The next D&D movie...


Movies

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Kalshane wrote:
Werthead wrote:


That would be interesting. I always liked the saurials. I'd prefer it if she got ride of the ridiculous chainmail bikini though.

Wasn't the ridiculous chainmail bikini specifically addressed in the book as being ridiculous, though? It's probably been a good 20 years since I read the book, but I'm pretty sure she was forced to wear it and mentally groused about how useless it was.

It was addressed in a later book. [psoiler]The chainmail open in the middle was so she could be sacrified and had a lot of magic imparted into it to make the ritual more powerful. When called out on it later, Alias comments that the magic more than made up for the hole. [/spoiler]

Ensemble will only* work with pre-existing characters (novels, comics, TV series) though that will be necessary to for a good show. A successful action/fantasy movie can be about one person (Dutch, Ripley, McClane, Riddick, Bond, etc.) with good supporting roles.

Any movie will be bad when they try and work in all the commercial/fan based easter eggs first, and the movie second (GI Joe)?

Has anyone seen the stage version of Burnt offerings? I know they showed it at PaizoCon, but I missed the first half for another session and didn't want to come in the middle of it. Is it available (for a fan to watch in his own non-commercial home? PM me if you know :)

*exceptions always exist, but I wouldn't bank in it.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I think the D&D Cartoon also has lots of good villains: Venger (Venjer?), that Shadow Demon, Tiamat, hookhorrors, those frog-folk with turtle shells, etc. etc.

But Azure Bonds also has lots of great villans!

spoiler:
the Red Dragon Mistincarpaltunnelsyndromes, The Fire Knives, Moander, the lich Zrie Prakis, the witch Cassana, Phalse, Nameless, and possibly the least annoying version of Elminster

Silver Crusade

Azure Bonds would be pretty cool!


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Or they could take an existing story that's actually well written: Paul Kemp's Erevis Cale trilogy.


Fabius Maximus wrote:
Or they could take an existing story that's actually well written: Paul Kemp's Erevis Cale trilogy.

Ooh. That's a really great idea. But it would have to be a trilogy, which would be a pretty difficult sell. You simply can't reduce the whole story into a single movie worth watching. There's also the question of whether or not you'd need the Halls of Stormwheather book first (I'm afraid I've forgotten which one it is he's in, right now).

But I'd love to see that series as movies.


SmiloDan wrote:

I think the D&D Cartoon also has lots of good villains: Venger (Venjer?), that Shadow Demon, Tiamat, hookhorrors, those frog-folk with turtle shells, etc. etc.

But Azure Bonds also has lots of great villans! ** spoiler omitted **

Hmmm could you do one season on each of the tattoos? or 4 season run with the fifth being sprinkled throughout the previous four seasons. maybe not enough material for that.

Sovereign Court

I'd like to see the movie start out with an adventuring group already established. Let them develop as the movie rolls. Make it sort of like the brothers grim. The party specializes in ridding "monsters" and "ghosts" for fortune and fame. Eventually they stumble into something huge.

As long as a group focus takes place that would be cool. Oh and avoid forgettable realms completely.

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Ya know, if Your Highness would have been the latest D&D movie, I could live with that.


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Agreed Talos.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Yeah, I would like to see a group of the 4 main types (Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Wizard), and then have the movie show lots of interesting combos (Fighter and Rogue flanking, Cleric aiding another the Fighter, Wizard buffing the Rogue, Wizard or Cleric buffing the other's summoned beasty, etc. etc.)

Basically showcasing one of the major themes of D&D: Teamwork.

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

Curaigh wrote:
Ensemble will only* work with pre-existing characters (novels, comics, TV series) though that will be necessary to for a good show. A successful action/fantasy movie can be about one person (Dutch, Ripley, McClane, Riddick, Bond, etc.) with good supporting roles.

Actually, that is a good argument for an Alias centric Azure Bonds movie.

the more I think about it, the better this sounds.

  • Strong female protagonist.
  • A fanservice-y costume A selling point in Hollywood.
  • The rest of the party, Dragonbait, Akabar Bel Akash, and Olive Ruskettle would be great supporting characters - and help illustrate the "teamwork" element that SmiloDan is asking for.
  • And if done right, it sets up for a possible sequel.

    The only issues I can see is that WoTC is NOT on board with making this move - at least by this producer.


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    I don't want to see anything that looks as though they picked up a rulebook and built the movie off that.

    Any scripts that show any Feats or rules mechanic should be binned, and heaven help us if the obvious cliche wizard yells 'MAGIC MISSILE!'.

    Legend of the Seeker could be D&D, Game of Thrones could be D&D, the Legend of Dick and Dom could be D&D. D&D is effectively (and so should be) meaningless.


    Shifty wrote:

    I don't want to see anything that looks as though they picked up a rulebook and built the movie off that.

    Any scripts that show any Feats or rules mechanic should be binned, and heaven help us if the obvious cliche wizard yells 'MAGIC MISSILE!'.

    Legend of the Seeker could be D&D, Game of Thrones could be D&D, the Legend of Dick and Dom could be D&D. D&D is effectively (and so should be) meaningless.

    I kind of agree with this. So far, my favorite D&D movies I've seen recently, are Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and Hansle & Gretel witch hunters.

    D&D is a game about sword and sorcery, delving in lairs, fighting evil, and good triumphing...

    As such ANY movie that fits into that theme is at its heart a 'D&D movie'

    Heck, I left Jack the Giant Killer thinking it was a great 'Roleplaying' movie. HigH action, Epic enemeys, Fantasy, going on a quest and getting the girl at the end. I love movies like that.

    The biggest mistake that they've made so far... is thinking that slapping the D&D lable on a generic fantasy movie... makes it more than a generic Fantasy movie.

    Do i want Azure Bonds as a movie? Not a chance. I really disliked that trilogy. Would I want a drizzt movie? HECK yes... but with 20+ books in his 'story' it would turn out like crap from them trying to cram too much in it... Dragonlance?? Same problem. Too many books, no way to do it justice. I felt the cartoon of dragonlance was pretty good... but a LOT of my friends HATED the trimming it down... same thing would happen in a movie.

    Honestly my favorite (non salvatore) books were the Elfsong books by Cunningham.. Elfsong would be a great stand alone movie. However, I also know that story too well by now.

    What I would REALLY like, is an ALL NEW adventure set in a VERY familiar world. Anyone remember the Forgotten Realms comic of the 80's? Took place with an unknown group of adventures off doing their own adventrues in the realms, occassionaly crossing paths with waterdeep and other familiar locales... crossed into the Avatar crisis... met familiar gods.

    It does NOT have to be a familiar STORY... but the WORLDS are what Made D&D the household name. The first movie was garbage becasue it was too... 'core rules'. Completely generic.

    Dark Archive

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    I'm not sure I even want to see a 'D&D movie' any more, after the last few attempts.

    Perhaps movies based on the properties that inspired D&D, such as Lord of the Rings, might be a better thing to hope for.

    Lord of the Rings, and now the Hobbit, have done well.

    The latest Conan relaunch, not so well. (I have no idea where it fell down, but I would have preferred a more memorable bad-guy, someone at least able to keep up with James Earl Jones' portrayal of Thulsa Doom.)

    A *good* adaptation of Three Hearts & Three Lions, or a Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser adventure, or (most challenging of all, I suspect), Elric of Melnibone, could get the fantasy train moving, before leaping into something like a Forgotten Realms (or Greyhawk/Eberron/Golarion) movie.

    It's something of a puzzler that (mostly young adult) stuff written in the past few years is already coming out on the big screen, and we've yet to see much in the way of movies based on the works of sci-fi/fantasy authors like Niven or McCaffery or Saberhagen or Zelazny.

    RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

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    Set wrote:
    I'm not sure I even want to see a 'D&D movie' any more, after the last few attempts.

    Your Highness is the best "big screen" interpretation of D&D (as it is actually played) that we are likely to see.

    Set wrote:
    It's something of a puzzler that (mostly young adult) stuff written in the past few years is already coming out on the big screen, and we've yet to see much in the way of movies based on the works of sci-fi/fantasy authors like Niven or McCaffery or Saberhagen or Zelazny.

    No puzzler at all.

    Who is the "most valued" demographic as far as movie theaters are concerned? Hint: Look at what is being made into movies.


    Hama wrote:

    3rd

    They had a undead black dragon breathing fire in the second so...

    So it was undead! I was wondering why the cleric was trying to use turn undead on a dragon. Thought it was a white dragon... breathing fire...


    Mind you some of those Young Adult books weren't complete stinkers as films either, some have been ok.

    I also liked the new Conan.

    Grand Lodge

    A great D&D movie would be enhanced by great source material and a director/producer to take the matter seriously. My choice would be Peter Jackson to make and direct Dragons of Autumn Twilight.

    Shadow Lodge

    Curaigh wrote:
    SmiloDan wrote:

    I think the D&D Cartoon also has lots of good villains: Venger (Venjer?), that Shadow Demon, Tiamat, hookhorrors, those frog-folk with turtle shells, etc. etc.

    But Azure Bonds also has lots of great villans! ** spoiler omitted **

    Hmmm could you do one season on each of the tattoos? or 4 season run with the fifth being sprinkled throughout the previous four seasons. maybe not enough material for that.

    Making a D&D movie/TV show that requires a sequel or a second season to finish it's story is a bit beyond overly ambitious.


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    Lord Fyre wrote:
    Set wrote:
    I'm not sure I even want to see a 'D&D movie' any more, after the last few attempts.

    Your Highness is the best "big screen" interpretation of D&D (as it is actually played) that we are likely to see.

    Gods, that's a depressing thought.


    Lord Fyre wrote:
    The only issues I can see is that WoTC is NOT on board with making this move - at least by this producer.

    I think it's more to the point that the FINDER'S BANE TRILOGY is, whilst good (by D&D standards), it's also rather obscure and hasn't sold very well. If you're going to adapt novels, you're not going to go with something obscure and unknown to a lot of people, you're going to go with the DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES or Drizzt.

    My favourite FORGOTTEN REALMS series is the EMPIRE TRILOGY (where the Tuigan invade Shou Lung and later Faerun). I'm a big fan of Erevis Cale. But they're not going to adapt those books out of the gate. They'll go for one of the well-known series with millions and millions of fans.

    Quote:
    but with 20+ books in his 'story' it would turn out like crap from them trying to cram too much in it... Dragonlance?? Same problem. Too many books, no way to do it justice.

    True on the surface, but only the first six DRAGONLANCE books are worth a damn (and the very occasional one here and there) and only the first nine Drizzt books. You're not talking about adapting all 30 Salvatore novels or all 100+ DRAGONLANCE books, because most of them are not very good and not very bankable.

    Quote:
    My choice would be Peter Jackson to make and direct Dragons of Autumn Twilight.

    Jackson's doing a dragon in THE HOBBIT trilogy and will then be doing a ton of dragons in the TEMERAIRE movies. I think by that point he'll be all-dragonned out.

    RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

    Fabius Maximus wrote:
    Lord Fyre wrote:
    Set wrote:
    I'm not sure I even want to see a 'D&D movie' any more, after the last few attempts.

    Your Highness is the best "big screen" interpretation of D&D (as it is actually played) that we are likely to see.

    Gods, that's a depressing thought.

    You know that I'm right. ;P

    Grand Lodge

    Werthead wrote:


    Quote:
    My choice would be Peter Jackson to make and direct Dragons of Autumn Twilight.
    Jackson's doing a dragon in THE HOBBIT trilogy and will then be doing a ton of dragons in the TEMERAIRE movies. I think by that point he'll be all-dragonned out.

    That is too bad. I would rather see a new epic tale, doing six movies based on the first six Dragonlance novels. To me that would be a better choice.


    Werthead wrote:


    Quote:
    but with 20+ books in his 'story' it would turn out like crap from them trying to cram too much in it... Dragonlance?? Same problem. Too many books, no way to do it justice.

    True on the surface, but only the first six DRAGONLANCE books are worth a damn (and the very occasional one here and there) and only the first nine Drizzt books. You're not talking about adapting all 30 Salvatore novels or all 100+ DRAGONLANCE books, because most of them are not very good and not very bankable.

    Ehhhh only the first 3 really. And as we saw with the cartoon, There's too much for 1 book = 1 movie. Even the BOOKS cut too much out and had me scratching my head trying to figure out how that was a 'complete' story... Remember when the party split up and all of a sudden one group had gone on a quest to retrieve a mystic hammer for the dwarves?? Totally cut out.

    To do it real justice, the first trilogy would need about 5-6 movies and really that's unrealistic.


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    Maybe the mistake is to try and make movies, and instead the answer is a 'TV show' format, maybe the UK practice of doing 6 part shows, they do heaps of them that are great, some are one offs some run to a few seasons.

    Sovereign Court

    Threeshades wrote:
    Hama wrote:

    3rd

    They had a undead black dragon breathing fire in the second so...

    So it was undead! I was wondering why the cleric was trying to use turn undead on a dragon. Thought it was a white dragon... breathing fire...

    Well, tattered wings and a chest you could see through were dead giveaways. Dead, get it?


    Hama wrote:
    Threeshades wrote:
    Hama wrote:

    3rd

    They had a undead black dragon breathing fire in the second so...

    So it was undead! I was wondering why the cleric was trying to use turn undead on a dragon. Thought it was a white dragon... breathing fire...
    Well, tattered wings and a chest you could see through were dead giveaways. Dead, get it?

    I only very vaguely remember the scene, and i think i saw it on a rather old blurry tv screen, so all i really remember was a white, vaguely dragon-shaped silhouette.

    This reminds me how those wizards in the first movie were trying to fihgt off an air raid of red dragons by shooting fire at them.


    Actually, the cleric in the 2nd movie

    Spoiler:
    Gets eaten by a frost-breathing white dragon.

    I don't recall him trying to turn it.

    The undead dragon shows up later.


    That would make more sense, yes i remeber this dragon attacking the party, and the cleric came put of cover tried to hold it back or turn or whatever by whipping out his holy symbol and then he gets owned.


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    Countersuit!

    Sweetpea Entertainment - Courtney Solomon's production company - has counter-sued Hasbro for ownership of the D&D movie rights.

    To recap, Sweetpea is the company which made the D&D movie in 2000 and its two zero-budget, direct-to-DVD sequels, WRATH OF THE DRAGON GOD and BOOK OF VILE DARKNESS. Last year, Sweetpea and Warner Brothers struck up a deal to make a new, big-budget D&D movie for the big screen.

    Hasbro has been developing its own D&D movie project with Universal. According to Hasbro, Sweetpea's rights have expired due to them not upholding their contractual obligations. Most notably, the original agreement between Sweetpea and TSR allowed Sweetpea to retain the rights as long as they put a new D&D movie into production every five years. Sweetpea argue they did this by filming the second film in 2004 for release in 2005, and by producing the third film in 2010 (though it didn't come out until 2012). Hasbro assert that the rules only count if they made actual films; the second film was technically a TV movie (as it debuted on SyFy) so counts, but the third does not because it was a straight-to-DVD release.

    Hasbro now want a judge to rule that Sweetpea's option has expired and they cannot make a new D&D movie, allowing Hasbro and Universal to proceed with a new project (rumoured to involve existing D&D properties, speculated to be a Drizzt film). Sweetpea's counter-claim demands that they be recognised as holding the sole rights to D&D and preventing Hasbro and any partner studio from using D&D branding or copyrighted material in any film project.

    A hearing will be held on 25 March, 2014.


    I'm not a huge fan of Hasbro, but reading all this I again conclude that I want Sweetpea to lose.

    Sweetpea had their chance and they blew it. Hold that, they did not just blow it, they did a complete face plant. Not only was the first film a complete peace of crap and an insult to D&D players everywhere, it ruined several actors for me. I haven't seen a movie with Thora Birch or Jeremy Irons since.

    And then, they have the nerve to try again with two more and claim they were movies. Tome of Darkness? never seen it in all the times I have plowed through Best Buy or Walmart cheap movie bins. So no way I would allow them to call that a movie release.

    Cult of the Dragon God was ok, as a TV filler..but I would hope that Hasbro could put together something with more polish.

    Sovereign Court

    Quote:
    A hearing will be held on 25 March, 2014.

    Wait, what?

    Why take so long for the sake of the gods?


    Quote:
    Why take so long for the sake of the gods?

    I'm assuming that's the earliest they could schedule it: there's probably a massive backlog of cases winding it's way through the Los Angeles court system.

    I also very much doubt that'll be the end of it. There'll be appeals, possibly a full-on court case etc. If Sweetpea and Solomon lose the D&D film rights, that's a sizeable chunk of their future income gone, so they'll likely hold onto them for all they're worth. Is Hasbro want to settle out of court, it's going to take a hell of a lot of money to do so.

    Sovereign Court

    What income?


    They make money from the films, astonishingly: DVD sales, TV rights and so on. The second and third films cost so little to make that even their modest returns were still profitable, and the first film still (somehow) sells on DVD and on demand.

    If the D&D movies, as terrible as they have been, were total unmitigated disasters that had never made any money at all, Sweetpea would probably have gone bust years ago, the rights would have reverted to Hasbro and the current situation would never have arisen in the first place. Only the first film was a major bomb, and the financial repurcussions of that fell on Silver Pictures and New Line (who backed it). The latter two films didn't cost much to make, but made slightly more money back. I'm assuming, even if the WB deal falls through, Sweetpea will try to make another cheapo movie before the end of 2015 to continue to hold onto the rights.

    Liberty's Edge

    I have to say, if given a decent budget, a good script, a good director and a great cast - a Drizzt film could actually be very cool ...

    Of course, that's a LOT of 'ifs' ....

    It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Hasbro has lots of money and plenty of lawyers, so the deck would seem to be stacked fairly well in their favor here.


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    Hasbro doesn't seem to have issues with throwing a lot of money at projects. It's the whole "good director and scripts" which have been their issues with movies.

    Sovereign Court

    Drizzit cool? Oh hell no. I hope they have the sense to stay far away from Forgettable realms or any other setting books.

    Sovereign Court

    1 person marked this as a favorite.

    Forgotten realms is a pretty good, and well developed setting. A potential gold mine for a filmmaker. Plus, Drizzt is well known even outside of the gaming community, and he is a pretty cool character. He was the first (second) good drow. It is not his problem that a bunch of copycats flooded the worlds with "drow rebels".


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    If they want to make a D&D movie that people will actually want to go and see, they're going to need to use a setting and character people actually know. As I've said before, the Drizzt books have considerably outsold the actual D&D game products (all of them, over all editions, ever), and his name recognition as a D&D character is probably greater than any other one. Make a generic D&D movie and you'll have a fairly small audience (as was proven in 2000, although the movie sucking didn't help). Make a Drizzt movie and you'll get a hell of a lot more interest. The other option is to make a DRAGONLANCE movie, but then you're talking a lot more money, a longer commitment and a slightly smaller audience.

    Now this is purely from a commercial standpoint. From a creative one, I think you can make a very solid and enjoyable movie based on THE CRYSTAL SHARD and maybe even the next few books. But I agree there's more interesting parts of the D&D setting to be mined: I'd love to see PLANESCAPE: TORMENT - THE MOVIE, but it'd cost more than AVATAR and would get 1% of the audience, so that's never going to happen. What I'd hope is that a new D&D movie franchise would be successful and we'd eventually see other films in other settings, maybe an EBERRON one, maybe a DARK SUN one and so on. You use the franchise's biggest guns - and no matter how much some people may dislike them, that's Drizzt and the Realms - to open big and then go to more interesting places later on, hopefully.

    Sovereign Court

    Werthead, I'm starting to like you. We agree on many a thing.


    The elven (ranger? monk?) character you mentioned was one of the few good, good things about that first film. I enjoyed it, but I like cheesy movies.

    Sovereign Court

    I guess I just have to disagree. More people saw the crappy 2000 film then read any drizzit books. I know folks think everybody has read them but the truth is even millions is hardly anybody in big screen terms. All they will do is get something wrong and the hardcore fans will pan the film. Everybody else wont care. Drizzit is best for the small screen. We are not talking Lord of the rings or The hobbit here. Even those books were bad and the D&D setting books are some of the worst reads out there. Better to save that stuff for a SyFy series. Just my opinions of course.

    Liberty's Edge

    2 people marked this as a favorite.
    Werthead wrote:
    If they want to make a D&D movie that people will actually want to go and see, they're going to need to use a setting and character people actually know ... The other option is to make a DRAGONLANCE movie, but then you're talking a lot more money, a longer commitment and a slightly smaller audience.

    A well-done DRAGONLANCE movie would be amazing! I have wanted to see DRAGONLANCE as quality live-action film (along the lines of the Lord of the Rings films) for years.

    Wow, those first three books would make a great movie series ...


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    Werthead wrote:
    If they want to make a D&D movie that people will actually want to go and see, they're going to need to use a setting and character people actually know.

    On the contrary, I think they just need to make a good movie. YMMV. :)


    I think a take on I, Strahd: Memoirs of a Vampire would make a good story. Everyone likes vampires. Who doesn't want to see Castle Ravenloft on the big screen?


    Ravenloft movie as a horror could work fine without referring D&D at all, instead being marketed as homage to classic horror movies.

    EDIT: In fact D&D brand could have negative impact on its results sending wrong message about the movie content.


    Quote:
    More people saw the crappy 2000 film then read any drizzit books

    Maybe now, after thirteen years of being in bargin-bin DVD baskets and repeated on TV channels desperate for content. But when it first came out in the cinema? Hell, no. The film bombed massively. OTOH, Salvatore is one of the biggest-selling fantasy authors of all time (actually the 19th biggest-selling, by my count).

    Quote:
    On the contrary, I think they just need to make a good movie. YMMV :)

    That would be great, but the film is going to be made by either the same guy who screwed up three films in a row, or by the same creative instincts responsible for the TRANSFORMERS movies. Expecting a 'good movie' may be beyond the scope of realistic expectations at this time ;)

    Sovereign Court

    Drejk wrote:

    Ravenloft movie as a horror could work fine without referring D&D at all, instead being marketed as homage to classic horror movies.

    EDIT: In fact D&D brand could have negative impact on its results sending wrong message about the movie content.

    This I agree with. I think they need to build the D&D brand before dropping settings on folks. Take a look at John Carter that's FR D&D movie at best.

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