D&D Movie/TV Rawson Thurber will write and direct the D&D TV Series!

[Paul Farquhar]

Boobs and gore. Like Conan. Conan 2 was PG-13 and it sucked.

Conan the Destroyer was far more like a typical D&D adventure than the first film.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Btw what do you mean its so 5 years ago?

I mean Red Notice is. Like, everything about Red Notice seems like a film which would have been made 5 years ago or maybe slightly more. It just feels dated and like something we've seen done before, a number of times.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I mean Red Notice is. Like, everything about Red Notice seems like a film which would have been made 5 years ago or maybe slightly more. It just feels dated and like something we've seen done before, a number of times.

I think "old fashioned" is more accurate than "dated". It could have been made pretty much any time since they invented action movies.

And if you think about it, it's a pretty good model for D&D: a hackneyed plot involving a heist and treasure hunt for some meaningless McGuffins serves as a vehicle for a group of larger-than-life characters to wisecrack their way through a succession of action sequences.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I think "old fashioned" is more accurate than "dated". It could have been made pretty much any time since they invented action movies.

I think we're talking about slightly different things. I don't think it was actually that old-fashioned, though I get what you mean, I specifically mean dated because of the way the characters and plot are approached and so on. The dialogue and characterization are tired too. They don't have to be, people make new fun action movies all the time, but they were here.

And if you think about it, it's a pretty good model for D&D: a hackneyed plot involving a heist and treasure hunt for some meaningless McGuffins serves as a vehicle for a group of larger-than-life characters to wisecrack their way through a succession of action sequences.

That's kind of the concern though. That can work at a table, but week after week, I dunno, I don't think it's going to hold audiences in 2022. I think it'll come across as an inferior, live-action Vox Machina if they go that way - which is what I was saying.

If they do something wackier like a 2022 update of the "It's a Dungeons and Dragons ride!" though, that maybe has more potential.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think we're talking about slightly different things. I don't think it was actually that old-fashioned, though I get what you mean, I specifically mean dated because of the way the characters and plot are approached and so on. The dialogue and characterization are tired too. They don't have to be, people make new fun action movies all the time, but they were here.

That's kind of the concern though. That can work at a table, but week after week, I dunno, I don't think it's going to hold audiences in 2022. I think it'll come across as an inferior, live-action Vox Machina if they go that way - which is what I was saying.

If they do something wackier like a 2022 update of the "It's a Dungeons and Dragons ride!" though, that maybe has more potential.

Red Notice was Netfix's most successful movie ever. So whether old fashioned or dated, the audience liked it. Whatever they where doing "5 years ago" is more popular than what they are doing now.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Red Notice was Netfix's most successful movie ever. So whether old fashioned or dated, the audience liked it. Whatever they where doing "5 years ago" is more popular than what they are doing now.

You don't think putting Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot and The Rock in one movie, all of them playing [Default Character] was the trick to it being so successful? I mean, I ask because I do. If Reynolds wasn't in it, I wouldn't have even bothered watching it, based on the synopsis and trailers. Reynolds AND the Rock AND Gadot? I pretty much had to.

I'm not saying Netflix doesn't know what they're doing.

My critique is of the writing specifically, and I don't think it follows, logically, that whatever they were doing 5+ years ago is "more popular", because, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first time Netflix has assembled so many high-value, charming A-listers in one movie? Normally they spread them out.

I'm certainly hoping Thurber writes a great D&D series. I'm just y'know, skeptical. Especially as Bright (aka Shadowrun Lite - now with more crude racial analogies!) was their previous "most successful movie on Netflix", and it was rather dreadful, writing-wise (and action-wise, actually), it just had Will Smith in it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You don't think putting Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot and The Rock in one movie, all of them playing [Default Character] was the trick to it being so successful?

Yes, absolutely. And the star vehicle is a very old fashioned, and very successful, mode of film making. What Do you think Danny Kaye in The Court Jester was? Ryan Reynolds is Danny Kaye 2022.

And star vehicle is what a D&D adventure is, with the players as the stars.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yes, absolutely. And the star vehicle is a very old fashioned, and very successful, mode of film making. What Do you think Danny Kaye in The Court Jester was? Ryan Reynolds is Danny Kaye 2022.

And star vehicle is what a D&D adventure is, with the players as the stars.

You're still kind of missing my point, I think.

I agree that the star vehicle is an eternal structure for a movie, and yeah D&D games are like that - and a lot of TV series' are kind of like that as well, albeit with more minor stars.

But when I say 5+ years ago, I don't mean the structure in that broad sense (as you point out, that's far more ancient than 5 years, and I'm not a 20-something who thinks everything just happened just now lol), I mean the plot and dialogue. To me it seemed dated and clumsy, and barely being kept alive by the stars and action.

We'll see anyway, whether Thurber makes something worth watching, or whether, over time, what I perceive as his weakness with plot/dialogue will cause a problem.

 

[MarkB]

I enjoyed Red Notice well enough, right up until the Unexpected Plot Twist, which killed it dead for me and left me not caring about what happened to any of the characters.

 

[Oofta]

So the most popular movie on Netflix ever somehow means that one of the D&D shows will be terrible? Yes, Red Notice was the equivalent of movie comfort food. I thought it was reasonably enjoyable. Maybe I'm just not an artiste that feels like I need to pass judgement on whether it was, like, so 15 minutes ago.

Maybe the new TV show will be good, maybe it will be bad. The fact that it's happening and is being headed up by someone who produced something I've actually heard of is encouraging. But people will come up with any reason to assume the worst.