D&D Movie/TV Paramount+ Will Not Proceed with Dungeons & Dragons Live-Action TV Show

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Deadline reports that the live-action Dungeons & Dragons television series will not continue at Paramount+. The show was originally announced in January 2023 as Paramount+ placed an eight episode straight-to-series order. Normally that’s the best you can hope for in terms of a guarantee of the show happening as the show would produce the entire first season instead of needing to make a pilot to be approved.

Two big corporate changes happened since then, however. First, Hasbro sold the show’s co-producer Entertainment One to Lionsgate in December 2023 and shifted the production to Hasbro Entertainment. Currently, Paramount is searching for a buyer for the company with the current front runner according to reports being Sony Pictures, who have partnered with private equity firms to place a rumored $26 billion offer for the studio.

Little was announced about the plot other than it would be character-focused and involve the Underdark. These tidbits plus the fact that the character of Xenk from the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was originally intended to be Drizzt Do'Urden but changed during pre-production led to speculation that the series would be an adaptation of the Drizzt novels, particularly the origin story novel Homeland.

Creator Rawson Marshall Thurber (Red Notice, Easy A, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) and showrunner Drew Crevello (The Grudge 2, WeCrashed) are still attached to the project. Hasbro will repackage and update the pitch for the show and stop it around to other distributors.
 

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Darryl Mott

Darryl Mott

but surely Pratchett can redeem the Terrys!
Good point well made. I had forget about Tel, and you should never do that.

Let it be noted that I am sticking with "obhextionable" to describe the work of Terry Goodkind, for they are at once questionable, objectionable, and cursed.
That does sound like an appropriate objective and god they are SO cursed.

I have read one fantasy book series that is as cursed, and that's the Prince of Nothing series by someone Bakker (I refuse to look up his first name), which I honestly thought was going somewhere until literally the first book in the second trilogy (😬). I thought he had a point to make, and that it wasn't some weird creepy cryptofascist, uber-mensch-y, pro what I can only describe as "fundamentalist mindfulness" (?!?!), oddly rape-centric deal, I though the idea was maybe these people, especially the initial POV character, were all awful and they'll all get what's coming to them, but when I realized a literal ultra-violent barbarian who was also a serial rapist was by far the most sympathetic and human character in the series, I should have pulled the ripcord! Instead, somehow, I bought the first book in the second trilogy, which managed to combine being a very direct rip-off of the Fellowship of the Ring with stuff like, err < checks notes > drunken wizard incest (between adults but jesus wept) and that finally got me to go "Ok, alright, we're done" (even though the cryptofascism seemed to have been turned down a bit).

I feel like that "sort of thing" has largely fallen by the wayside since the early-mid '00s, thank god. There's unnecessarily and laughably edgelord-y fantasy (c.f. Skullsworn by Bryan Staveley) but not to the same degree of "ugh".
 

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Good point well made. I had forget about Tel, and you should never do that.


That does sound like an appropriate objective and god they are SO cursed.

I have read one fantasy book series that is as cursed, and that's the Prince of Nothing series by someone Bakker (I refuse to look up his first name), which I honestly thought was going somewhere until literally the first book in the second trilogy (😬). I thought he had a point to make, and that it wasn't some weird creepy cryptofascist, uber-mensch-y, pro what I can only describe as "fundamentalist mindfulness" (?!?!), oddly rape-centric deal, I though the idea was maybe these people, especially the initial POV character, were all awful and they'll all get what's coming to them, but when I realized a literal ultra-violent barbarian who was also a serial rapist was by far the most sympathetic and human character in the series, I should have pulled the ripcord! Instead, somehow, I bought the first book in the second trilogy, which managed to combine being a very direct rip-off of the Fellowship of the Ring with stuff like, err < checks notes > drunken wizard incest (between adults but jesus wept) and that finally got me to go "Ok, alright, we're done" (even though the cryptofascism seemed to have been turned down a bit).

I feel like that "sort of thing" has largely fallen by the wayside since the early-mid '00s, thank god. There's unnecessarily and laughably edgelord-y fantasy (c.f. Skullsworn by Bryan Staveley) but not to the same degree of "ugh".
In addition to terrible books, Goodkind was extremely rude and dismissive of other authors, going so far as to claim he didn't write fantasy novels but serious novels for adults and dismissing all fantasy as trash.
 

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I can't read the whole thread.
Will there be a sequel?
To the movie? I doubt it. To anything that will be done by Paramount? Considering that the company is likely circling the bankruptcy drain because Redstone nixed the deal with Skydance, the odds are low.
 

To the movie?
Chris Pine says yes, but it would need to be a lot cheaper. He also noted the same thing about his Star Trek films, that the problem wasn't the money they made (which was okay) but that the budgets had been set far too high for the popularity of the franchise in the modern cinema landscape (which is challenging). If they, and D&D, had been budgeted lower the profit margins would have improved and they could be making another one right now.

I suspect they - Hasbro and Paramount at least - want to see how well the D&D movie has done over a year or two in streaming and media numbers. I also suspect their calculations will shift again after Baldur's Gate III. If they do a sequel and it's reasonably budgeted, it having the name "Baldur's Gate" in the title and the city appearing as a major location I suspect would be a high probability.
I have read one fantasy book series that is as cursed, and that's the Prince of Nothing series by someone Bakker (I refuse to look up his first name), which I honestly thought was going somewhere until literally the first book in the second trilogy (😬). I thought he had a point to make, and that it wasn't some weird creepy cryptofascist, uber-mensch-y, pro what I can only describe as "fundamentalist mindfulness" (?!?!), oddly rape-centric deal, I though the idea was maybe these people, especially the initial POV character, were all awful and they'll all get what's coming to them, but when I realized a literal ultra-violent barbarian who was also a serial rapist was by far the most sympathetic and human character in the series, I should have pulled the ripcord! Instead, somehow, I bought the first book in the second trilogy, which managed to combine being a very direct rip-off of the Fellowship of the Ring with stuff like, err < checks notes > drunken wizard incest (between adults but jesus wept) and that finally got me to go "Ok, alright, we're done" (even though the cryptofascism seemed to have been turned down a bit).
If it's any consolation, you were right the first time and they did get what was coming to them at the end. I'm also a bit worried about Cnaiur being the most sympathetic character even in just the first series, he was very much designed not to be, and I don't think is (that honour may go to Akka, or even Proyas, or even Esmenet).

The second series definitely rolls back on the problems of the first and introduces a large number of considerably more interesting characters, but arguably all far too late in the day. If your most interesting female characters aren't entering the story until Book 5 of a 7-book series, something has gone wrong somewhere.

The original idea - an SF-fantasy-horror hybrid which is basically a fantasy story about neuroscience ideas and philosophy of the self (variably executed, it has to be said) - is interesting and the worldbuilding is exceptional (which is much more rooted in Greek antiquity than traditional medievalism), some anime edgelordness excepted. The execution leaves much to be desired.
 
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Chris Pine says yes, but it would need to be a lot cheaper. He also noted the same thing about his Star Trek films, that the problem wasn't the money they made (which was okay) but that the budgets had been set far too high for the popularity of the franchise in the modern cinema landscape (which is challenging). If they, and D&D, had been budgeted lower the profit margins would have improved and they could be making another one right now.

I suspect they - Hasbro and Paramount at least - want to see how well the D&D movie has done over a year or two in streaming and media numbers. I also suspect their calculations will shift again after Baldur's Gate III. If they do a sequel and it's reasonably budgeted, it having the name "Baldur's Gate" in the title and the city appearing as a major location I suspect would be a high probability.

If it's any consolation, you were right the first time and they did get what was coming to them at the end. I'm also a bit worried about Cnaiur being the most sympathetic character even in just the first series, he was very much designed not to be, and I don't think is (that honour may go to Akka, or even Proyas, or even Esmenet).

The second series definitely rolls back on the problems of the first and introduces a large number of considerably more interesting characters, but arguably all far too late in the day. If your most interesting female characters aren't entering the story until Book 5 of a 7-book series, something has gone wrong somewhere.

The original idea - an SF-fantasy-horror hybrid which is basically a fantasy story about neuroscience ideas and philosophy of the self (variably executed, it has to be said) - is interesting and the worldbuilding is exceptional (which is much more rooted in Greek antiquity than traditional medievalism), some anime edgelordness excepted. The execution leaves much to be desired.

They would have to slash the budget a lot. 100 million or so including marketing.
 

Chris Pine says yes, but it would need to be a lot cheaper. He also noted the same thing about his Star Trek films, that the problem wasn't the money they made (which was okay) but that the budgets had been set far too high for the popularity of the franchise in the modern cinema landscape (which is challenging). If they, and D&D, had been budgeted lower the profit margins would have improved and they could be making another one right now.

I suspect they - Hasbro and Paramount at least - want to see how well the D&D movie has done over a year or two in streaming and media numbers. I also suspect their calculations will shift again after Baldur's Gate III. If they do a sequel and it's reasonably budgeted, it having the name "Baldur's Gate" in the title and the city appearing as a major location I suspect would be a high probability

Of course one way they could slash the budget would be to pay Chris Pine less since I imagine he has the highest salary of any of the main characters that would be returning for a sequel…
 

HoT had budget of 150 mil. Best i could find about salaries is 11.5 mil for Pine and 2 mil for Rodriguez. I doubt Hugh Grant was cheaper than Rodriguez. With rest of the main cast probably in high 6 digits. So somewhere around 20-25mil for main cast. In 150 mil movie, that's not so bad. But for "smaller" film, say 50-75 mil movie, that would be half to third of budget.

Streaming pays peanuts compared to home video sales from years gone by. Movies that don't perform good in theaters, have no chance to recoup or turn profit trough streaming.
 

The 150 mil budget still mystifies me. The actor salaries were not that high, there were no extended reshoots, and it was not a CGI heavy movie, so where did the money go? It was shot in Ireland from April to August, 2021. Apparently, Ireland had a limited lockdown from February to May during that time. I wonder if Covid restrictions and the lockdown had something to do with why it was so high.
 

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