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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[SheWantstheD&D]

Hiya!



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

Hey now, we're keeping it at a Disney level of clean

 

[MechaTarrasque]

It is too bad WotC couldn't make a deal with Paizo to use their iconics as the party for the D&D movie.......

Or you know, have some kids riding a rollercoaster get transported to a D&D world......

 

[Koren n'Rhys]

Honestly I think a tv series with a budget on netflix would be sweet. Can a single movie tell enough of a story? They really need for it to be a hit to continue as a line. Look what happened to warcraft. It made alot of money worldwide, but still didnt make a profit.

I'll just namedrop The Shannara Chronicles here, then. Not...good, but not horrible either, for a TV budget.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Fantasy TV shows will always struggle with budget, I think. The Shannara TV show looked desperately cheap at times, no matter how many times they reused the same helicopter shot of the Elven city.

Not seen past season one of Game of Thrones, so I'm not sure how they handle it, but it is also definitely an outlier in terms of budget.

 

[Morrus]

Plenty of good looking sci-fi shows out there, some not on big budgets. It can be done if you have a good team.


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[TwoSix]

Not seen past season one of Game of Thrones, so I'm not sure how they handle it, but it is also definitely an outlier in terms of budget.

GoT is in the area of about 10 million dollars per episode now, it's a humongous outlier in terms of cost. It's really only feasible due to its massive popularity and HBO's subscription model.

 

[Oofta]

I think a D&D TV series would almost have to be animated like the star wars series. Some Sci-Fi shows can get away with a cheap budget either because that's part of their charm (Daleks anyone?) or because they're set on relatively small sets with a relative minimum of wide shots of futuristic scenes. It's a lot easier to animate a space battle in Firefly because spaceships are fairly static compared to worg-riding orcs.

An animated series can get away with, and may actually be better with, relatively low detail so they avoid the uncanny valley. Look at the budget they had for the WOW movie ... and it still just didn't look right at times.

Whether there's a big enough audience out there for something like that is anybody's guess.

 

[Spookykid]

i'd be surprised if it wasn't animated, look at the people putting it together, their biggest hits are.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Fantasy TV shows will always struggle with budget, I think. The Shannara TV show looked desperately cheap at times, no matter how many times they reused the same helicopter shot of the Elven city.

Not seen past season one of Game of Thrones, so I'm not sure how they handle it, but it is also definitely an outlier in terms of budget.

Shannara looks gorgeous, when it isn't trying to remind the viewer that it's post apocolypitic, and have minivan doors stapled on to the front of a house.

Seriously, the non elf actors, the elf king, and the visuals, are all great. Amberle and most of the other elves are just bad, as is a lot of the writing. Which is actually a good sign, especially next to what the sci fi channel has been pulling off. A Netflix show could be amazing.

 

[Valetudo]

I'll just namedrop The Shannara Chronicles here, then. Not...good, but not horrible either, for a TV budget.

it had some potential, just not quite a big enough budget and having mtv involved didnt help. They are kinda poisoness nowadays. Still, I have seen worse and hopefully 2nd season will be better.