D&D Movie/TV New D&D Movie: July 23rd 2021

It's official - the new Dungeons & Dragons movie is coming, and it's coming in four years - July 23rd, 2021, as announced by Paramount.

We already know that the movie will be produced by the Lego Movie's Roy Lee, that it will be directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps, Monsters vs. Aliens, Shark Tale). Originally scripted by David Leslie Johnson (Wrath of the Titans), it's now being written by Joe Manganelio, might be Dragonlance and then again might feature the Yawning Portal, and will adopt a Guardians of the Galaxy tone. Oh, and that we should take everything I just said with a pinch of salt as the movie appears have jumped from WB to Paramount at some point in the process!

 

[darjr]

OK cool. Let’s see. Speculation begin!

I do like that Joe is involved.

 

[neobolts]

It jumped studios from WB to Paramount. I'm not sure what the takeaway is from that, but very little of the original plan for the movie may have survived the leap. It wouldn't surprise me to learn about conflicting visions, competing scripts, and/or hand-wringing over the franchise potential of the brand.

 

[Morrus]

It jumped studios from WB to Paramount. I'm not sure what the takeaway is from that, but very little of the original plan for the movie may have survived the leap.

Good point. Maybe that accounts for the possible change in writer?

 

[Aramalian]

If Paramount bought Joe's script, I would be super-excited for this... given the 3.5 year lead time, though, I'm not sure they have a script in hand yet. Paramount seems to now hold all the movie rights to the vast majority of Hasbro products, though.

 

[jaelis]

Heh, they are doing a micronauts movie too. My two favorite things from when I was a kid!

 

[Gladius Legis]

I'm sorry, whenever I see "Dungeons & Dragons movie," this always comes to mind:

[video=youtube;APY8OTdTan4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APY8OTdTan4[/video]

 

[Parmandur]

Jumped studios: well, that's interesting. Might mean very little of prior planning survived, time will tell. The word was that WB's screenplay was pretty fun, but we'll see in a few years how this shakes out.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

It just won't be real without Damodar....

[video=youtube;WVjE-WdGm2Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVjE-WdGm2Q[/video]

 

[robus]

Well this seems like a positive move. The timeline is much more believable. And Joe is a true fan (he's had his script ready to go for a while...) I guess he said the right things in the right ears and they dropped everything to go with his (hopefully) much better vision.

And I'm sure he's cast himself in the leading role

 

[Oofta]

So the real question is, who will they get to play Bobby? And will the CGI Uni just look stupid? Or are they going to go old school and do puppets for Yoda Dungeon Master? Questions, questions, questions.

View attachment 92172

 

[generic]

Although the original movie was reported to be set in Dragonlance, I think that the studio change is probably a sign that the setting will change to Faerun, Big Daddy Hasbro wouldn't allow anything else. I'm trying to think about the story, but I really can't think of many things that would be likely to be made into a film, anyone else have ideas?

 

[lyle.spade]

I have only walked out of one movie in my life: the original DnD flick. I watched up to the point where they met the dwarf and, if memory serves me, the elf first appeared, peeping at them from in a tree. If these details are a little off, please forgive me - I've not watched it since. I actually asked for my money back, politely telling the folks at the theater that it was, truly, the worst movie I'd ever seen. I was gobsmacked by how bad it was in every way possible. I will speak no further of those lost 25 minutes of my life.

The second movie, which I believe was a SciFi (Syfy?) channel turd, was somewhat better, even though the lich's head looked like Jack from the Jack in the Box ads. It at least tried to give nods to players of the game through establishing scenes for the barbarian and rogue, but otherwise was only something I watched because I was bored beyond beliefe that day and felt lazy.

Thus, the bar is exceptionally low for this next iteration, in terms of quality. I am, much like my dogs, an optimist, however, and given the notes we've gotten about it so far it actually could be worth seeing and....sputter, gasp...could be a commercial success if done well.

Watch: it'll be entertaining and generally successful, and in part because it pokes a little fun at itself, the genre, the game, and gamers and their creations...and Grognards around the world will damn it for doing so, or getting Drizzt's cloak wrong, or the flight pattern of wyverns off by a few degrees. Watch and see.

 

[lyle.spade]

It just won't be real without Damodar....

[video=youtube;WVjE-WdGm2Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVjE-WdGm2Q[/video]

"Hey! Let's give the henchman metallic blue lips! That'll look really great" - he looked like Rob Halford meets Gary Glitter. No good. No good.

 

[Ghost2020]

Well if it's anything like a true hollywood project Joe's will be first of nine or more drafts of the screenplay.
He'll be lucky if anything of his survives long enough to get a writing credit.

 

[Morrus]

Random fact. [FONT=Graphik Web, Arial, sans-serif]New Line's movie in 2000 grossed $33 million worldwide. So about the same amount as the North American RPG market in one year.[/FONT]

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Other way around, I think. The movie was originally announced as Faerun-based, then along came Joe Manganiello and his Dragonlance script.

Three years seems a long time – especially considering the movie was first announced in 2015, putting that up to six years, really. That kinda concerns me. Since this is part of the Hasbro shared universe idea, the D&D movie could very well end up going the way of Bride of Frankenstein and the rest of the Dark Universe after the Mummy.

Although the original movie was reported to be set in Dragonlance, I think that the studio change is probably a sign that the setting will change to Faerun, Big Daddy Hasbro wouldn't allow anything else. I'm trying to think about the story, but I really can't think of many things that would be likely to be made into a film, anyone else have ideas?

 

[SMHWorlds]

I definitely would watch a D&D movie based on the cartoon.

But I do not want a "fun" Guardians of the Galaxy style movie. It can be kid friendly and still be nuanced, adult, deadly, and heavy. I don't mind humor as long as it is organic and appropriate.

 

[LordEntrails]

Three years seems a long time – especially considering the movie was first announced in 2015, putting that up to six years, really. That kinda concerns me. Since this is part of the Hasbro shared universe idea, the D&D movie could very well end up going the way of Bride of Frankenstein and the rest of the Dark Universe after the Mummy.

Agreed, another 3 year delay does not bode well. It gives time for everything said and done before to be redone from scratch. So anything we think we knew, I'd throw it out and start over.

 

[Warpiglet]

Prediction: It will be mediocre. Not horrible and not good. It will be forgettable. The most vehement complaints will be from gamers who dislike the departures. It will be better than the former travesty but will be watered down overuse of fantasy conventions.

They could do great things but will appeal to the masses who are invested relatively little--just the price of the ticket. It will be flashy enough to dazzle for its under 2 hour run time, but no D&D fans are going to be thrilled.

Hear me now, believe me later.