Pitch me your ulitmate D&D movie

[DM-Rocco]

Director Bryan Singer 1st & 2nd x-men director (I think Peter Jackson might do okay since he managed Lord of the Rings, but I think he is a little high brow now and such a project is beneath him. Ang lee did a good job on crouching tiger hidden dragon, so I think he can handle an action/drama/fantasy, but for me, he ruined the Hulk. I think Bryan Singer is a good balance between the two)

Storyline I would say the Dragonlance saga (trash the horrible cartoon in the works, I know it is, I've seen pictures and heard sound bites, and make it a live action, full budget fantasy fest. It is the most well known story line in D&D history, it is well written and has a great flow of events that could keep the audience going without feeling like a roller coaster. For the record, I never go see movies that are advertised as a non-stop roller coaster ride from beginning to end.)

Writer Me of course, well, okay, Tracy Hickman and Margy, I guess they'll do

Cast This would really take too long to get into here. At least since I am killing time at work. I'd have to give it some serious thought, but I would have Kiefer Sutherland do the voice of Raistlin no matter who played him, that was a wise choice.

Format I would prefer Live action with a CGI mix, or a complete CGI movie, but only if they held true to either the real world look and feel or absorbed the drawing stylings of Larry Elmore (something the current project did not do) as it was he who brought the project to life for many readers. The current project looks more like Ghostbusters than anything from D&D. What were you thinking in hiring Will Meugniot to direct? You get what you pay for. Just don't blame the fans when this movie tanks too. I'll support D&D and WOTC and go see it to say I have, but from what I have seen so far, it blows.

Producer Same as the writers, they have the feel for the story, pay them what they want and let them run with it

Effects house WETA, unless Peter Jackson has to direct it, then ILM, but only if either doesn't go nuts (ie Like Count DuKu, in Revenge of the Sith, doing a flip in the air rather than walk down stairs or glide down with menace like Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Less is often more.)

Studio Whichever one understands that money needs to be spent and that if done in a proper manner with minimal interference, they will make money in return.

Budget You would most likely need $100,000,000 per movie at the least and would have to film all three at the same time to save on production costs. Whatever they spend, they need more money going into things like wardrobe and weapons. Every movie they have done so far looks like a remake of the Flintstones than a good and proper D&D movie. All the weapons look stupid and clunky. Movies are all about the suspension of disbelief. If you look at a weapon and think it is made of foam, you will not take the film seriously. Same with poor acting, bad directing, stupid story lines, over the top special effects (and also really cheesy ones too) atrocious wardrobes and unfortunate editing. If you can't make a real Dragon Lance Trilogy for $300,000,000 with good quality, then something is fundamentally wrong with you and don't even bother.

 

[Traycor]

I say this thread should be resurrected from the dead!

*Be healed!*

 

[el-remmen]

Any "D&D" movie needs to be framed with players. . . as they arrive and get their snacks and drinks and the DM gives a re-cap and the game starts, the scene slowly changes to that of the in-game world (which will be more "serious" than the attitudes around the table). As the credits roll at the end there should be a funny scene with the DM giving out XP, etc. . . Perhaps even a "dinner break" intermission in the middle of the movie.

For it to be D&D movie, a connection to the game/imagination needs to be made, otherwise it is just some sword & sorcery movie.

 

[Traycor]

Wow... that would be the equivalent of making the Spider-Man movie about laying around and reading comic books.

 

[el-remmen]

Wow... that would be the equivalent of making the Spider-Man movie about laying around and reading comic books.

No, it would be framed by the scenes of the gaming group (that is at the beginning and the end) - the bulk of the film would be more of a straight up sword n' sorcery flick.

It would be more like framing a Spider-man movie with scenes of a kid reading comic books (perhaps re-creating the famous story from the comics "The Kid That Collected Spider-man")

 

[Someone]

You are all focusing on irrelevant details. What you need is a strong marketing campaing, with rumots about the magic in the movie is real magic, the blood comes from small children, and Satan himself makes a cameo.

 

[Ika]

The D&D computer game thread has got me thinking about D&D movies (I actually think about this a lot but the thread prompted to have some fun with it).

You have been given the once in a lifetime chance to pitch a studio on the D&D movie that is sure to be a block buster. The meeting will last ten minutes so you have to quickly and concisely sell the studio executive your idea. What would are the top-line elements you would present?

Consider:

Director (also tell me what they've done)
Storyline
Writer (also tell me what they've done)
Cast (also tell me their most notable role)
Format (eg live action vs CGI)
Producer (and why)
Effects house (eg ILM vs WETA)
Studio
Budget

Also provide a projected box office revenue and justify it by citing examples (eg 300 did $210,545,283 in box office returns)

Disclaimer: This is just for fun but WOTC is active in the film industry and we see a lot of actual pitches and often two ideas are the same or similar so if you think your idea is that good andor original don't post it here, it's the internet after all.

Well, I saw this thread and thought wow, this would be fun. I am not a member of this website for long, but I love DnD and have been playing it for half my life with my brother. We love fantasy and were thrilled when they first announced the DnD movies. Well we saw them and were not so thrilled afterwards. So, I'll give this a go, for fun.

Director: I guess Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) or I don't know the directors name, but the one who directed the miniseries of Dune. They seem to take fantasy or sci fi in the right manner.
Storyline: Definately definately should be "Lady Despina's Virtue" posted in story hour by Sepulchrave. Its brilliant, brilliantly written, the characters are super. Best storyhour I have read. Should definately be either published or made into a movie. The storyline is crucial, I think even the most important.
Writer: Well preferably would be Sepulchrave himself, since he is the DM who runs that campaign.
Cast: Well, I think casting is the biggest problem. Its hard to say who should be cast for the roles. The characters are described well and in detail and pictures have been made of them. I cannot suggest anyone specific at the moment, however, I don't think that the cast should be too well known. However, preferably they would not be new.
Format: Should be more live action, but if some parts require CGI, then so be it!
Producer: I guess also Peter Jackson since he did such a good job with lord of the rings with producing and directing it. He is obviously enthusiastic about fantasy films and has a vision of how to produce the film, holding it true to the original story and making it appeal to audiences.
Effects house:Ok, don't know any of them, so cannot judge fairly here. So I'll go with WETA since most people seem to like them here.
Studio: Well don't have much of a preference here, but either Miramax, Touchstone Pictures or Paramount Pictures.
Budget: Hihi, unlimited!!!

I think mhacdebhandia ideas were great. Don't know the storyline, so there I'm sticking to Lady Despina's virtue, but Bryan Singer as director is also a good idea (didn't think of him before) as well as the effects houses, studio, format and so on.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Definately adapt a D&D novel, like Forgotten Realms. R.A. Salvatore. I am not a huge FR fan, but I would love to see Drizzt on screen.

 

[Alzrius]

I only have two suggestions for a D&D movie. First, adapt the script-idea, written by Craig Cochrane, found here: http://immortalshandbook.com/shrine3.htm

The second idea is similar to the first, in that it's an adaptation of existing materials. Namely, take Paul Kidd's Greyhawk books, White Plume Mountain, Descent Into the Depths of the Earth, and Queen of the Demonweb Pits, and make them into movies. Seriously, those books already read like feature films (unlike most other novels), and they're absolutely perfect to be made into movies.

 

[DM-Rocco]

First, I want to say I was right about the horrible dragonLance movie. Brr, cold shivers are running down my spine just thinking about it.

Second, while I am a very story orientated person, I think the story really doesn't matter for this, we just need a suspension of disbelief, a little action and some good themes.

If you can make the world seem real, like getting away from the foam weapons and bad acting, you can do just about anything and it will look good. I would go see just about any D&D movie if it had any director other than Will Meugniot (ghostbusters/dragonlance), Andrzej Bartkowiak (doom the movie) or Uwe Boll(director of every other bad movie ever made).