D&D 5E The Cinematic Future of DnD 5th edition

[Shasarak]

I'd be more than happy to do it if I was being paid to do so by the IP owner. I couldn't promise that it would be of the highest quality, and I certainly couldn't promise that it would be of a quality comparable to what could be achieved by a professional, but I could promise that I would be more than capable of turning it into a completely serviceable script.

As for that nonsensical spin you wanted to put on your commentary, you have it all backwards. I don't need to find a reason not to spend weeks of my time aimlessly doing something that I know has no potential value for me. I would need to find an incentive to actually bother doing so.

Surely some guy on the internet telling you to do it is incentive enough?

Especially if they double dog dare you!

 

[Mirtek]

The fact is that being involved with the awful Titans movies is a sign of quality in the eyes of the IP owner to hire someone should shatter any hopes for a good 4th D&D movie.

Either they truly think those we're quality movies, this would not bode well.

Or they care so little who they are hiring that they didn't bother to do any check save glancing over the category of the previous movies and hiring the next best person with 'fantasy' in his CV. This doesn't bode well seither.

 

[Georlik]

Yes, but on the other hand is is really, really easy to claim that a piece of writing is easy to do. But then, interestingly, everyone who makes such a claim has some reason to beg off actually *doing* it. Very convenient, that.

Armchair quarterbacking, and all that.

Might I remind you of that masterpiece?
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?355974-Dragonlance-Legends-A-musical-In-Russian!
Dragonlance based and all. Braved through a lot of copyright-related hardships.

It really is possible.

 

[Hussar]

The fact is that being involved with the awful Titans movies is a sign of quality in the eyes of the IP owner to hire someone should shatter any hopes for a good 4th D&D movie.

Either they truly think those we're quality movies, this would not bode well.

Or they care so little who they are hiring that they didn't bother to do any check save glancing over the category of the previous movies and hiring the next best person with 'fantasy' in his CV. This doesn't bode well seither.

Again though, how successful does it have to be?

Note that it wasn't really the writing that seemed to be the problem but rather some poor acting and directing. It's not like the story itself was bad. Bland maybe but hardly Barbarian Bros bad.

And both Titans movies did pretty well at the box office. I'd be pretty happy with that level of success. A movie doesn't have to be Iron Man or Avatar to be a success.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

Well, a screenplay still has to go through an approval process before being officially green lighted. The movie itself may be a go, but the script chosen for it is not set in stone yet. Writers on movies have been replaced before - we can hope that somebody competent is in charge of looking over the screenplay drafts before the writing gets approved.

 

[Tectuktitlay]

Yeah, this is the kind of project you actually take one of your NYT bestsellers, something already exposed to a larger audience than the pnp rpg, and get it done. As much as it might make many people cringe, if you really want to kick off a FR movie franchise, you go for the throat with your first release, and go with one of Salvatore's novels. He's hit the NYT Bestsellers list TWENTY-TWO times. If you can, get him to write the screenplay himself. He's written the stories for video games, which is closer to a screenplay than a novel. Otherwise, get someone actually familiar with the novels, and translate them as faithfully as possible to the silver screen. Once you've gotten the franchise rolling, you throw in the Cleric Quintet series with Cadderly, you do the epic Elminster stories, and so on and so forth. Regarding Elminster himself, you can even have someone you trust, that you want to do the role later on, start off doing just narration for the Drizzt series. No mention whatsoever that it's Elminster narrating these stories; it's an easter egg for people to understand later, when Elminster himself, with that same voice, makes an appearance on the screen. You eventually might start having original stories showing up on the silver screen, the FRCU (Forgotten Realms Cinematic Universe) being its own thing.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah, this is the kind of project you actually take one of your NYT bestsellers, something already exposed to a larger audience than the pnp rpg, and get it done. As much as it might make many people cringe, if you really want to kick off a FR movie franchise, you go for the throat with your first release, and go with one of Salvatore's novels. He's hit the NYT Bestsellers list TWENTY-TWO times. If you can, get him to write the screenplay himself. He's written the stories for video games, which is closer to a screenplay than a novel. Otherwise, get someone actually familiar with the novels, and translate them as faithfully as possible to the silver screen. Once you've gotten the franchise rolling, you throw in the Cleric Quintet series with Cadderly, you do the epic Elminster stories, and so on and so forth. Regarding Elminster himself, you can even have someone you trust, that you want to do the role later on, start off doing just narration for the Drizzt series. No mention whatsoever that it's Elminster narrating these stories; it's an easter egg for people to understand later, when Elminster himself, with that same voice, makes an appearance on the screen. You eventually might start having original stories showing up on the silver screen, the FRCU (Forgotten Realms Cinematic Universe) being its own thing.

I think, (IANAL, so take this with a grain of salt) that part of the issue with this idea is who owns the characters? Elminister is owned by Greenwood, Salvatore owns Drizz't, and probably someone else owns Cadderly. These aren't Marvel characters where Stan Lee either created most of the characters himself, or else screwed over the creators and took ownership of the characters entirely.

I'm wondering if a movie studio might not be reticent about dealing with so many different IP owners, each of whom will want something for their creation, rather than simply making something new. We're talking about material that's spread across the TSR and WotC days, and neither company has an exactly stellar record when it comes to who owns what.

 

[Tectuktitlay]

I think, (IANAL, so take this with a grain of salt) that part of the issue with this idea is who owns the characters? Elminister is owned by Greenwood, Salvatore owns Drizz't, and probably someone else owns Cadderly. These aren't Marvel characters where Stan Lee either created most of the characters himself, or else screwed over the creators and took ownership of the characters entirely.

I'm wondering if a movie studio might not be reticent about dealing with so many different IP owners, each of whom will want something for their creation, rather than simply making something new. We're talking about material that's spread across the TSR and WotC days, and neither company has an exactly stellar record when it comes to who owns what.

Actually, I don't think this assertion is correct. The copyrights for the Forgotten Realms and the characters created for their novels, including Drizzt (for sure) and by all indications as far as I have been able to research, Elminster, are not owned by their authors at all, but by Wizards of the Coast (and in turn, their parent company, Hasbro). Also, Cadderly is a Salvatore character. As far as research indicates, it is standard boilerplate legal text for all works written in the Forgotten Realms that the rights to all characters, creations, et al, within their novels are the intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast. That doesn't mean Greenwood and Salvatore don't get some kick-ass royalty checks, I'm sure they do. But the actual ownership of anything officially set in the Forgotten Realms lies firmly in the hands of WotC/Hasbro.

In fact, here is an article in Forbes magazine, an interview with Salvatore, where the very fact that he DOES NOT own the rights to the characters is discussed: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...ten-realms-and-dungeons-dragons/#7345dfbf451e

 

[Hussar]

Fair enough then.

 

[Mirtek]

Yes, WotC owns all FR character. Back during the time TSR and Salvatore were arguing, they almost had another author write the next Drizzt novels. Theres was actually a drizzt short story by this author published in one if the anthologies and the planned novels even got adds printed before they reconciled with Salvatore and the novel was axed

Entreri was also used in the double diamond triangle (vor whatever it was called) by other authors. May habe been during the same time