D&D Movie/TV What's The Latest On The D&D Movie?

Last we heard about the D&D movie was that it was coming on July 23rd, 2021. That was back in December. Various outlets are now reporting that Chris McKay, who is currently working on the Nightwing movie, will be directing. Also, separately on 14th February, Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman posted a photo of themselves on a "secret mission" with actor Joe Manganellio, who at one point tweeted a photo of a Dragonlance script (Manganellio tweeted the same photo saying "With two of the architects of my childhood, the authors of the Dragonlance novels Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman").

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We've heard so many little rumours over the past few years. Repeating from a previous article I wrote: in the past we heard that the movie would be produced by the Lego Movie's Roy Lee, that it would be directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps, Monsters vs. Aliens, Shark Tale). Originally scripted by David Leslie Johnson (Wrath of the Titans), it's now being written by Joe Manganellio, might be Dragonlance and then again might feature the Yawning Portal, and will adopt a Guardians of the Galaxy tone. Oh, and that we should take everything I just said with a pinch of salt as the movie appears have jumped from WB to Paramount at some point in the process!

I think it's safe to say we know nothing at all. But we can have fun connecting the dots to see if we can make a picture!

 

[LordEntrails]

We now have some solid information. Garth at DarkHorizions is rarely wrong. I don't think there's any doubt it's moving forward.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/nightwing-helmer-joins-dungeons-dragons/

A TINY bit of solid information.

Chris McKay ... is in negotiations to direct

Which means he's as likely not to direct as he is to direct it.

The Tracking Board indicates the film is ‘years down the line

Which given the 2021 release date we already knew.

But thanks for the link, everything else is this thread is speculation and dreams.

 

[Henry]

Which given the 2021 release date we already knew.

It looks like that part of the quote is referring to the Nightwing movie, because the next line talks about there being many other DC movies to come before the Nightwing movie, giving him time to tackle the D&D movie.

 

[Henry]

Lol every setting is incredibly niche. The point is to not try selling it on the basis of being set in X world.

No one thinks that a Drizzt movie is going to make Iron Man money because it’s got Drizzt in it, right?

No one thought Iron Man was going to make IRON MAN money, either - until it did. but I agree that if they want a D&D movie to
be a success, it needs to be a great story, first, with compelling characters, and a genre film second. Had there been no Robert Downey, Jr. I doubt we’d have the Marvel Cinematic Universe, frankly - the perfect actor for the right story at the right time.

 

[guachi]

My biggest fear is they intentionally attempt to make the first movie be part of a series and because of that the movie ends up not being very good.

If they want to make the movie feel attached to the game they can always have it be Princess Bride-like where it's a father/mother relaying some epic story to the child. D&D isn't always serious anyway and it might give some connection to the game.

Or maybe the movie starts off with people playing D&D around a table and then it morphs to the movie. There are enough people who have seen a D&D Youtube video that it wouldn't be strange. Heck, Jumanji made $300+ million in the US on people acting out a game as if it were real.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't know if most D&D games are like mine, but there tends to be a high level of silliness, movie spoofs and plagerism in mine. But in a movie I would want to see something far more serious. It seems rather like trying to square a circle.

If I did have to make a D&D movie, I might consider adapting the Darkwalker on Moonshae novel. It's not actually very good, but it conforms to a good many "Young Adult" genre tropes - good looking late-teen protagonists with sexual tension, etc. Quite an achievement, since it pre-dates the invention of YA! It also has a fairly stereotypical adventuring party with recognisable classes.

 

[Eltab]

I would write the movie with Princess Bride style: occasionally step out of the story to see the "real people" react to something.
The real people are just a set of friends (maybe college-age, maybe a few are older) spending the afternoon together and doing something fun.
edit: the "real people" are attending their high school class reunion, picking up episodes from the campaign they played in school back in the day. The movie ends when they have to go to the actual reunion.

The group might refer to famous movies also made by the same studio, to avoid copyright / royalty problems.
Ex: One 007 music-writer also had written for the stage version of Moulon Rouge and threw a riff from there into the Bond movie soundtrack.

I can SO see a Terminator reference if the BBEG has a Warforged enforcer-lieutenant.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

No one thought Iron Man was going to make IRON MAN money, either - until it did. but I agree that if they want a D&D movie to
be a success, it needs to be a great story, first, with compelling characters, and a genre film second. Had there been no Robert Downey, Jr. I doubt we’d have the Marvel Cinematic Universe, frankly - the perfect actor for the right story at the right time.

DnD is vastly more niche than Iron Man, and Iron Man made the money it did because of the cast and the director, and the lucky fact that they didn't have a finished script, so it had to be largely improvised.

A DnD movie has to, first and above all, focus on telling a good story. Any thought of setting has to serve that. The Dragonlance Chronicles are the only set of DnD stories I know of that were widely popular even outside of gamers, but WoTC will have the only real numbers on that, and it may well be that a studio, writer, director, or combination thereof would rather create a world for the story to take place in, that has room for any kind of dnd story they want to tell.

If we had any reason to think that anything we'd heard before was going to remain the same, I'd say that Eberron is the best setting fit for a movie with the names we've heard attached and the tone they've said they want to go with, if they didn't go with DL for that classic Dragonlance story.

My biggest fear is they intentionally attempt to make the first movie be part of a series and because of that the movie ends up not being very good.

If they want to make the movie feel attached to the game they can always have it be Princess Bride-like where it's a father/mother relaying some epic story to the child. D&D isn't always serious anyway and it might give some connection to the game.

Or maybe the movie starts off with people playing D&D around a table and then it morphs to the movie. There are enough people who have seen a D&D Youtube video that it wouldn't be strange. Heck, Jumanji made $300+ million in the US on people acting out a game as if it were real.

That would just come across as a Jumanji ripoff, IMO. Also, Jumanji worked because of Robin Williams and incredible luck with the kid actors, and because of the weird juxtaposition of the game elements with the real world.

I can't think of anything I want from a DnD movie more fervently than for it to not do anything like any of that.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Iron Man was pretty well known in the USA, but almost unknown internationally until the movie. It was successful for one simple reason: it was good.

It doesn't really matter how they make a D&D movie, so long as they make it GOOD.

 

[AriochQ]

I'd say that Eberron is the best setting fit for a movie with the names we've heard attached and the tone they've said they want to go with, if they didn't go with DL for that classic Dragonlance story.


.

That would be an awful choice. As if D&D wasn't niche enough, you now set the movie into a niche within D&D.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Eberron would probably fly well with the Asian market, but my feeling is that 80s retro is popular at the moment, and it might be useful to try and tap into that vain of nostalgia. Eberron wasn't around in the 80s.