Rumor? D&D movie issues resolved and a TV series in the works?

[RedShirtNo5.1]

Trial in the lawsuit between Hasbro and Sweetpea was originally scheduled for April IIRC, but has been delayed until July 1. It is certainly likely that the parties have been in settlement negotiations, but there's no sign of a settlement entered yet on the court docket.

 

[WayneLigon]

Having it look like 'Generic Fantasy' might not be a bad idea, since D&D is the ultimate in generic fantasy; it practically defines the name. I think the best you're going to be able to hope for in a film or TV series is the cleric/wizard split and maybe an iconic monster or two (what, maybe 3-4 out of the thousands available?)(And even those don't have to be present - Dragonlance did perfectly fine without clerics for the most part). D&D is whatever you want it to be. Take the name 'Game of Thrones' off and put up 'D&D' on the credits, and it would be perfectly accurate, since 'D&D' can be almost anything.

 

[keterys]

Not much point to generic D&D I think. Make it Dragonlance or Drizzt or Ravenloft or Eberron or whatever to at least leverage a little more IP, sure.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

To me, if they wanted to make a D&D movie, it needs to contain at least a bunch of D&Disms. Game of Thrones is not a good D&D show because it lacks a focus on a "party" and "adventurers". It lacks a ragtag assortment of races and relatively plentiful magic. To me, all of those things need to be there to count as a D&D movie.

It should be a movie/TV show about an elf, a dwarf, a human, a halfling, and some sort of weird race like half-orc, dragonborn, or tiefling. They should be seeking adventure either because they are paid or for the thrill of it. They might uncover a huge plot that is way bigger than them in the process and stop it, but it should start out small.

 

[fjw70]

Maybe follow the Marvel model and have movies about the big name characters (I.e. Drizzt, Elminster) and have a TV series about a group in the FR (maybe the Harpers or something--I am not a big FR fan so maybe there is a better group) and have it all be part of an interlinked story.

 

[Rygar]

A GoT style show with the D&D license? That would be sooo cool... But the budget for it would probably be impossibly high with all the magic missiles, bugbears, wraiths, dragons and bags of holding.

Actually, since last year (Right after the lawsuits started flying), rumors were floating around that Hasbro was positioning DragonLance as a Game of Thrones style TV Series. Which makes sense because DL fits the serial TV show format better than movies as it lets them treat various novels as spin-offs if it succeeds. They could run the mainline novels as seasons, and do the more well respected novel series as mini-series in between. For example, after Legends book 1 they could do a mini-series of the Kingpriest trilogy. They could plug in Soulforge in between Chronicles and Legends, or they could plug in Draconian Measures/Kang's Regiment after Dragons of Summer Chaos.

If it was a hit, they could leverage DL to be the "Marvel" of TV. DL has over 150 novels already written which could be turned into scripts in very short notice, making production substantially cheaper. This of course would also let them leverage the recognition into other series, like Ravenloft, for serials or mini-series.

They also wanted to do a feature film of something as well. I've never come across rumors being specific about what though. I'd guess it was Ebberon or Drizzt though.

 

[Hussar]

Not much point to generic D&D I think. Make it Dragonlance or Drizzt or Ravenloft or Eberron or whatever to at least leverage a little more IP, sure.

I think Eberron would have legs. Sharn is just so visually cool and unique from generic faux-Europe fantasy that it could really work. Plus, all the built in conflicts in the setting, including the Mourn (sp) makes it pretty easy to build a series. It's perhaps a bit more relatable than, say, Forgotten Realms which has so much stuff in it going in, that anything they make will annoy fans who will get very loud denouncing the show as "doing it wrong".

Plus, you get to draw a bit more on the whole SF tone of Eberron as well. Steampunkish. I really would like to see this.

 

[Ratskinner]

I might catch flack for this, but...

Y'know, given the current glut (at least it seems that way to me) of fantasy/sci-fi epics...I'd prefer a more lighthearted show. I mean, I think it would be neat to see episodes flip back and forth from the game table and the shared fiction (as its called). You could keep the show pretty cheap, I think, if you left the heavily green-screened "in-world" shots rather cartoonish/simplistic. (They seem to crank out kids' shows with reckless abandon, anyway). The only trick would be to avoid having the show devolve into a quickly-stale lampoon of the game. I can definitely see possibilities for a semi-serious show with dual plotlines in both worlds.

Of course, that might require more skillful writing than TV execs seem capable of handling regularly.

EDIT/PS: Think Firefly for the "in-game" world and either Freaks and Geeks or Big Bang Theory for the "real life" world.

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[Ratskinner]

ignore please, I must've mis-clicked.

 

[The Black Ranger]

I think "Legend of the Seeker" was a bit D&D.