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

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.

 

[Zardnaar]

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.

Covud restrictions blew budgets out.

And CGI isn't cheap.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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.

There were a couple of location shoots in England (Wells, Alnwick) which must have been expensive, and weren’t really needed.

 

[GrimCo]

Filming on locations also eat decent chunk of budget. Big productions require small army of people and logistics. Even if you are using local technical staff, Ireland isn't cheap by any standard, salaries in Ireland are pretty good by EU standards. Costs add up pretty quickly. You see long list of credits at the end and all those people got payed.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

When you compare the entirety digital /soundstage locations such as the prison and the underdark , I think they look better than the locations (apart from the forest), an probably cost less.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The StageCraft could help to save money, but it has got its own handicaps.

StageCraft - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If a production would need a lot of FXs, why not animation?

 

[Oofta]

There were entire scenes of the movie that weren't really necessary such as the whole army versus a black dragon. It was awesome visually, but it didn't really add anything to the story. There were many, many parts of the movie that could have told a very similar story with a lot less CGI.

I would have been happy with a movie that told a story of 1st level PCs just starting out, when magic was cool but limited, and if you saw a dragon it was only flashes of it because you were running for your life. It's the script, story and acting that would have mattered to me. It still wouldn't be a particularly cheap movie and I think animation may be better for a D&D movie, but the people making the movie admitted they were given pretty much a blank check to make it and went overboard.

 

[Parmandur]

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.

It was a very CGI heavy, and pupet and costume an set design heavy movie?

It wasn't Avatr The Way of Water or something, but there were a lot of effects.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The StageCraft could help to save money, but it has got its own handicaps.

StageCraft - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

If a production would need a lot of FXs, why not animation?

For something like the Castle Never interiors a physical set would have been fine. It didn’t need to be shot in the (authentically medieval) Bishop’s Palace in Wells. Nor did it need to be digital, a couple of plywood stone walls would have done the job!

 

[CommodoreKong]

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 same thing with Chris Pine's salary happened with Star Trek 4, he was unwilling to lower what he had initially agreed to and it's probably one of the reasons that Star Trek 4 never got made:

Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth ‘Star Trek 4’ Future In Doubt as Talks Fall Through (Exclusive)

Chris Pine and Chris Hemsworth are exiting 'Star Trek 4' after talks between the actors and the companies making the new installment, Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media, fell apart.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

I'm guessing he probably wont be willing to lower his salary again for a lower budget D&D 2 but who knows maybe things have changed.

 

[GrimCo]

Probably depends on the percentage. From 11.5 to 10, probably. From 11.5 to 1.5, hell to the no. Specially if they have already singed multi movie deal with defined pay.

For mid budget movie route, they need either A lister who is broke/bankrupt and willing to do anything (like Nick Cage) or someone less famous. Since there are very few actors left with enough star power to bring viewers just cause they are in it, probably better to go for cheaper, less famous actors.