D&D Movie/TV Update on D&D TV Show -- Underdark, Small, 6-10 Episodes

Writer Derek Kolstad (John Wick) has shared an insight into the upcoming D&D TV show with Collider, which he says will be 6-10 serialized episodes with an Underdark element.

His approach is a "tinier sliver" of the world, compared to epic stories like Lord of the Rings. He compares it to Star Wars and Jaws. He mentioned that he's like to go "deeper and deeper into the Underdark".

"In the first Star Wars, you heard about Jabba the Hutt and you don't see him until the third one because you earn at that point, and whatever the budget was for the third one compared to the first one, who cares, right? And I think in Dungeons and Dragons, who has this massive, dedicated community of acolytes, I don't want to suddenly throw everything on screen and say, 'Here's the buffet.' You'd much rather keep the story intimate. When you think of our favorite movies, I'd rather do the First Blood version. It's a guy in the woods being hunted. And it's very small, but you allude to the other things through conversation."

As yet the show is untitled. Kolstad talked a bit about legal meetings and available characters for use. It sounds like he wants to set it towards the end of any 'metaplot' that D&D might have -- "... don't want to go in the middle of the mythos. I want to come near the end where everything is canonical, it's biblical, it's happened. Or, it's about to happen. That way you can revisit certain sequences and storylines that everyone loved in the past through flashback, but where we go is new"

 

[DEFCON 1]

Zemo's mask bit confused me. It's what he wears in the comices, but I don't understand his apparent reverence for it in the MCU or why it appears so solid -- maybe there's tech inside?

I suspect it looks solid because there's support around the mouth area to keep it from moving when Zemo talks. An actual mask that was form-fitting to cling around the entire head (rather than just drape over it like Cobra Commander's secondary cloth mask does) would wobble and move every time Zemo moved his jaw up and down and his lips flapped. Which would be a pain to deal with in ADR, but also just look kind of dumb onscreen.

The non-moving mouth mask is what we have gotten from Spider-Man and Deadpool, and I suspect they have realized it just works and looks better overall.

 

[Dragonsbane]

How many TV shows can you name set in the Underdark?

Obviously I meant campaigns we have all played in, FR products, modules, books, etc. LOL

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Obviously I meant campaigns we have all played in, FR products, modules, books, etc. LOL

Given that the vast majority of the TV audience (unless the show flops hard) will never have played D&D, any familiar D&D trope will be new to them.

 

[wicked cool]

Actually, there are a couple of advantages to duergar over drow: not an evil matriarchy, never been black skinned, don't have angular (i.e. white) facial features.

And a major disadvantage: either need to cast short actors (see The Witcher) or have complicated or costly FX.

just do what lotr did and the scenes give the illusion of height

 

[Paul Farquhar]

just do what lotr did and the scenes give the illusion of height

That is a slow process. Not something you would want to have to use extensively on a TV schedule.

These days CGI dwarves would be simpler and faster, and only slightly more expensive.

 

[wicked cool]

id rather have a good actor play the role and the camera illusion over cgi . CGI seems very expensive

I remember listening to the GOT directors wanting to add an undead bear but the cgi was prohibitive

 

[ART!]

Actually, there are a couple of advantages to duergar over drow: not an evil matriarchy, never been black skinned, don't have angular (i.e. white) facial features.

And a major disadvantage: either need to cast short actors (see The Witcher) or have complicated or costly FX.

just do what lotr did and the scenes give the illusion of height

That is a slow process. Not something you would want to have to use extensively on a TV schedule.

These days CGI dwarves would be simpler and faster, and only slightly more expensive.

It's really no slower, just different: once the relevant production staff understand that's what's happening, then everything is planned accordingly and baked into the process. Most of it's done practically (in-camera, while filming), and with modern greenscreen technology the need for duplicate-but-scaled sets is less than it was.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

id rather have a good actor play the role and the camera illusion over cgi
. CGI seems very expensive

I remember listening to the GOT directors wanting to add an undead bear but the cgi was prohibitive

What "you rather" wouldn't fit a TV production schedule, especially if there are significant numbers of scenes that involve full and half scale characters. In theory it's simple enough, but in practice, you have extensive detailed pre-vis to work out the camera angles, two scales of sets, double the number of props, and scale doubles to deal with. And you can't shoot the scene using multiple cameras and then select which shot to use in editing.

The easiest and cheapest way to do it is to blue-screen the full and half scale characters together. Well, no, the easiest and cheapest way to do it is cast 4 foot actors.

 

[MarkB]

What "you rather" wouldn't fit a TV production schedule, especially if there are significant numbers of scenes that involve full and half scale characters. In theory it's simple enough, but in practice, you have extensive detailed pre-vis to work out the camera angles, two scales of sets, double the number of props, and scale doubles to deal with. And you can't shoot the scene using multiple cameras and then select which shot to use in editing.

The easiest and cheapest way to do it is to blue-screen the full and half scale characters together. Well, no, the easiest and cheapest way to do it is cast 4 foot actors.

We're not talking halflings here, we're talking dwarves. They're medium creatures, built to the same scale as humans, just shorter in stature. Most of that can be dealt with by using raised / dropped floors on the sets, and just making sure the camera doesn't show them.

For wider shots you just do some green-screen shots and composite them together, which is well within TV show budgets. Much of The Mandalorian was shot using virtual sets.

 

[ART!]

The easiest and cheapest way to do it is to blue-screen the full and half scale characters together. Well, no, the easiest and cheapest way to do it is cast 4 foot actors.

The problem with casting only shorter actors for the smaller "races" is because you limit yourself to a smaller pool of actors. This is why Peter Jackson didn't go that route.

Now, part of the thinking there was that there are a number of important diminutive characters in the LOTR movies, so keeping the casting to only very short actors starts to really limit you, in terms of finding just the right actor for each of those important roles. If a movie or series only had one or two, then the smaller pool of actors becomes much less of a problem.