‘Dungeons and Dragons’ Movie Rights Acquired By Warner Bros

[Kham-Ryn Kurios]

Pick up your sword with one hand and get your polyhedral dice ready in the other, because it looks like Warner Bros is planning to invest in the noble tradition of dungeon-delving, as one of the many planned projects slated for development over the next few years.

It’s been reported that Warner Bros has acquired the rights to a movie adaptation of the long-standing popular tabletop RPG game Dungeons and Dragons. Roy Lee (The Lego Movie) and Courtney Solomon (who directed the 2000 adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons) are both attached as producers.


Deadline has revealed that Warner Bros hasn’t just optioned a Dungeons and Dragons movie, but is actively pushing it into development. The script that they will be working from, Chainmail, is based on a little-known fantasy game authored by one of the original creators, Gary Gygax, before he and David Arneson properly launched Dungeons and Dragons. Now that the rights have been acquired, Chainmail will undergo rewrites in order to make it fit within the larger Dungeons and Dragons universe.

The best-known Dungeons and Dragons adaptation so far is the infamously terrible 2000 movie, which featured Jeremy Irons as villain Profion, and Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayans as the two underdog heroes. Dungeons and Dragons was a box office flop that remains just bad enough to be entertaining (who doesn’t love watching Irons chew the scenery?), but despite the two other movies that have been made since then, the property has never really taken off as a film franchise.



However, thanks to the popularity of Game of Thrones and Tolkien’s return to the big screen in Peter Jackson’s ongoing Hobbit trilogy, the average moviegoer is relatively open to swords-and-sorcery fantasy movies, which may be why Warner Bros has decided to invest in Dungeons and Dragons and is pushing to get it made before the current cultural trends move on.

Before fans of the game get too excited about this reboot, however, you should know that the script for Chainmail was written by David Leslie Johnson, whose best-known works so far are the 2011 fairy tale romance Red Riding Hood and last year’s Wrath of the Titans. Johnson also wrote The Walking Dead episodes “Chupacabra” and “Triggerfinger“, as well as evil-child horror film Orphan, and there are some who would argue that he’s a perfectly capable screenwriter. With a reboot this risky, though, “capable” probably may not cut it when it comes to appeasing anxious fans.

With the right Dungeon Master at the helm, the Warner Bros. reboot could be the movie that Dungeons and Dragons players have been waiting for. Until we find out more, though, it’s probably best to temper your excitement.


Source: http://screenrant.com/dungeons-dragons-movie-warner-bros/

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[TheHobbitofDune]

I see potential in this, but I seriously hope they don't screw it up. There was a scene in The Hobbit where they were exploring a cave, and they found tons of gold and swords. When I first watched that scene, I immediately thought "Wow! That is just like D&D!" And that is exactly what I want this D&D movie to be like. I want it to be full of exploration, puzzles, and danger at every corner, just like in an actual D&D game.

However, it should also be self-contained enough to feel like nothing more than that. Like if you were to imagine a large TV screen connected to the game board, and the dungeon, heroes, monsters, etc were all projected onto that screen in real time, and will all react according to whatever it is you say, do, think, or command. THAT is the kind of experience I want to see in a D&D movie. Though, of course, it should still carry a literally epic tone that gradually builds up and up like a crescendo, then bursts into something truly grandiose during the final battle.

[Kham-Ryn Kurios]

I see potential in this, but I seriously hope they don't screw it up. There was a scene in The Hobbit where they were exploring a cave, and they found tons of gold and swords. When I first watched that scene, I immediately thought "Wow! That is just like D&D!" And that is exactly what I want this D&D movie to be like. I want it to be full of exploration, puzzles, and danger at every corner, just like in an actual D&D game.

However, it should also be self-contained enough to feel like nothing more than that. Like if you were to imagine a large TV screen connected to the game board, and the dungeon, heroes, monsters, etc were all projected onto that screen in real time, and will all react according to whatever it is you say, do, think, or command. THAT is the kind of experience I want to see in a D&D movie. Though, of course, it should still carry a literally epic tone that gradually builds up and up like a crescendo, then bursts into something truly grandiose during the final battle.

Point.

Is there a particular campaign that you could see drawn out into a film or three random ones that could tie together loosely like Indiana Jones? Same character but at the start of a new adventure, perhaps they even carry over "Loot" that they may have acquired during the first movie.

[Waxman]

Why even make a movie when they could make a pretty sweet show and make as many 45 minute episodes as they want?

They certainly have more than enough source-material to work with.  Heck, at the end of the series or season we could find it that, and this is a shocker "it was all just a game" portrayed in the minds of the participants, kind of like the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise, which was a bit of a letdown but I digress.

[TheHobbitofDune]

The first thing that popped to mind was Planescape, but I'm not sure how well that would work.

Here is what the Wiki says:

"Planescape is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, originally designed by Zeb Cook.[1] The Planescape setting was published in 1994.[2] As its name suggests, the setting crosses and comprises the numerous planes of existence, encompassing an entire cosmology called the Great Wheel, as originally developed in the Manual of the Planes by Jeff Grubb. This includes many of the other Dungeons & Dragons worlds, linking them via inter-dimensional magical portals."

I just think that would be large enough in scale to encompass an entire trilogy, if thats what they are going for.

It even had a video game that was based on it, called Planescape: Torment...



I dunno, its been a long while since I last played D&D (other than the MMO version, which I loved).

[Jev Moldara]

I dunno, its been a long while since I last played D&D (other than the MMO version, which I loved).

If you don't have a pencil, a paper character sheet, and bunch of dice (at least 1d20, 1d12, 2d10, 1d8, 3d6, and 1d4, and preferably more than that)  in front of you, you aren't playing Dungeons and Dragons.

These computer simulations of actual gameplay are an abomination... an affront to our lord Gary Gygax's vision. The heretics must be burned. So mote it be.

[TheHobbitofDune]

If you don't have a pencil, a paper character sheet, and bunch of dice (at least 1d20, 1d12, 2d10, 1d8, 3d6, and 1d4, and preferably more than that)  in front of you, you aren't playing Dungeons and Dragons.

These computer simulations of actual gameplay are an abomination... an affront to our lord Gary Gygax's vision. The heretics must be burned. So mote it be.

Well, that is a bit of an elitist attitude, no offense.

Different strokes for different folks, and all that. I happen to love both versions of the game.

[Aurentis]

If you don't have a pencil, a paper character sheet, and bunch of dice (at least 1d20, 1d12, 2d10, 1d8, 3d6, and 1d4, and preferably more than that)  in front of you, you aren't playing Dungeons and Dragons.

These computer simulations of actual gameplay are an abomination... an affront to our lord Gary Gygax's vision. The heretics must be burned. So mote it be.

Considering the instruction booklet for Neverwinter Nights was literally 90% of the 3.0 PHB, I will have to respectfully disagree with you.

[Jev Moldara]

Well, that is a bit of an elitist attitude, no offense.

Different strokes for different folks, and all that. I happen to love both versions of the game.

Oh, I'll freely admit that it's an elitist attitude. I respect the purity of the tabletop RPG.

Considering the instruction booklet for Neverwinter Nights was literally 90% of the 3.0 PHB, I will have to respectfully disagree with you.

3.0 is widely regarded as a crapfest of a revision.

I still play by the AD&D rules.

[Aurentis]

That doesn't invalidate it as a version of the game.  But I sense there's no point in debating it, so I'm out.