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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[Charles Rampant]

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.

I think that the low budget really showed in the plot - a whole episode spent at the Amish disco certainly saved them from the costs of either showing the characters returning from the epic quest, or having the 'Demon Army sieges the Elven city' plot actually exist beyond some dialogue and a skirmish in a wood.

It felt very small. The Elven city consisted of one room. They never seemed to meet with anyone from other realms, and certainly never visited another settlement of note. Military forces consisted of tiny groups. That sort of poverty in scale would completely destroy an attempt to do an epic, globe-trotting, armies-of-evil storyline like Dragonlance.

 

[Caliburn101]

I think that the low budget really showed in the plot - a whole episode spent at the Amish disco certainly saved them from the costs of either showing the characters returning from the epic quest, or having the 'Demon Army sieges the Elven city' plot actually exist beyond some dialogue and a skirmish in a wood.

It felt very small. The Elven city consisted of one room. They never seemed to meet with anyone from other realms, and certainly never visited another settlement of note. Military forces consisted of tiny groups. That sort of poverty in scale would completely destroy an attempt to do an epic, globe-trotting, armies-of-evil storyline like Dragonlance.

Which is why a post-magical apocalypse story more like Dark Sun would work better.

 

[Mirtek]

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.

And even so they had to cut the last two seasons short due to the episodes getting to expensive. Well, all those people also making it the most pirated TV show don't seem to put their money were there mouths are and at least buy the bluray post-season (of course, they're all still going to do so, they're just waiting for the complete series boxset )

 

[akr71]

And even so they had to cut the last two seasons short due to the episodes getting to expensive. Well, all those people also making it the most pirated TV show don't seem to put their money were there mouths are and at least buy the bluray post-season (of course, they're all still going to do so, they're just waiting for the complete series boxset )

Offer Canadians a subscription model that makes sense - one that does not bundle HBO with a bunch of stations I do no watch and charge inflated prices for. Better yet, let us subscribe to HBOGo, specifically a subscription that is not tied to a cable or satellite provider. If they do that, they can have my $ Until then, my Kodi box is all I need.

 

[Rygar]

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.

This is a really good post.

A few other factors to consider that would put Dragonlance ahead of Drizzt in terms of media...

1. Dragonlance historically has been the only D&D property to appeal to non-RPGer audiences. One of the things that confounded TSR was Dragonlance sold really well as a novel line, but beyond the original modules it didn't do great as a setting. Didn't do great meaning it was generally #2/#3 depending on how the wind in Ravenloft was blowing.
2. Dragonlance is notable for it's very strong female characters who break the "Save me!" mold. It starts out with Goldmoon saving Riverwind and ends with Laurana spurning Tanis's attempt to save her while Kitiara becomes the strongest evil ruler in the land. Today this is a very strong selling point.
3. Raistlin is undeniably beloved and carries with him the promise of a strong series of spin-offs like Soulforge and a guaranteed money maker in the Legends series, if he is done right.
4. Lord Soth is another extremely strong opportunity for a spin-off, as he was also always a dominant character.
5. He also gives them the option of introducing Ravenloft to the big screen.
6. They can spin out a TV series based on the novel lines focusing on characters/series like Kingpriest, Defenders of Magic, etc.
7. They want a "Marvel Cinematic Universe", only Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance can do that.

One other thought, didn't Margaret recently state she was selling her store to focus on "Novels and Movie scripts"?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

For any D&D movie in general, after the relative bust that was Warcraft, would the folks making the first movie or two even consider using orcs as enemies or include a half-orc character? I personally hope they would not.

 

[wicked cool]

I think Dragonlance would be a mistake due to cost unless the studio is committed to 3 movies. If not Ravenloft would be better or a 1 shot adventure such as tomb of horrors etc.

 

[Zarithar]

For any D&D movie in general, after the relative bust that was Warcraft, would the folks making the first movie or two even consider using orcs as enemies or include a half-orc character? I personally hope they would not.

The orcs were the best part of the Warcraft movie (which was not that bad overall). Durotan was an awesome character. Warcraft orcs are different enough from D&D orcs of the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk in any case so as not to be an issue in my opinion. Also, there are no orcs in the Dragonlance setting.

 

[Zarithar]

I think Dragonlance would be a mistake due to cost unless the studio is committed to 3 movies. If not Ravenloft would be better or a 1 shot adventure such as tomb of horrors etc.

I'd love to see something Ravenloft based. As for Tomb of Horrors, I think that would be highly unlikely as that setting will feature prominently in the upcoming Ready Player One adaptation.

 

[TwoSix]

13 episode animated Dragonlance series on Netflix (covering Dragons of Autumn Twilight) would be awesome, especially considering how well recent Netflix series like Voltron and Trollhunters have done.