Back in 2000 we were subjected to the absolute monstrosity of a film that was DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. It contained all the ingredients for an awful movie, and ended up making 1/3 of its production budget back at the box-office. Since that terrible day 13 years ago the world has moved on, especially in terms of fantasy. the LORD OF THE RINGS films would land only a year later, with video games such as OBLIVION and SKYRIM and TV series GAME OF THRONES following. It’s safe to say the last decade has been fantasy friendly, and now it’s time for one of the biggest franchises DUNGEONS & DRAGONS to give film another go.
Warner Bros. has recently acquired the rights to the franchise and is already in pre-production on the project which they are making a priority. Warner Bros. already have a script to set the foundations thanks to David Leslie Johnson, the writer of WRATH OF THE TITANS and RED RIDING HOOD. He was working on a script for Warner Bros. for a similarly themed film based on a predecessor of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS called CHAINMAIL, a game created by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax. The CHAINMAIL script is to be changed to the more popular and widely recognised DUNGEONS & DRAGONS universe, now that Warner Bros. have the rights.
This all sounds a bit rushed to be honest. I have no doubt that D&D deserves a faithful and budget sufficient adaptation, but slapping the name on a pre-existing script could be dangerous. Still, there’s no possible way this could be worse than the Courtney Solomon film that starred Jeremy Irons. Although, Solomon will be a producer on this latest reboot. Let’s hope something on this interpretation goes right.
Source: Deadline
