Slashdot Mirror
Dungeons & Dragons Is Getting a Film Franchise
New submitter IT.luddite sends word that Hasbro and Warner Bros. have announced Dungeons & Dragons will be getting its own film franchise. They already have a script, and they'll be working with production company Sweetpea Entertainment, but they haven't picked a director, yet. They'll have at least some of the people on board who worked on the D&D movie from 2000, which was a flop. The deal between Hasbro and Warner Bros. comes after a prolonged legal battle about who owned the rights to a D&D movie. They note, "All rights for future Dungeons & Dragons productions have been unified and returned to Wizards of the Coast, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro."
Bad ScreenWriting.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
A flop is simply a movie that fails to attract an audience because it isn't good, Jupiter Ascending is a flop. The 2000 D&D movie was so god awful that it alone stands out in my mind as easily as something so bad I'd rather be in a meeting than attend. My girlfriend and I laughed so hard at the unintentionally funny parts of the movie that our judgement was so impaired, we got married. The damage was so severe, we have never recovered from this bad judgement and remain married.
The movie was an unmitigated disaster, and honestly if this were my property I'd never again let someone try to make a movie based on it.
I propose a Kickstarter to buy the movie and tv rights to D&D to prevent Hollywood from making any further craptacular "D&D" movies.
Note to the movie industry: Dungeons and Dragons is a rules framework upon which stories are built, not a story itself. Making a "D&D" movie is like basing a film off "Hoyle's Book of Games."
Suggestion: find a story that has relatable characters doing interesting things in circumstances that make us care about the outcome. Or better, WRITE a story that has relatable characters doing interesting things in circumstances that make us care about the outcome. If you do either of these things you will likely have a popular, profitable film. If you take a collection of one dimensional cardboard cutouts and have them progress through a series of tropes in a totally predicable and intellectually insulting manner and expect it to be successful because of the D&D branding, you will have a commercial flop and be ripped by gamers for soiling The Hobby.
We're gamers. Telling stories is what we DO. D&D is how we do it. Want a good D&D movie? Go to GenCon and ask people their gaming stories. Or better yet, buy the books, roll some dice, and live some of your own. Your script is waiting for you. Go play it.
"Hollywood is again rolling its 12-sided dice and taking a chance on translating the popular “Dungeons & Dragons” role-playing game into a movie."
I couldn't get past the first sentence. It's a 20-sided, and it's die, not dice. If you're going to talk to us nerds about gaming culture, and something as important as D&D, at least make SOME effort. Reporting these days sucks... seriously.
'The unexamined life is not worth living' - Socrates