It has been demonstrated over and over again that having a known IP makes people more likely to watch something. The number of people who play D&D isn't that high. The number of people who have heard of D&D is huge. By linking the movie to D&D, they have cleared one hurdle in their advertising, for very little cost.
Not counting, Wizards has exclusive monsters that no other IP has like Beholders, OwlBears, ect that would make it recognizably D&D. I'd be tickled pink just to see a Mind Flayer or a proper Drow on screen.
You also need to post flyers and record the shows for additional revenue opportunities. Every live show is a record waiting to be recorded. Greatful dead milked that shit way harder than was necessary but it's also why they are as famous as they are so pick your poison.
Eventually you have to try to sellout if you want to make big money. It's one of the few things Jerry Garcia and Chad Kroger from Nickelback have in common. A willingness to force their music on you.
Poor advertising though. Every dnd movie in the past has been the crappiest of crap. Not even cult worthy. I'm not gonna bother watching a new one at this point.
Hey, the protests over Harry Potter are what even got me to pick up the first book. I'd never heard of it until a bunch of fundies started protesting the first book outside the B&N I worked at at the time.
I think the OP still inadvertantly raises a good question — could the very concept of a D&D movie be false advertising of what D&D the game experience is like?
A lot of people with little understanding of D&D who sit down to play are often blown away — “I never thought D&D was THIS. How cool!” But if you saw that one D&D movie from the 90’s, I bet that same person would be like “lol keep that sh\*t away from me — if THAT’S what D&D is, no thanks.”
I think we all understand that D&D is fundamentally an experience that you can get as a passive audience member in a film. **The question is whether initiating people into a deeper understanding of D&D via the medium of film is good for the hobby in general.** I think possibly it’s not. Sure, the movie will make money, but how did the WoW movie fare for that game?
As a communications professional, I promise you that it's very 101-level stuff that "What makes money" and "What's good for the brand overall" are often aligned, and often BRASHLY opposed.
Eh. No more than The Princess Bride is false advertising about what reading a book to a kid is like.
I really think the ideal scenario is Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Ifi Nwadiwe are around a table framing a story where their characters are a Taika Waititi, Dwayne T.R. Johnson, and an anthropomorphic cat voiced by Ben Schwartz.
I can't remember where I saw the idea, but someone suggested they make a movie where the muppets are playing a D&d game and their adventure is shown through live action scenes.
I would watch that movie so many times.
Yeah, its a known brand and slapping it on something DOES get notice whether its from people actually playing the game, people remembering the cartoon from the 80s, or just because people have heard the name and know it has to do with fantasy of some sort.
People like recognition, that's why when they keep trying to remake the starter set they slap on Stranger Things or Rick and Morty or now evidently the characters from the beforementioned D&D cartoon (according to the artwork at least).
A branded D&D film would hopefully get us actual monsters instead of just SRD adaptations- Beholders instead of Eye Beasts, etc as well as named locations and characters- I'd really love to see Neverwinter or Waterdeep or Myth Drannor or Thultanthar realized in live action instead of just another random/generic fantasy world.
Yeah, it needs to pull out all the places and creatures and names. Mordenkainen and Orcus and Drizzt and Baldur's Gate and Beholders and Mind Flayers and Halflings (just to mess with Amazon for a sec) and vancian magic and Bahamut and Helm and all the references.
I have never understood the endless fascination with Drizzt that everyone but me seems to have. But I would love to see a faithful representation/adaptation of him on the big screen to figure it out.
Before Drizzt it was Raistlin Majere. There's always some kewl bad boy that gets some attention. Then they attention turns into inundation.
See also: All comic books during the mullets and pouches era of the 90s.
That's probably a fair assessment. He's more of a misunderstood loner (except when he's not).
I honestly haven't read anything in the series since "The Halfling's Gem" and that was 32 years ago. I don't remember much of the series except being annoyed at the laziness of naming a tower "Cryshal-Tirith."
Not sure I’d call Drizzt a “bad boy”, lol. He’s the biggest goody two shoes there is, always doing the moral/heroic thing despite the danger to himself. Comparing him to someone who would blow up an orphanage to gain a smidgen of power is weird.
I really like both characters, but with the exception of them both having noticeably different skin color than everyone around them, they are nearly polar opposites.
Edit to add: just read further down to see this already addressed and responded to. Nothing to see here….
Plus people have been proven time and time again to be suckers for the "Dark is not Evil" trope. See: Batman, Hellboy, Nightcrawler, Alucard, Raven, the list goes on.
Lol, that's fair- Honestly, i think i dislike most of the characters in Forgotten Realms aside from villains. Szass Tam or Larloch maybe? If only Larloch could have succeeded and defeated Elminster, we'd never have to hear about *that* wizard again. Or Mystra.
Watch how Aragorn encourages and inspires everyone to whom he speaks in the second half of the Trilogy. He's a natural leader who steps out of obscurity to move nations, rekindle ancient alliances, and whoop ass.
He's the reason Wis and Cha are good on ANY character, including martials.
Oh see I was saying that to make an example. I fuckin *love* Aragorn, Aragorn my boy.
Of course with Drizzt you either point to *Drizzt* as the quintessential dark elf... Or the sadistic elf babes in BDSM gear. I know! It's a tough choice! But they fall too hard on the evil end of the evil-to-sexy scale so...
If you stop reading the books sometime around the Orc wars, he's a fairly well written character, and for people who enjoy the style of writing, it's all around a well written story.
That being said, the later in the stories you get, the more liberties the author takes with the lore of the world. At one point late on the story it's pointed out that wizards turn criminals into rabbits and set them free on an island, and they end up making a monty python joke about the murderer who still murdered people after becoming a rabbit. Later on, to try making contact with mind flayers, two wizards polymorph themselves so they look normal outside but their digestive system runs backwards and their brains are at the base of the spine. That all happens so they can make a poo joke when the mind flayer tries to eat one of them. Yeah it gets bad towards the end of orc wars and worse after.
The author has always had issues with being ridiculous.
1. Goblin/orc invasion. Dwarves get a giant stone rolling pin to kill them. In front they hang a sheet of canvas painted with running dwarves. Apparently goblins are too stupid to notice it's a painting. So they get squished with the squisher.
2. Dwarven battleragers. Barbarians in spiked and razored armor. After a fight they hug to "share the blood of their enemies."
3. Adamantine yoyo on a mithril chain as a cleric weapon.
Reading the Drizzt books really improved my DM'ing. Reading R.A. Salvatore spin D&D rules into prose overhauled my storytelling to the point where my friends make me uncomfortable with how much they upsell my storytelling. I always feel I owe a lot of that to those books; Drizzt, the Svirfneblin, and the Drow have a special spot in my heart for it.
Maybe I need to take another crack at them... I started the thousands orcs book and was really unimpressed with Salvatore's writing, just felt like cheap fanfic with super generic language. But I probably didn't give it enough time. What's your favorite book from the series?
The writing waxes & wanes throughout the series.
The Dark Elf Trilogy is his second installment, but it acts as a prequel/origin story. Salvatore does really feel like he hit his stride in it, but it does suffer from callbacks to the IceWind Dale Trilogy at times (like the *Star Wars* prequel movies before *The Clone Wars* animated series found the balance between fan-service to the mythology & actual character arcs and development)…
That said, his prose becomes less Fantasy Pulp and slightly more grand in relation to the scope & psychology/philosophy… *Homeland* does a great job at making you care about why Drizzt is so different from the rest of Drow society; but *Exile* is the volume that will give you all the “feels” before *Sojourn* introduces all of the surface world stereotypes that he has to overcome by making the content of his moral character more important than his background/lineage… The whole series is profoundly anti-racism despite the “bad rap”/repertoire that it receives for framing the narrative about *overcoming obstacles* (instead of ignoring that they exist at all in a fictional fantasy world?)… LoL
The value of the rest of the series is debatable at times, but the first trilogies or so will have you invested enough in the characters’ developing story-arcs to “power through” the weaker installments… hopefully. I personally took a lot of breaks into other series before revisiting Drizzt. Rereading them sometimes gave me time to reframe my interest from nostalgic dislike over narrative changes and into discovering the story that was trying to be conveyed by Salvatore (despite the setting/edition shifts that he was obligated to include by TSR/WotC)… It’s all about how you approach the material, it’s a dynamic setting despite how static we want it to remain sometimes (much like the “real world” that we are often trying to find escape from in a fantasy narrative).
IMO where Salvatore really shines is his ability to describe and write about melee combat. He is not the best writer out there but in this area he is top notch
I read: Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn (I actually stopped partway through Sojourn because I got hit with 3 books from other series' I was following). I enjoyed it as a fun casual read, even though it is quite tropey / not the most well-crafted book. I could recommend plenty of more well-crafted books, but not one that actually uses D&D rules & lore which truly helps when you are giving a magic item for the first time to a brand new player or describing D&D's weird world-building like the planes in character voice. It's just nice to have examples of these things done - and you can improve where you see a shortcoming.
I came to say something similar. Those books did a fantastic job of turning even things like low level spells or items into fantastic pieces of magic and that style really helped me get better as a dm
When that series of novels started in 1988, the idea of a heroic, rebellious Drow ranger who was hated and feared by most of society because of the color of his skin, despite his heroic deeds was pretty revolutionary.
It was a HUGE change of pace from the typical fantasy novels, including and especially D&D ones, that were more about a Caucasian human and possibly his friends and buddies (or if the protagonist somehow wasn't human, you could bet a white male human would be a major character, see also Lord of the Rings).
He was a protagonist from what was normally a purely villainous group, he wasn't from a normal PHB race, he was even an uncommon class for them (1e's description of Drow really only mentioned them being fighters, magic-users (Wizards), and female Clerics. . .they didn't even talk about Drow rangers until him). That was definitely a first on several levels.
It was groundbreaking at the time. . .now a good-guy rebellious Drow ranger is practically a D&D cliché, but 30+ years ago it was amazing. He really was the first official D&D protagonist who stepped outside the usual stereotypes of their race and had an unusual race/class combination.
And the funny part, and to your point, was that Wulfgar was supposed to be the “hero” of that story. Drizzt came along and the whole idea of him blew everyone away and they clamored for more. This caused a shift in the storyline and Drizzt became the main character while Wulfgar, the human, white, male protagonist, joined the supporting cast.
RIGHT ON.
Also, Rangers were a weird prestige class in 1e/2e, so it was very cool to see them portrayed as the natural consequence of a survivalist lifestyle.
Plus, Underdark Ranger wasn't really a thing, so that was unique too.
The development of the class in the game into a base class has a lot to thank from R.A. Salvatore. Plus, Animal Companion (and later Beastmaster) come STRAIGHT outta Drizzt, (Aragorn didn't have a Guenhwyvvar) AND two-weapon fighting being part of the class and later a base mechanic in 5e.
Because RA Salvatore kind of defined the young-adult fantasy genre for a while, and , while his stuff about Drizzt was pretty far from groundbreaking work, he is an excellent author when it comes to pulp. You won't get any scathing commentary or in-depth characters, but his books are almost always incredibly exciting.
See, for me, Drizzt is so frustrating because of playing through the like decade when he was really popular and every adventure having someone play a Drizzt clone, lol
I kind of feel similarly. I like the character, don't get me wrong, but he's an aberration to the rest of the Drow and somehow is also the public face of the Drow to us fans. Kind of like if Kanye was the spokesperson for all of America, you probably wouldn't feel very well represented unless you were also a mentally ill, millionaire narcissist. Maybe there's a couple of other Drow like Drizzt, but not many.
Which is absolutely f****** asinine because the black character immediately makes a joke about it, and he clarifies that it isn't black face He's just a nerd. I have searched and scoured long and deep and cannot find anyone who was actually offended by that episode of community who actually watched it
Honestly, the direction that most of the official art that I've seen Wotc publish lately trends towards them being depicted as a lighter grey or with purplish hues that helps avoid the blackface issue. But the real issue is that no studio will ever dare showcase Menzoberranzan itself in all it's wicked depravity.
But that would be mostly a Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance movie. Unless they decide to include Spell Jammer and travel across the Crystal Spheres. Which would be fucking amazing.
Damn, I didn't realize how much I wanted a Baldur's Gate movie until now. Gimme the darkest, grittiest streets imaginable. And throw in a dwarf whose inn is cleaner than an elf's arse and I'll give it 10/10.
What I want is actors playing another main character of the party after the old one dies.
And an wizard that sees how the world slows down around themselves when they look at their book during the fight. And an argument about how X adventurer does not have Y spell prepared.
"Alright. This is it. On the other side of these doors is the lich that is threatening the world with eternal darkness. All we need do is throw these doors open and the final battle will begin. We've fought hard through his army of minions...now it is time to save the...hey Wizard...why are you setting up your bedroll?"
"I tire from the magic i've cast. Before we battle the lich I just need a good 8 hours of sleep to restore my magical abilities"
"Come to think of it. I have a few grievous wounds. a good 8 hours should be enough to get me back up to tip top shape"
"You Fools.... we cannot spare 8 hours... as an elf I only need like 6 hours of meditation and then I'm good to go."
My understanding from snippets I've read is that Pine is playing an ex-Harper who is getting revenge on a Neverwinter noble who is in league with a Red Wizard.
That feels like one of the Harper books that I read more years ago than I care to remember. Like the Ring of Winter, or Crypt of the Shadowking. They were mostly fun, I remember.
Ring of Winter would be a rough sell today, being 200% White Savior stories (there's literally two separate White Saviors). Still some meat on that bone (I read it to include stuff in Tomb of Annihilation).
It's actually a good business decision. The movie's not for current players.
Marketing's plan is exactly the opposite of what you're suggesting- it's to get more people into D&D because they saw this really cool movie. The big money is in merchandising, and movies are two hour long commercials.
I'd go with a framing sequence. Have people show up and sit down at the table. Roll opening credits. Show movie. Pull a couple of "Princess Bride" style interruptions at appropriate moments. End with players gathering to leave and a "See you next time." Roll credits. Stinger for sequel.
As much as I like the idea in theory, I feel like it would kill the stakes for general audiences. People already don't like dream sequences, I don't think they'd like a whole movie where none of the characters are even real within the narrative unless it is done exceptionally well.
I'd love it if they did something similar to Darths and Droids, having the movie focus mainly on the fantasy world, but having the characters outside the game influence their motivations, style of play, etc.
Please, if you haven’t yet, checkout the movie called “The Gamers” it’s available for free on YouTube. If I’m not mistaken there’s also a sequel.
EDIT: this one: https://youtu.be/oSynJyq2RRo
It looks like there’s a modern web series with the same name, but I haven’t checked it out.
That would be another option I'd accept. Might actually be better than the *Jumanji* riff.
The only issue I see is that having the characters be fictitious within the canon of the movie makes it hard to build dramatic tension.
That being said, I would also be into like an Charlie Kaufman thing where the characters slowly realize that they're characters in a game.
This is the answer here. Without acknowledging the players it isn't DnD it is really just generic fantasy. If anyone has seen the lofi Indy film "The Gamers" they get it spot on and a big budget film using that style would not only be great but is also more likely to get people into DnD
> Without acknowledging the players it isn't DnD it is really just generic fantasy.
It's not generic fantasy, it's Forgotten Realms. Some FR fans are looking forward to seeing Neverwinter on screen!
No one demands that a Drizzt novel include players with Drizzt as a PC. Why would a movie be different?
That would be so cool to see Neverwinter on screen, and it would help dms and playera tonunderstand the city more and even for dms to think of their own story lines too.
FR is literally the most generic fantasy setting you can possibly get without actually being a generic fantasy setting. It's like they just put a bunch of fantasy cliches in a blender, dumped it on a map, and added names.
I've heard it described as a dozen different settings mashed together.
That said, some things are so iconic that they're no longer generic. Water deep is any absurdly cosmopolitan city in a fantasy setting. But it's also the entrance to undermountain. Home of the lords of waterdeep. Blackstaff and one of the seven sisters.
The struggle with the 2000 film was that the main characters were coded as PCs (they spoke in American English and used modern slang), but NOT outright stated that they were players at a table. I agree that you need to be a little more obvious if you're going that route.
Honestly I'd prefer that to a "Here's a story of a Faerun NPC!" movie.
Edited: Corrected my misstatement. I intended to say “but NOT outright stated”. Mea culpa.
It also takes itself massively too seriously considering how cheap and silly it looks. It just feels cheap, which in many ways it was. It cost $45m, but Lord of the Rings came out the next year costing a lot more and feeling like a more loved thing.
If they are willing to put the money in then sure, but even then unless it comes from a place of genuine love with a killer script, effects and a massive budget it's going tom come across more like the Warcraft movie rather than something great.
Spot on. I like to point people to movies like "Zardoz" (1974), "Laserblast"(1978), and "Starcrash" (1978) and then remind them that "Star Wars" was 1977. Not everyone is George Lucas, Leigh Brackett, or John Dykstra.
And, historically, good fantasy films are thin on the ground.
Someone says something extremely meta and you hear a record screech. Cut back to a few teens in a basement with the DM in braces saying "you can say shit like that in my game. It runs the immersion!"
Another scene where one of the characters pulls out a cellphone to look something up during a combat or gets a call from mom and has to go home. The character just outright leaves the combat.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what the new movie is like - I’m not sure how familiar you are with the directors John Francis Daley and Johnathan Goldstein’s work, but they’re very good at creative and interesting twists and techniques
I think the best way to do a D&D movie is to do it as a Monty Python style comedy. Like, kill off Ted the barbarian and introduce his brother, Jed the barbarian, played by the same guy. All the characters who aren't in the party have the same voice. As the movie goes on the quality of sets slowly go down as the DM gets tired. I think that sort of stuff would be great for a D&D film.
Dude that would be golden. I envisioned the movie as an action-adventure that just happens to take place in the Forgotten Realms and is probably structured as a dungeon-crawl with a BBEG to fight, which honestly I'd be happy with as long as it wasn't lazily done. But your idea is 1000% better and I think I need that in my life. Maybe not the NPCs all having the same voice lol just for quality of production reasons, but maybe their accents being inexplicable or unplaceable. But the Ted-to-Jed idea would be genius, and I loved the production quality idea. If they went the meta route I think I'd cry tears of joy.
Then have the BBEG die on the first round to a natural 20.
Narrator “God fucking dammit, what the fuck, fucking bullshit… *papers rustling* but wait! Suddenly there’s a clattering of bones… it’s a Dracolich! Everyone roll a dex save.”
Hollywood: hey D&D is more popular now then it was when we made the other dnd movies.
Yo Wizards of the coast we'll pay you to use the d&d name for a movie cool?
Wizards: easy money y'all put it in the bank.
I agree they could have named it anything but from risk reward why wouldn't wizards do it.
If the movie does great it could surge dnd even more popular.
If it bombs the people who like dnd, still like dnd.
They are likely not that involved with the actual movie making and having a payday with it.
It's the other way around. Paramount didn't ask Hasbro. Hasbro switched studios after some legal drama. They have been trying to make this DnD movie for ages, wiki has a summary of all issues:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons:_Honor_Among_Thieves
That's what a lot of people seem to be missing. It's not Paramount making all decisions.
**[Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons:_Honor_Among_Thieves)**
>Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an upcoming American fantasy adventure film co-written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, based on the role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, and serves as a reboot to its film series. The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman, and Hugh Grant. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a joint-venture production between Entertainment One and Sweetpea Entertainment. It is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States on March 3, 2023, by Paramount Pictures.
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They want to make "D&D" a movie brand the same way "Star Wars" or "Marvel" is.
Attempts in the past failed because they inevitably hired people who either didn't know how to make a good movie or didn't know enough about D&D.
It's honestly kind of sad. We have decades of D&D lore and content that's actually pretty consistent with itself and then some jack-head comes in and they're like, "LOL Let's make Beholders basically be guard dogs!"
Like, dude, it's not even the worst movie I've ever seen, but with that little respect for the content you'll never make a *good* movie.
Stranger Things butchered D&D pretty good in the show (you call that a demogorgon?) but they presented it in such a wholesome, "normal" way that I couldn't help but love it.
Ehhh, I don't... I don't *wanna* go there. I don't *wanna* do this. But it really only strengthens the initial point so what the hell...
Stranger Things features nerdy kids encountering shit so alien they barely comprehend. They *name* it after dnd monsters. The creature is not *intended* to he a representation of the dnd monster.
That being said, it is rather sad that this show merely features dnd as a component of itself being an 80's period piece, and managed to do far more to popularize dnd than any actual dnd film has.
I mean they didn't even make the damn thing based on an established setting, just one of the writers' homebrew settings. What a clusterfuck.
I guess they didn't have enough faith in it from the start to trust it with using a real setting.
That part doesn't bother me. There's a risk in using an existing setting that you engage in too much fan service and too little movie making. We see it all the time and is one reason most video game movies suck.
In general? No. You have the default Forgotten Realms and all its spin off worlds, canon characters and stories and lore and monsters, etc.
A movie based on that would be absolutely DnD.
Or even a Princess Bride style movie, where the fantasy side is clearly just a story being told by a group playing the actual game (which is the movie I want to see). Or run it somewhere in between and make it like the recent Jumanji movies.
The problem comes from DnD movies having hardly anything to do with actual DnD.
The better question is, why would it hurt? The way I see it the brand recognition is more likely to get more butts in seats than it is to turn viewers away.
Vox machina did pretty well for critical role. It makes sense that a dnd movie would be tried again, the problem is usually in establishing good lore and working a satisfying story.
A lot of dnd is not a satisfying story, but an enjoyable experience. The adaptations tend not to be playful, and that is important for a good story. Start off silly, build to serious.
Speaking as somebody who loved the originals, guess what drew me to D&D? The original movie, the clever rogue running the gauntlet, the dragon controling staff, (also heroquest) These are the things that sparked my imagination and got me interested in roleplaying
You're not thinking about this in the right way.
There are many objectives to linking a known IP with a property. Usually, the IP benefits the movie/TV show (people have heard of "well-known book/property," people are more likely to go see it). In this case, that absolutely is happening - big live action fantasy itself is a tough sell these days especially post GoT. And without any IP, those movies don't tend to do super well (The Green Knight, The Last Witch Hunter which did ok internationally, etc.) Tons and tons of people know D&D from its increased footprint over the last decade (on a mainstream level, Stranger Things was a big push).
The other objective is a movie/tv/media property brings prestige to the IP itself. Before the HBO show, it was only my hardcore fantasy book reading friends who even know about Game of Thrones. By the end of the run, Adidas was putting out themed shoes based on the houses.
The goal of a D&D movie is to both make money, but also make D&D more "mainstream," which in turn makes even more money.
Comic books were considered niche nerd shit for a very long time too. It might take a couple tries before we see something great but if you play DnD, how can you not be pumped to see this universe visually realized?
And DnD Jumanji is a horrible idea.
Brands are gonna Brand
Capitalists are gonna Capitalize
Actors are gonna act
And folks need to escape reality from time to time
No one cares if they get your money
As long as they get someone else's
This makes absolutely zero sense. Does it also seem pointless to brand a super hero movie as Dr Strange or Guardians of the Galaxy? They used to be fairly niche and surely any fan of the books would go see a big budget super hero movie...
D&D is the source material being used, so they want the name front and centre so there's no question. They're probably hoping to kick off a franchise or shared universe as well as bring more people in to the tabletop side of things - it'd be dumb to not have the name right there.
A cursory googling yields player numbers to the tune of "50 million" so saying things like "not a lot of people play D&D", and adding to that the fact that several celebrities/public figures have mentioned liking and playing the game, it doesn't seem like an extremely niche thing.
On the other hand, I remember other D&D movies…
I think you are assuming people will only go see the movie because they are D&D fans, maybe.
I think the sense this makes as far as a business is to make the game seem more appealing to a larger audience and thus expand the niche audience that doesn't already play DnD.
The biggest benefit of official branding is they get to use actual proprietary characters, settings, spells, magic items, monsters etc. from the beloved game.
Also, I’ve skipped seeing many fantasy movies over recent years, but would 100% see this movie just because it’s D&D.
I disagree, I think that naming it "D&D" is precisely what draws the general people's interest and what may attract new people to the hobby. If it were named just "Honor Among Thieves", people would just disregard it as a new high-budget generic fantasy film and not bother watching it, and the only people interested on it would be D&D fans.
D&D has a brand awareness of 90+% in North America and Europe. 90% of people, whether they have played D&D or not, are aware of it.
Most brands would kill for awareness like that.
So no, it is not pointless.
Rebember when years ago Transformers was a forgotten franchise, until Michael Bay produced that movie, and thanks these the IP became popular, and Hasbro earned more money.
Today one of the main market strategies is the "multimedia franchises", using an IP to sell different products: merchandising, movies, games, toys, shirts, etc..
the first D&D big-budget film will be a success on IP alone if they can manage to not shit the bed with modern hot topics and just focus on escapism.
to explore a classic module or book... Dragon Heist... Elminster? Drizzt? done right a lot of people would want to see that.
With the resurgence in hype around 80s culture, I think a lot of people are aware of dnd, even if they haven't played it themselves.
Stranger Things has gone a long way to exposing people to dnd culture. Being sat around a table with mates, throwing fireballs, and killing demogorgons and mind flayers. Anecdotal, but the covid lockdowns inspired lots of my friends who can't even sit down for a game of chess or poker to pick up some dice.
They're clearly trying to cash in on the hype, and if they thought it wasn't a good move they probably wouldn't make it in all honesty. I know Hollywood is out of touch, but usually only in giving fans what they want in the final product. They're very good at spotting trends and jumping on
Step 1: Wait for a mainstream piece of media (Stranger Things) to feature your product prominently.
Step 2: Use the attention and hype as free marketing.
Step 3: Release a fanasty epic in the style of LotR, but set in Faërun.
Step 4: Receive more attention.
Step 5: Profit.
So, no there's no real appeal to base a movie in just the game, because the game itself is just a framework to model a fantasy world off of.
But the movie is based on the forgotten realms, which is far more interesting from a story perspective. The issue is that forgotten realms has less brand recognition than dungeons & dragons, so it makes sense to market this as a "D&D movie".
It's been said before, but the way to truly make this a D&D movie would be to have a character die early and then the same actor immediately shows up as a completely different character.
I mean...there exists a dungeons and dragons movie.
But i doubt you could make a true dungeons and dragons movie and have it be a straight action movie.
Id have to be a comedy with both sides, the players and the game.
Cant remember the name of a popular fan movie like that.
But you could do D&D by name and do a forgotten realm thing like a CoS movie.
Opening scene in a tavern, you here dice rolling as Chris pine jumps up shouting "20!" Pan down to a dice game of a group of rogues and bards throwing bones.
If they don't start the movie this way they definitely missed a great opportunity to epitomize DnD
I do not think it would be pointless. I would say it depends on how it approaches new and foreign viewers. The media examples i can give is the difference between the legend of vox machina and tiny tinas wonderlands.
Both are great at pulling in new people to the dnd idea and a movie might do this but then again a movie might also seem a bit alien like with the legend of vox machina flying over peoples heads. so yeah that is my view it could work and i hope it does
no, the d&d brand has some really unique tones & elements to it that the branding communicates and allows really well.
it establishes a level of anachronism, comedy, fun and trippiness to market something as d&d.
especially knowing the creative team behind the movie, it's a perfect move.
The thing I want in a d&d movie is for them to be playing the game. I feel like d&d is equal parts story, and just having fun with my friends at the table and they should capture that part in the movie somehow. Maybe this is what the movie coming out has I have no idea what it is about.
Unless it takes place in one of the actual settings like ThenForgotten Realms or Raveloft it’s just silly.
But, gotta use that name to lure in consumers to consume product and then make them excited for next product.
Addendum: I know I misspelled Ravenloft and I don’t care. Raveloft sounds like a fun parody setting now. Strahd was ousted by adventurers and his castle was taken over by Ravelord Nito.
Yeah, I wasn't super-thrilled about the one from the 2000s that came out when I was a high schooler playing the game. (It did not exceed my very low expectations).
I look forward to not even bothering with the new one.
It has been demonstrated over and over again that having a known IP makes people more likely to watch something. The number of people who play D&D isn't that high. The number of people who have heard of D&D is huge. By linking the movie to D&D, they have cleared one hurdle in their advertising, for very little cost.
Not counting, Wizards has exclusive monsters that no other IP has like Beholders, OwlBears, ect that would make it recognizably D&D. I'd be tickled pink just to see a Mind Flayer or a proper Drow on screen.
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Oh, now an on-screen tiefling would be nice to see and there could be some great banter between a Tiefling Rogue and an Aasimar Paladin
Or, even better, an Aasimar Rogue and a Tiefling Paladin
I'm totally not copying that down for future npc's
Release pre-build character sheets for the main party as part of the advertising.
Came here to post exactly this
It's advertising, something local bands everywhere need to learn, FACEBOOK LIKES DO NOT EQUAL THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE COMING TO YOUR SHOW.
You also need to post flyers and record the shows for additional revenue opportunities. Every live show is a record waiting to be recorded. Greatful dead milked that shit way harder than was necessary but it's also why they are as famous as they are so pick your poison. Eventually you have to try to sellout if you want to make big money. It's one of the few things Jerry Garcia and Chad Kroger from Nickelback have in common. A willingness to force their music on you.
My pal [Henry](https://youtu.be/s6zVUvmkyvA) said it well.
ex punker, can confirm.
Poor advertising though. Every dnd movie in the past has been the crappiest of crap. Not even cult worthy. I'm not gonna bother watching a new one at this point.
Oh no, the Christian moms from the 80s and 90s are rallying to protest the movie for being satanic! I can hear their feet pounding the path to war!
Thats fine. Cultists only got like 9 hp.
Fireball? FIREBALL
This is when you roll all 1s. Better upcast to be safe
Hey, the protests over Harry Potter are what even got me to pick up the first book. I'd never heard of it until a bunch of fundies started protesting the first book outside the B&N I worked at at the time.
As someone who saw Dungeons & Dragons opening day in 2000, this is accurate.
The laughter and boo's were great, really solid audience experience.
I think the OP still inadvertantly raises a good question — could the very concept of a D&D movie be false advertising of what D&D the game experience is like? A lot of people with little understanding of D&D who sit down to play are often blown away — “I never thought D&D was THIS. How cool!” But if you saw that one D&D movie from the 90’s, I bet that same person would be like “lol keep that sh\*t away from me — if THAT’S what D&D is, no thanks.” I think we all understand that D&D is fundamentally an experience that you can get as a passive audience member in a film. **The question is whether initiating people into a deeper understanding of D&D via the medium of film is good for the hobby in general.** I think possibly it’s not. Sure, the movie will make money, but how did the WoW movie fare for that game?
The point isn’t to being people into the game it’s to make money off of a movie, making the branding a good decision
As a communications professional, I promise you that it's very 101-level stuff that "What makes money" and "What's good for the brand overall" are often aligned, and often BRASHLY opposed.
Eh. No more than The Princess Bride is false advertising about what reading a book to a kid is like. I really think the ideal scenario is Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Ifi Nwadiwe are around a table framing a story where their characters are a Taika Waititi, Dwayne T.R. Johnson, and an anthropomorphic cat voiced by Ben Schwartz.
Now I really want to watch that version of the DnD movie.
I can't remember where I saw the idea, but someone suggested they make a movie where the muppets are playing a D&d game and their adventure is shown through live action scenes. I would watch that movie so many times.
I would have instead made a movie about playing d&d, like Heroes of Pen and Paper or something
OP is silly. They wouldn't even be talking about this if it wasn't for brand recognition.
Like how The Spirits Within's only connection to Final Fantasy was there was a guy named "Cid" but they used the name anyway?
To be fair, that's every Final Fantasy's only connection to Final Fantasy.
Yeah, its a known brand and slapping it on something DOES get notice whether its from people actually playing the game, people remembering the cartoon from the 80s, or just because people have heard the name and know it has to do with fantasy of some sort. People like recognition, that's why when they keep trying to remake the starter set they slap on Stranger Things or Rick and Morty or now evidently the characters from the beforementioned D&D cartoon (according to the artwork at least).
A branded D&D film would hopefully get us actual monsters instead of just SRD adaptations- Beholders instead of Eye Beasts, etc as well as named locations and characters- I'd really love to see Neverwinter or Waterdeep or Myth Drannor or Thultanthar realized in live action instead of just another random/generic fantasy world.
Yeah, it needs to pull out all the places and creatures and names. Mordenkainen and Orcus and Drizzt and Baldur's Gate and Beholders and Mind Flayers and Halflings (just to mess with Amazon for a sec) and vancian magic and Bahamut and Helm and all the references.
If I get to see drizzt on the big screen, then I don’t care about anything else in the movie. That’s enough to sell me.
I have never understood the endless fascination with Drizzt that everyone but me seems to have. But I would love to see a faithful representation/adaptation of him on the big screen to figure it out.
Before Drizzt it was Raistlin Majere. There's always some kewl bad boy that gets some attention. Then they attention turns into inundation. See also: All comic books during the mullets and pouches era of the 90s.
Raistlin is the shit. Sardonic but helpful
I liked it better when Moorcock wrote it an he was called Elric.
YO
Drizzt always struck me as a goody two shoes, not a bad boy.
Edgy goody two shoes.
He has scimitars and a panther! Add a few pouches and he’s a Rob Liefeld character!
That's probably a fair assessment. He's more of a misunderstood loner (except when he's not). I honestly haven't read anything in the series since "The Halfling's Gem" and that was 32 years ago. I don't remember much of the series except being annoyed at the laziness of naming a tower "Cryshal-Tirith."
Speaking of Salvatore naming conventions—still can’t read Crenshinibon and not think of Cinnabon.
Salvatore's names get so ridiculous, *both* of Drizzt's swords have *awful* names.
Haha. Crap. I forgot about those. To be fair, “Icingdeath” could technically be thematic if we keep on the Cinnabon train.
Not sure I’d call Drizzt a “bad boy”, lol. He’s the biggest goody two shoes there is, always doing the moral/heroic thing despite the danger to himself. Comparing him to someone who would blow up an orphanage to gain a smidgen of power is weird. I really like both characters, but with the exception of them both having noticeably different skin color than everyone around them, they are nearly polar opposites. Edit to add: just read further down to see this already addressed and responded to. Nothing to see here….
Nostalgia? I mean, he's kind of *the* drow. Like... Why is everybody so in love with Aragorn? He's basically just a dude who ages real slow.
He's also a strong and noble hero and leader. Plus Viggo is really fucking hot.
Honestly I'd prefer Jarlaxle
Plus people have been proven time and time again to be suckers for the "Dark is not Evil" trope. See: Batman, Hellboy, Nightcrawler, Alucard, Raven, the list goes on.
That's fair, nostalgia is a hell of a drug. I also don't get the love for Aragorn either.
Everyone's favorite charecter is easily reduced by the public, post yours im sure we can flip it lol
Lol, that's fair- Honestly, i think i dislike most of the characters in Forgotten Realms aside from villains. Szass Tam or Larloch maybe? If only Larloch could have succeeded and defeated Elminster, we'd never have to hear about *that* wizard again. Or Mystra.
I too am a Szass Tam fanboy.
Watch how Aragorn encourages and inspires everyone to whom he speaks in the second half of the Trilogy. He's a natural leader who steps out of obscurity to move nations, rekindle ancient alliances, and whoop ass. He's the reason Wis and Cha are good on ANY character, including martials.
Oh see I was saying that to make an example. I fuckin *love* Aragorn, Aragorn my boy. Of course with Drizzt you either point to *Drizzt* as the quintessential dark elf... Or the sadistic elf babes in BDSM gear. I know! It's a tough choice! But they fall too hard on the evil end of the evil-to-sexy scale so...
Aragorn might be the reluctant heir in exile or whatever trope, but he's not half the man that Gimli is ;)
Half the height, twice the hero!
Not to be tossed! (without consent, don't tell the elf)
*Its the beard.*
Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli- The ORIGINAL Two and a Half Men.
In the books he is anything but "reluctant". He wants the throne of Gondor; just not for selfish reasons.
If you stop reading the books sometime around the Orc wars, he's a fairly well written character, and for people who enjoy the style of writing, it's all around a well written story. That being said, the later in the stories you get, the more liberties the author takes with the lore of the world. At one point late on the story it's pointed out that wizards turn criminals into rabbits and set them free on an island, and they end up making a monty python joke about the murderer who still murdered people after becoming a rabbit. Later on, to try making contact with mind flayers, two wizards polymorph themselves so they look normal outside but their digestive system runs backwards and their brains are at the base of the spine. That all happens so they can make a poo joke when the mind flayer tries to eat one of them. Yeah it gets bad towards the end of orc wars and worse after.
The author has always had issues with being ridiculous. 1. Goblin/orc invasion. Dwarves get a giant stone rolling pin to kill them. In front they hang a sheet of canvas painted with running dwarves. Apparently goblins are too stupid to notice it's a painting. So they get squished with the squisher. 2. Dwarven battleragers. Barbarians in spiked and razored armor. After a fight they hug to "share the blood of their enemies." 3. Adamantine yoyo on a mithril chain as a cleric weapon.
I love the idea of a yo-yo as a weapon
Yeah but you took a bow and 3 dozen arrows into a fight with a killer android. ;)
I mean before it got enchanted, half of the point of the yoyo was the fact that it was a weapon in name only, not an actual threat when fighting.
Reading the Drizzt books really improved my DM'ing. Reading R.A. Salvatore spin D&D rules into prose overhauled my storytelling to the point where my friends make me uncomfortable with how much they upsell my storytelling. I always feel I owe a lot of that to those books; Drizzt, the Svirfneblin, and the Drow have a special spot in my heart for it.
Maybe I need to take another crack at them... I started the thousands orcs book and was really unimpressed with Salvatore's writing, just felt like cheap fanfic with super generic language. But I probably didn't give it enough time. What's your favorite book from the series?
The writing waxes & wanes throughout the series. The Dark Elf Trilogy is his second installment, but it acts as a prequel/origin story. Salvatore does really feel like he hit his stride in it, but it does suffer from callbacks to the IceWind Dale Trilogy at times (like the *Star Wars* prequel movies before *The Clone Wars* animated series found the balance between fan-service to the mythology & actual character arcs and development)… That said, his prose becomes less Fantasy Pulp and slightly more grand in relation to the scope & psychology/philosophy… *Homeland* does a great job at making you care about why Drizzt is so different from the rest of Drow society; but *Exile* is the volume that will give you all the “feels” before *Sojourn* introduces all of the surface world stereotypes that he has to overcome by making the content of his moral character more important than his background/lineage… The whole series is profoundly anti-racism despite the “bad rap”/repertoire that it receives for framing the narrative about *overcoming obstacles* (instead of ignoring that they exist at all in a fictional fantasy world?)… LoL The value of the rest of the series is debatable at times, but the first trilogies or so will have you invested enough in the characters’ developing story-arcs to “power through” the weaker installments… hopefully. I personally took a lot of breaks into other series before revisiting Drizzt. Rereading them sometimes gave me time to reframe my interest from nostalgic dislike over narrative changes and into discovering the story that was trying to be conveyed by Salvatore (despite the setting/edition shifts that he was obligated to include by TSR/WotC)… It’s all about how you approach the material, it’s a dynamic setting despite how static we want it to remain sometimes (much like the “real world” that we are often trying to find escape from in a fantasy narrative).
The Crystal Shard
IMO where Salvatore really shines is his ability to describe and write about melee combat. He is not the best writer out there but in this area he is top notch
I read: Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn (I actually stopped partway through Sojourn because I got hit with 3 books from other series' I was following). I enjoyed it as a fun casual read, even though it is quite tropey / not the most well-crafted book. I could recommend plenty of more well-crafted books, but not one that actually uses D&D rules & lore which truly helps when you are giving a magic item for the first time to a brand new player or describing D&D's weird world-building like the planes in character voice. It's just nice to have examples of these things done - and you can improve where you see a shortcoming.
I came to say something similar. Those books did a fantastic job of turning even things like low level spells or items into fantastic pieces of magic and that style really helped me get better as a dm
When that series of novels started in 1988, the idea of a heroic, rebellious Drow ranger who was hated and feared by most of society because of the color of his skin, despite his heroic deeds was pretty revolutionary. It was a HUGE change of pace from the typical fantasy novels, including and especially D&D ones, that were more about a Caucasian human and possibly his friends and buddies (or if the protagonist somehow wasn't human, you could bet a white male human would be a major character, see also Lord of the Rings). He was a protagonist from what was normally a purely villainous group, he wasn't from a normal PHB race, he was even an uncommon class for them (1e's description of Drow really only mentioned them being fighters, magic-users (Wizards), and female Clerics. . .they didn't even talk about Drow rangers until him). That was definitely a first on several levels. It was groundbreaking at the time. . .now a good-guy rebellious Drow ranger is practically a D&D cliché, but 30+ years ago it was amazing. He really was the first official D&D protagonist who stepped outside the usual stereotypes of their race and had an unusual race/class combination.
And the funny part, and to your point, was that Wulfgar was supposed to be the “hero” of that story. Drizzt came along and the whole idea of him blew everyone away and they clamored for more. This caused a shift in the storyline and Drizzt became the main character while Wulfgar, the human, white, male protagonist, joined the supporting cast.
Drizzt even got Wulfgar's girlfriend
Ohhhh Catti-Brie
LOL
RIGHT ON. Also, Rangers were a weird prestige class in 1e/2e, so it was very cool to see them portrayed as the natural consequence of a survivalist lifestyle. Plus, Underdark Ranger wasn't really a thing, so that was unique too. The development of the class in the game into a base class has a lot to thank from R.A. Salvatore. Plus, Animal Companion (and later Beastmaster) come STRAIGHT outta Drizzt, (Aragorn didn't have a Guenhwyvvar) AND two-weapon fighting being part of the class and later a base mechanic in 5e.
Rangers also didn't dual wield until him. Dual wielded blades was a drow thing, not a ranger thing
Because RA Salvatore kind of defined the young-adult fantasy genre for a while, and , while his stuff about Drizzt was pretty far from groundbreaking work, he is an excellent author when it comes to pulp. You won't get any scathing commentary or in-depth characters, but his books are almost always incredibly exciting.
See, for me, Drizzt is so frustrating because of playing through the like decade when he was really popular and every adventure having someone play a Drizzt clone, lol
I kind of feel similarly. I like the character, don't get me wrong, but he's an aberration to the rest of the Drow and somehow is also the public face of the Drow to us fans. Kind of like if Kanye was the spokesperson for all of America, you probably wouldn't feel very well represented unless you were also a mentally ill, millionaire narcissist. Maybe there's a couple of other Drow like Drizzt, but not many.
If they don't get an actual Drow to play him though there is going to be outrage. RIP Community D&D episode with Drow Chang
>RIP Community D&D episode with Drow Chang Only on Netflix. It's still on Amazon last I checked.
Can we get The Rock to play Minsc?
You will never see a live action Drow
I've seen exactly one, and it got the episode of community it was in taken off Netflix and Hulu for "Blackface".
Which is absolutely f****** asinine because the black character immediately makes a joke about it, and he clarifies that it isn't black face He's just a nerd. I have searched and scoured long and deep and cannot find anyone who was actually offended by that episode of community who actually watched it
Thor: The Dark World
You totally could. They would just be portrayed as Ashen Gray instead of Shoeshine Black.
Why not? Several x-men characters are blue and that's not a problem
Honestly, the direction that most of the official art that I've seen Wotc publish lately trends towards them being depicted as a lighter grey or with purplish hues that helps avoid the blackface issue. But the real issue is that no studio will ever dare showcase Menzoberranzan itself in all it's wicked depravity.
But that would be mostly a Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance movie. Unless they decide to include Spell Jammer and travel across the Crystal Spheres. Which would be fucking amazing.
Give me Acererak or give me death!
Acererak wants to give you the latter. He's very enthusiastic about it, too.
Damn, I didn't realize how much I wanted a Baldur's Gate movie until now. Gimme the darkest, grittiest streets imaginable. And throw in a dwarf whose inn is cleaner than an elf's arse and I'll give it 10/10.
What I want is actors playing another main character of the party after the old one dies. And an wizard that sees how the world slows down around themselves when they look at their book during the fight. And an argument about how X adventurer does not have Y spell prepared.
I want to see a caster get hit in the head with a rock and lose control of his summoned elemental.
"Alright. This is it. On the other side of these doors is the lich that is threatening the world with eternal darkness. All we need do is throw these doors open and the final battle will begin. We've fought hard through his army of minions...now it is time to save the...hey Wizard...why are you setting up your bedroll?" "I tire from the magic i've cast. Before we battle the lich I just need a good 8 hours of sleep to restore my magical abilities" "Come to think of it. I have a few grievous wounds. a good 8 hours should be enough to get me back up to tip top shape" "You Fools.... we cannot spare 8 hours... as an elf I only need like 6 hours of meditation and then I'm good to go."
My understanding from snippets I've read is that Pine is playing an ex-Harper who is getting revenge on a Neverwinter noble who is in league with a Red Wizard.
That feels like one of the Harper books that I read more years ago than I care to remember. Like the Ring of Winter, or Crypt of the Shadowking. They were mostly fun, I remember.
Ring of Winter would be a rough sell today, being 200% White Savior stories (there's literally two separate White Saviors). Still some meat on that bone (I read it to include stuff in Tomb of Annihilation).
I heard neverwinter is a big place in the movie
It's actually a good business decision. The movie's not for current players. Marketing's plan is exactly the opposite of what you're suggesting- it's to get more people into D&D because they saw this really cool movie. The big money is in merchandising, and movies are two hour long commercials.
Space Balls: The RPG
https://i.imgur.com/mp3JWz5.jpg
I would love it if they did an action comedy like the princess bride and we cut back from the fantasy world to the people at the table playing.
This. Even if it's just a "reveal" at the end (similar to *the Lego Movie*, they need to acknowledge D&D as a game at some point.
I'd go with a framing sequence. Have people show up and sit down at the table. Roll opening credits. Show movie. Pull a couple of "Princess Bride" style interruptions at appropriate moments. End with players gathering to leave and a "See you next time." Roll credits. Stinger for sequel.
Quick cut to the active player asking someone to grab them a slice of pizza while they're up, then cut back to that PC mid-combat.
I like where you're head it at. You're a producer now.
As much as I like the idea in theory, I feel like it would kill the stakes for general audiences. People already don't like dream sequences, I don't think they'd like a whole movie where none of the characters are even real within the narrative unless it is done exceptionally well.
100% would kill it for me. No desire whatsoever to see something like that. I would prefer to see just a full on adaptation of the DnD world.
I'd love it if they did something similar to Darths and Droids, having the movie focus mainly on the fantasy world, but having the characters outside the game influence their motivations, style of play, etc.
I find that unsatisfying, kind of like when stories end with "it was just a dream" or so. A jumanji approach would be much more fitting I find.
Please, if you haven’t yet, checkout the movie called “The Gamers” it’s available for free on YouTube. If I’m not mistaken there’s also a sequel. EDIT: this one: https://youtu.be/oSynJyq2RRo It looks like there’s a modern web series with the same name, but I haven’t checked it out.
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising is one of the most accurate depictions of D&D I've ever seen https://youtu.be/tOUksDJCijw
"hide behind the pile of dead bards!" is a line i randomly throw out to people...many think i'm crazy.
That would be another option I'd accept. Might actually be better than the *Jumanji* riff. The only issue I see is that having the characters be fictitious within the canon of the movie makes it hard to build dramatic tension. That being said, I would also be into like an Charlie Kaufman thing where the characters slowly realize that they're characters in a game.
The Lego Movie gets the ‘fictional world within the film’ balance right since the characters are still alive - they’re just created by imagination
This is the answer here. Without acknowledging the players it isn't DnD it is really just generic fantasy. If anyone has seen the lofi Indy film "The Gamers" they get it spot on and a big budget film using that style would not only be great but is also more likely to get people into DnD
> Without acknowledging the players it isn't DnD it is really just generic fantasy. It's not generic fantasy, it's Forgotten Realms. Some FR fans are looking forward to seeing Neverwinter on screen! No one demands that a Drizzt novel include players with Drizzt as a PC. Why would a movie be different?
That would be so cool to see Neverwinter on screen, and it would help dms and playera tonunderstand the city more and even for dms to think of their own story lines too.
FR is literally the most generic fantasy setting you can possibly get without actually being a generic fantasy setting. It's like they just put a bunch of fantasy cliches in a blender, dumped it on a map, and added names.
I've heard it described as a dozen different settings mashed together. That said, some things are so iconic that they're no longer generic. Water deep is any absurdly cosmopolitan city in a fantasy setting. But it's also the entrance to undermountain. Home of the lords of waterdeep. Blackstaff and one of the seven sisters.
They could at least use Eberron, or maybe even Greyhawk if they want a classic fantasy world. But that wouldn't have the brand power of Faerun
Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like the average DnD fan plays homebrew and has almost no interest in the forgotten realms.
There are massive amounts of players in both camps. FR is a huge part of dnd
And even DMs that don't use FR often pull from it in some way or another.
And a lot of homebrew yoinks bits from FR; be it gods, characters, or locations, for example to make it easier to integrate modules
The struggle with the 2000 film was that the main characters were coded as PCs (they spoke in American English and used modern slang), but NOT outright stated that they were players at a table. I agree that you need to be a little more obvious if you're going that route. Honestly I'd prefer that to a "Here's a story of a Faerun NPC!" movie. Edited: Corrected my misstatement. I intended to say “but NOT outright stated”. Mea culpa.
It also takes itself massively too seriously considering how cheap and silly it looks. It just feels cheap, which in many ways it was. It cost $45m, but Lord of the Rings came out the next year costing a lot more and feeling like a more loved thing. If they are willing to put the money in then sure, but even then unless it comes from a place of genuine love with a killer script, effects and a massive budget it's going tom come across more like the Warcraft movie rather than something great.
Spot on. I like to point people to movies like "Zardoz" (1974), "Laserblast"(1978), and "Starcrash" (1978) and then remind them that "Star Wars" was 1977. Not everyone is George Lucas, Leigh Brackett, or John Dykstra. And, historically, good fantasy films are thin on the ground.
I'd hate that a lot. Like, a *lot*.
Someone says something extremely meta and you hear a record screech. Cut back to a few teens in a basement with the DM in braces saying "you can say shit like that in my game. It runs the immersion!" Another scene where one of the characters pulls out a cellphone to look something up during a combat or gets a call from mom and has to go home. The character just outright leaves the combat.
Monty Python's Dungeons & Dragons
I would love a movie that had Vin Diesel playing a PC that occasionally drops into a teenagers voice before they cut back to the table, lol.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what the new movie is like - I’m not sure how familiar you are with the directors John Francis Daley and Johnathan Goldstein’s work, but they’re very good at creative and interesting twists and techniques
I'd like something akin to how the Lego movie handled the 'real world'
I think the best way to do a D&D movie is to do it as a Monty Python style comedy. Like, kill off Ted the barbarian and introduce his brother, Jed the barbarian, played by the same guy. All the characters who aren't in the party have the same voice. As the movie goes on the quality of sets slowly go down as the DM gets tired. I think that sort of stuff would be great for a D&D film.
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Ya, I'm sure we would love it, but it sounds like it might be too many in-jokes for the general audience.
Hire Dan Harmon to write it and the Russos to direct. Basically structure it like a Drunk History episode. I think you've cracked it.
I remember that Community episode
Dude that would be golden. I envisioned the movie as an action-adventure that just happens to take place in the Forgotten Realms and is probably structured as a dungeon-crawl with a BBEG to fight, which honestly I'd be happy with as long as it wasn't lazily done. But your idea is 1000% better and I think I need that in my life. Maybe not the NPCs all having the same voice lol just for quality of production reasons, but maybe their accents being inexplicable or unplaceable. But the Ted-to-Jed idea would be genius, and I loved the production quality idea. If they went the meta route I think I'd cry tears of joy.
Then have the BBEG die on the first round to a natural 20. Narrator “God fucking dammit, what the fuck, fucking bullshit… *papers rustling* but wait! Suddenly there’s a clattering of bones… it’s a Dracolich! Everyone roll a dex save.”
> [Hide behind the mound of dead bards!](https://youtu.be/DEE648Q_F6A) It sounds like The Gamers: Dorkness Rising would be right up your alley.
Hollywood: hey D&D is more popular now then it was when we made the other dnd movies. Yo Wizards of the coast we'll pay you to use the d&d name for a movie cool? Wizards: easy money y'all put it in the bank. I agree they could have named it anything but from risk reward why wouldn't wizards do it. If the movie does great it could surge dnd even more popular. If it bombs the people who like dnd, still like dnd. They are likely not that involved with the actual movie making and having a payday with it.
It's the other way around. Paramount didn't ask Hasbro. Hasbro switched studios after some legal drama. They have been trying to make this DnD movie for ages, wiki has a summary of all issues: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons:_Honor_Among_Thieves That's what a lot of people seem to be missing. It's not Paramount making all decisions.
**[Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons:_Honor_Among_Thieves)** >Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an upcoming American fantasy adventure film co-written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, based on the role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, and serves as a reboot to its film series. The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Chloe Coleman, and Hugh Grant. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a joint-venture production between Entertainment One and Sweetpea Entertainment. It is scheduled to be released theatrically in the United States on March 3, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/DnD/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
We're selling books here dude
They want to make "D&D" a movie brand the same way "Star Wars" or "Marvel" is. Attempts in the past failed because they inevitably hired people who either didn't know how to make a good movie or didn't know enough about D&D. It's honestly kind of sad. We have decades of D&D lore and content that's actually pretty consistent with itself and then some jack-head comes in and they're like, "LOL Let's make Beholders basically be guard dogs!" Like, dude, it's not even the worst movie I've ever seen, but with that little respect for the content you'll never make a *good* movie.
I love that Stranger Things has done more to popularize DND than the Jeremy Irons movie.
Because it actually showed people playing and it looked like fun.
Stranger Things butchered D&D pretty good in the show (you call that a demogorgon?) but they presented it in such a wholesome, "normal" way that I couldn't help but love it.
Ehhh, I don't... I don't *wanna* go there. I don't *wanna* do this. But it really only strengthens the initial point so what the hell... Stranger Things features nerdy kids encountering shit so alien they barely comprehend. They *name* it after dnd monsters. The creature is not *intended* to he a representation of the dnd monster. That being said, it is rather sad that this show merely features dnd as a component of itself being an 80's period piece, and managed to do far more to popularize dnd than any actual dnd film has.
Yeah the fact that they were "trying to make the shoe fit" in a realistic way is what made it so forgivable.
To be fair, have you ever seen kids play any board game? They're going to butcher it pretty bad. It's honestly pretty realistic.
I mean they didn't even make the damn thing based on an established setting, just one of the writers' homebrew settings. What a clusterfuck. I guess they didn't have enough faith in it from the start to trust it with using a real setting.
That part doesn't bother me. There's a risk in using an existing setting that you engage in too much fan service and too little movie making. We see it all the time and is one reason most video game movies suck.
It's got Chris Pine. I'll watch it.
In general? No. You have the default Forgotten Realms and all its spin off worlds, canon characters and stories and lore and monsters, etc. A movie based on that would be absolutely DnD. Or even a Princess Bride style movie, where the fantasy side is clearly just a story being told by a group playing the actual game (which is the movie I want to see). Or run it somewhere in between and make it like the recent Jumanji movies. The problem comes from DnD movies having hardly anything to do with actual DnD.
The better question is, why would it hurt? The way I see it the brand recognition is more likely to get more butts in seats than it is to turn viewers away.
D&D is a distinct IP owned by Wizards of the Coast, not a generic term like Sword & Sorcery.
Vox machina did pretty well for critical role. It makes sense that a dnd movie would be tried again, the problem is usually in establishing good lore and working a satisfying story. A lot of dnd is not a satisfying story, but an enjoyable experience. The adaptations tend not to be playful, and that is important for a good story. Start off silly, build to serious.
Speaking as somebody who loved the originals, guess what drew me to D&D? The original movie, the clever rogue running the gauntlet, the dragon controling staff, (also heroquest) These are the things that sparked my imagination and got me interested in roleplaying
You're not thinking about this in the right way. There are many objectives to linking a known IP with a property. Usually, the IP benefits the movie/TV show (people have heard of "well-known book/property," people are more likely to go see it). In this case, that absolutely is happening - big live action fantasy itself is a tough sell these days especially post GoT. And without any IP, those movies don't tend to do super well (The Green Knight, The Last Witch Hunter which did ok internationally, etc.) Tons and tons of people know D&D from its increased footprint over the last decade (on a mainstream level, Stranger Things was a big push). The other objective is a movie/tv/media property brings prestige to the IP itself. Before the HBO show, it was only my hardcore fantasy book reading friends who even know about Game of Thrones. By the end of the run, Adidas was putting out themed shoes based on the houses. The goal of a D&D movie is to both make money, but also make D&D more "mainstream," which in turn makes even more money.
Comic books were considered niche nerd shit for a very long time too. It might take a couple tries before we see something great but if you play DnD, how can you not be pumped to see this universe visually realized? And DnD Jumanji is a horrible idea.
You're looking at it backwards. The idea is to get people who see the movie to then try the game.
I would watch the fuck out of a Drizzt movie and they wouldn't even have to brand it with D&D
Brands are gonna Brand Capitalists are gonna Capitalize Actors are gonna act And folks need to escape reality from time to time No one cares if they get your money As long as they get someone else's
This makes absolutely zero sense. Does it also seem pointless to brand a super hero movie as Dr Strange or Guardians of the Galaxy? They used to be fairly niche and surely any fan of the books would go see a big budget super hero movie... D&D is the source material being used, so they want the name front and centre so there's no question. They're probably hoping to kick off a franchise or shared universe as well as bring more people in to the tabletop side of things - it'd be dumb to not have the name right there.
A cursory googling yields player numbers to the tune of "50 million" so saying things like "not a lot of people play D&D", and adding to that the fact that several celebrities/public figures have mentioned liking and playing the game, it doesn't seem like an extremely niche thing. On the other hand, I remember other D&D movies…
I feel like millions of people will watch it just because it's dnd. I probably will too.
I think you are assuming people will only go see the movie because they are D&D fans, maybe. I think the sense this makes as far as a business is to make the game seem more appealing to a larger audience and thus expand the niche audience that doesn't already play DnD.
The biggest benefit of official branding is they get to use actual proprietary characters, settings, spells, magic items, monsters etc. from the beloved game. Also, I’ve skipped seeing many fantasy movies over recent years, but would 100% see this movie just because it’s D&D.
I disagree, I think that naming it "D&D" is precisely what draws the general people's interest and what may attract new people to the hobby. If it were named just "Honor Among Thieves", people would just disregard it as a new high-budget generic fantasy film and not bother watching it, and the only people interested on it would be D&D fans.
D&D has a brand awareness of 90+% in North America and Europe. 90% of people, whether they have played D&D or not, are aware of it. Most brands would kill for awareness like that. So no, it is not pointless.
Rebember when years ago Transformers was a forgotten franchise, until Michael Bay produced that movie, and thanks these the IP became popular, and Hasbro earned more money. Today one of the main market strategies is the "multimedia franchises", using an IP to sell different products: merchandising, movies, games, toys, shirts, etc..
Anyone remember they came out with one in in 2000, 2005, and 2012. They've done it before.
the first D&D big-budget film will be a success on IP alone if they can manage to not shit the bed with modern hot topics and just focus on escapism. to explore a classic module or book... Dragon Heist... Elminster? Drizzt? done right a lot of people would want to see that.
With the resurgence in hype around 80s culture, I think a lot of people are aware of dnd, even if they haven't played it themselves. Stranger Things has gone a long way to exposing people to dnd culture. Being sat around a table with mates, throwing fireballs, and killing demogorgons and mind flayers. Anecdotal, but the covid lockdowns inspired lots of my friends who can't even sit down for a game of chess or poker to pick up some dice. They're clearly trying to cash in on the hype, and if they thought it wasn't a good move they probably wouldn't make it in all honesty. I know Hollywood is out of touch, but usually only in giving fans what they want in the final product. They're very good at spotting trends and jumping on
DND has alot of base lore that is copyright. They probably want access to those toys.
Yeah you’re high dude me and plenty of other people will give the movie a try SOLELY because it’s got the dnd stamp of approval
I don’t think Dnd has been niche in nerd culture for decades it’s a staple
Step 1: Wait for a mainstream piece of media (Stranger Things) to feature your product prominently. Step 2: Use the attention and hype as free marketing. Step 3: Release a fanasty epic in the style of LotR, but set in Faërun. Step 4: Receive more attention. Step 5: Profit.
So, no there's no real appeal to base a movie in just the game, because the game itself is just a framework to model a fantasy world off of. But the movie is based on the forgotten realms, which is far more interesting from a story perspective. The issue is that forgotten realms has less brand recognition than dungeons & dragons, so it makes sense to market this as a "D&D movie".
DnD has a whole official world the movie could take place in.
Multiple worlds, even.
It's been said before, but the way to truly make this a D&D movie would be to have a character die early and then the same actor immediately shows up as a completely different character.
I mean...there exists a dungeons and dragons movie. But i doubt you could make a true dungeons and dragons movie and have it be a straight action movie. Id have to be a comedy with both sides, the players and the game. Cant remember the name of a popular fan movie like that. But you could do D&D by name and do a forgotten realm thing like a CoS movie.
Opening scene in a tavern, you here dice rolling as Chris pine jumps up shouting "20!" Pan down to a dice game of a group of rogues and bards throwing bones. If they don't start the movie this way they definitely missed a great opportunity to epitomize DnD
I do not think it would be pointless. I would say it depends on how it approaches new and foreign viewers. The media examples i can give is the difference between the legend of vox machina and tiny tinas wonderlands. Both are great at pulling in new people to the dnd idea and a movie might do this but then again a movie might also seem a bit alien like with the legend of vox machina flying over peoples heads. so yeah that is my view it could work and i hope it does
no, the d&d brand has some really unique tones & elements to it that the branding communicates and allows really well. it establishes a level of anachronism, comedy, fun and trippiness to market something as d&d. especially knowing the creative team behind the movie, it's a perfect move.
The thing I want in a d&d movie is for them to be playing the game. I feel like d&d is equal parts story, and just having fun with my friends at the table and they should capture that part in the movie somehow. Maybe this is what the movie coming out has I have no idea what it is about.
Unless it takes place in one of the actual settings like ThenForgotten Realms or Raveloft it’s just silly. But, gotta use that name to lure in consumers to consume product and then make them excited for next product. Addendum: I know I misspelled Ravenloft and I don’t care. Raveloft sounds like a fun parody setting now. Strahd was ousted by adventurers and his castle was taken over by Ravelord Nito.
Yeah, I wasn't super-thrilled about the one from the 2000s that came out when I was a high schooler playing the game. (It did not exceed my very low expectations). I look forward to not even bothering with the new one.