D&D Movie/TV (Yet another) D&D Movie Speculation thread.

[OB1]

(Yet another) D&D Movie Speculation thread.

First my general caveat on making movies...
Making a movie is really hard

Making a good movie is nearly impossible, requiring immense effort and commitment from hundreds of insanely talented people

Making a great movie requires all of that and quite a bit of good luck along the way.

So the deck is stacked against making a good D&D movie, and a great one will likely not happen.

That said, here is my formula for success.

Make the primary plot as simple to understand as possible. Item x needs to be taken to person Y on the other side of Faerun to avoid catastrophe.

Have three main characters and two side kicks.

Main characters should include one who is Aspirational, one who is Nobel, one who is Cynical. There should be romantic tension between the three of them.

One side kick is the loyal friend of a main character, the other is a bumbling fool.

Begin film near a small, sleepy, idyllic village. Epic high level battle ensues as good guys steal or protect Item X from bad guys. One survivor, a mentor character who somehow knows Main Character, escapes bad guys to take Item X to Main Character and Best Friend in sleepy town, explains they must get it to person Y, then dies or disappears.

Main Character and Best Friend hit the road, finally seeing the world they have only heard about in Bards Tales. They meet the other two main characters and the bumbling sidekick on the road, team up.

Along the way, they have many encounters and complications, eventually learning to trust each other and grow stronger, though the Best Friend sacrifices herself along the way.

Eventually they deliver item x to person y and have a final confrontation with the bad guys.

Do that, make sure along the road at some point they go through a dungeon and encounter a dragon, and you’ve got it.

 

[Mistwell]

See, but Bojack Horseman is a streaming series, and generally speaking when people use the term "series" they mean in the sense of TV/streaming series and generally use the word "franchise" when talking about movie "series".



The thread title doesn't dictate tangents, and several people (myself included) have mentioned series (not franchises) on this thread.



You're talk of movies was talking past me and those I was responding to. Also, while most people are talking about movies on this thread, some of us are engaged in a tangent that is not movie-specific.

Did you really expect that ignoring the Spiderman movie and DC Universe animated movies, and focusing only on the thing in parenthesis which was obviously a side not, that you would successfully hide the fact you were responding to a post that was mostly about movies? Really?

Maybe YOU went off on a tangent but the post you were replying to had not. If you meant non-movies, OK, but that was not clear to me and was not clear given the context you were replying to and not particularly relevant to his post either.

And if you're wondering why I took a somewhat more aggressive tone responding to you, it's because you took a very aggressive tone in responding back to me. I didn't initially take that tone, I just mentioned anime movies have not done so great. You then got didactic implying I hadn't read the thread...despite the fact you didn't appear to even know the post you had initially replied to was talking mostly about movies.

 

[generic]

They need to envision it as an ongoing series, like Marvel did. They had a grand plan for years. I would suggest avoiding the drow problem (although I don't think it is insurmountable) and take a well known existing storyline from the vast D&D history and roll with it.

For the sake of argument let's say it is set in the Realms (the most well known place and oodles of novels and history), and you could conceivably focus on a different hero or groups of heroes, much like Marvel did with Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Dr. Strange, etc.

Maybe they should start with a revamped TV show or cartoon to test the waters first...

Interesting ideas.

How would you mitigate "the Drow problem"?

I think your idea has significant merit, but due to the fact that Drow play such a key role in many FR tales, it would be difficult to remove them or even change them without angering the fanbase.

Again (and I'm merely curious), how would you get rid of the Drow problem.

 

[OB1]

Interesting ideas.

How would you mitigate "the Drow problem"?

I think your idea has significant merit, but due to the fact that Drow play such a key role in many FR tales, it would be difficult to remove them or even change them without angering the fanbase.

Again (and I'm merely curious), how would you get rid of the Drow problem.

Make them ultraviolet. Purple in the dark, softly glowing white/purple in the light.

 

[Jester David]

If the movie was being planned as a one-and-done or even a trilogy I'd push for the Jumanji aspect, akin to the D&D movie. Where being pulled into a fantasy realm is a metaphor for the game.
But since they're hoping to launch a franchise with a number of different films telling different stories, it'd be better to stick with characters in-world.

Were I in charge I'd keep it simple for the first story, but have seeds and ideas for where to go next. There's no point having lots of set-up for a franchise which will likely fail.
See the Dark Universe, most of Fox's X-Men attempts, Sony's Spider-man, etc. Franchises are hard and most fail after two or three movies.

To work the movie needs to bring something different to the table beyond other fantasy films. It can't attempt to have the gravitas as Lord of the Rings because it hasn't earned that status or level of seriousness. Not should it try to be as grim and shocking as Game of Thrones.
The movie should be fun. It should have amusing over the top characters that feel like player characters, with light genre savvy banter and situational awareness. Somewhere between Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool only with the fourth wall left intact. Heck, pulling inspiration from the various Hellboy films wouldn't be amiss.

You don't want to have too many different hooks and ideas in a film. A film trying to be witting with a deep original plot and sassy character bantering back-and-forth along with a brand new unfamiliar setting is a lot. There's a lot to absorb and pay attention to. A lot of new nouns to remember.
As such, it helps to have a pretty simple plot. Something easy like being hired to recover a long lost magic item. Stick with the classic Indiana Jones story. And then add witty characters. The movie should SOUND like gamers at the table.

I want a film where the adventurers walk down a dungeon and see a long hallway and say:
"Yeah… that's trapped."
"A trap. Here. In a hidden temple deep in the Trollmoors? In an unremarkable hallway behind a locked doors and beyond a secret passage?”
"Yes."
“Why?”
“Because it’s where I’d put a trap.”
“... Fair enough. Let’s break out the ten-foot pole.”

 

[Azzy]

..............

 

[Jester David]

Interesting ideas.

How would you mitigate "the Drow problem"?

I think your idea has significant merit, but due to the fact that Drow play such a key role in many FR tales, it would be difficult to remove them or even change them without angering the fanbase.

Again (and I'm merely curious), how would you get rid of the Drow problem.

If a movie needs to introduce drow I’d lampshade it and address it openly through the characters’ dialogue. Show that the writers know it’s problematic.

NPC: “While there, watch out for the drow. They’ll try and kill you.”
Person of Colour Adventurer: “Drow? What are they?”
Other Adventurerer: “Dark elves.”
PoCA: “The hell? That’s racist.
OA: “Dark as in evil. They’re slavers who rebelled against their god and fled underground. And now worship a horrible demon lord.”
PoCA: “Oh. Okay.”
OA: “But, yeah, they do also have black skin...”
PoCA: “Mother Fu-”
(End scene)

Don’t just have the drow as brown but a coal grey-black. Show why they have that colour by having some drow hidden in the dark against a rock and reveal themselves only when they open their eyes and give wicked grins. Imply they’re not black because that’s evil, but to better hide in the Underdark.

It also helps if you have an actual elf played by a person of colour to contrast against the drow. (One of the Realm’s copper elves.)

 

[Azzy]

To work the movie needs to bring something different to the table beyond other fantasy films. It can't attempt to have the gravitas as Lord of the Rings because it hasn't earned that status or level of seriousness. Not should it try to be as grim and shocking as Game of Thrones.
The movie should be fun. It should have amusing over the top characters that feel like player characters, with light genre savvy banter and situational awareness. Somewhere between Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool only with the fourth wall left intact. Heck, pulling inspiration from the various Hellboy films wouldn't be amiss.

Yeah, GoG is about the hard limit that I'd put for light-hearted tone. I agree that full seriousness and grimdark are off the table, but I think it'd be amiss to go too light. Gotta find a balance between drama and cheek.

 

[OB1]

NPC: “While there, watch out for the drow. They’ll try and kill you.”
Adventurer: “Drow? What are they?”
OA: ”They’re slavers who rebelled against their god and fled underground. And now worship a horrible demon lord.”
A: “Oh. Okay.”
(End scene)

^fixed this

Then just make the Drow anything but black. Glowing otherworldly ultraviolet purple/white would be my suggestion.

 

[Azzy]

Don’t just have the drow as brown but a coal grey-black. Show why they have that colour by having some drow hidden in the dark against a rock and reveal themselves only when they open their eyes and give wicked grins. Imply they’re not black because that’s evil, but to better hide in the Underdark.

It also helps if you have an actual elf played by a person of colour to contrast against the drow. (One of the Realm’s copper elves.)

To be honest, I'd just portray drow as having dark purplish skin (more alien that way), and just portray them as demon-worshipping elves (of which Lolth is only one of—that way you can skip the matriarchal bit unless you choose to focus on Lolth-worshippers). It's close to how they were in the original module when they first appeared.

I do like the idea of contrasting with copper elves (which I know nothing about, not being a FR fan) or some other non-Whitey-McWhitey derivation of elf.