zhentarim. If they go back to earlier days, that could include Manshoon and Fzoul, who could be foiled by not destroyed. And I don't care if the name is Dungeons & Dragons - the movie doesn't have to center around, or even include, a dragon.

To get the widest audience, I think it should focus primarily on human heroes and villains, although there will obviously be elves and other races. To have the longest life it really needs to transcend the core audience and be a movie that stands on its own, that happens to be called Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Since nobody asked me or ever will...

Y'know, the "Hero's Journey" always gets a lot of flak, but it does lead to relatable characters. Almost anyone can get inside the skin of the central character(s).

Pick a setting- personally, I'd go FR- but don't use the big name characters as the movie's/show's focal point. Let the core story be told about youngish adventurers just starting out, voluntarily or otherwise. That way we get to see the characters grow, and with good writing, we'll care about them.

But don't ignore the big names, either. Drop their names as movers & shakers in the world, and you bait the hook for the installed fan base. And on those occasions when they make appearances in the storyline, hook them. Spend the time & $$$ to cast quality/and or big name actors/celebrities in those "Guest Starring _______ as ______" roles.

That way you:
1) don't spend too much money landing any particular actor
2) will find it easier to get bigger draws because THEY won't have to commit to a full-series/movie production schedule
3) done right, the people you want may come to YOU for those small roles- see Star Trek, Miami Vice, Sin City, and others.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I'm not going to lie, just knowing that Alcid is into D&D is really making my day XD

I was like... O_O ...then like... >O_O< >_< O_O

Now all I can think of is how I would *totally* let him [...this is a FAMILY board!...]



^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Caliburn101]

I understand various people have their own preferences, including me of course.

However, you need to see this from WoTCs point of view.

First of all the setting is going to be Forgotten Realms. Anyone genuinely thinking otherwise is deluding themselves. WoTC have this product to push and simply won't green light anything else. They will use it's 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach to fantasy to sell the setting in fact - as 'can host any story' is just what a franchise needs, and the depth of lore and already established buy-in from a resurgent hobby fanbase as a predictable 'bums on seats' baseline.

Secondly, we already know it is going for a Guardian of the Galaxy vibe, so 'cool' characters are going to be a must-have. This makes Drizzt a probability unless the 'Matriarchal Black Race = Bad Guys' is seen as too much political incorrectness for Hollywood. If so, then consider which other FR characters fill the cool space and it will likely be them.

Vin Diesel will move heaven and earth to get to play a part in the movie - but I get the feeling he won't get the party leader role, it will I think have a female lead, or co-lead.

The story will be fast paced, drop in the lore as it goes with a brief narrator introduction at most to introduce the world (maybe 30 seconds or so long) and start of with an action scene involving the lead character and party and a decent but not overloading amount of D&D combat action stuff - including of course spells. It will deal with character backgrounds and how they became a party with flashbacks and probably link the main protagonist to the main antagonist with a shared background of some kind...

... the characters won't be motivated to sort the bad guy/gal out by a meeting in a pub with an old guy whose village was destroyed by Orcs, but some planning will undoubtedly happen in the Yawning Portal by the established party towards the end of Act 1.

There will be Orcs - because the public 'understand' them, and there will be a Dragon at some point as it's the franchise name call and the party will NOT be noobs at adventuring!

The party will likely defeat the antagonist in a way which leads them to understand there is another antagonist behind that one, and there will be a scene amongst the titles at the end setting up the next movie.

I will revisit this set of predictions once the movie is out to see how I did...

I terms of party composition, they won't want to ape Lord of the Rings, but they will want to emphasise the D&D'ness of it, so I would predict;

Human Fighter (female) - 'haunted by past' leader - Battlemaster noble-born type
Half-Elf Wizard (male) - tension with barbarian - Evoker with Candlekeep connections
Half-Orc Barbarian (male) - tension with wizard - Rager with a surprising personal side to them
Gnome Rogue (male) - acid-edged humorous character - Assassin with a hatred of 'fantasy race x'
Human Cleric (female) - courageous moral core - Light Domain (you know the bad guys HAVE to be 'dark')

Of course this is if they go for an original party and not established NPCs.