The New Dungeons & Dragons Movie Will Be Set in The Forgotten Realms
We’re learning more about the new Dungeons & Dragons movie announced by Warner Bros. this week.
The first D&D movie, produced by New Line Cinema in 2000, was an epic failure (and its sequel was even worse), but this film will be produced by the studio behind The Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter franchises, which has been on the hunt for a premium fantasy property for some time. An ongoing lawsuit over ownership of the D&D film rights prevented the project from going ahead, but Variety reports that dispute has finally been resolved.
A movie based on the widely popular game Dungeons & Dragons is in the works at Warner Bros., the studio announced Monday, 10 months after a trial over who owned the rights to the fantasy game ended.
After months of negotiation, Warner Bros., Hasbro’s Allspark Pictures and Sweetpea Entertainment said they had come to an undisclosed arrangement, ending the 2-year-old lawsuit, and are moving forward with the feature film franchise. David Leslie Johnson (The Conjuring 2) has already written the screenplay set in the D&D fantasy world of [The] Forgotten Realms. Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis, Sweetpea Entertainment’s Courtney Solomon and Allan Zeman, and Roy Lee (The Lego Movie) are producing the high-priority project.
“This is far and away the most well-known brand in fantasy, which is the genre that drives the most passionate film followings,” said Greg Silverman, Warner Bros. president of creative development and worldwide production. “D&D has endless creative possibilities, giving our filmmakers immense opportunities to delight and thrill both fans and moviegoers new to the property…”
The Forgotten Realms, created by Ed Greenwood in 1987, is home to the drow ranger Drizzt Do’Urden, the mighty wizard Elminster, and countless other famous D&D characters. It has been featured in over 200 novels and countless adventure modules and supplements.
Read the complete article at Variety.
That is really good.
All that $ spent on that movie, but all the decades of prior D&D history ignored. And the mechanics of that fantasy world were also left in a bag of devouring.
This is one of those movies where you have to try hard to not get your hopes up.
also, no one paints a Drizzt cover like Lockwood.
Agreed!
I agree on all points except this: There was no 2000 D&D movie. It was a collective hallucination caused by eating a bad egg salad sandwich from a gas station vending machine.
Joe,
That makes a scary amount of sense.
Joe H., someday that nonexistent film will be ranked among the great mass hysterias of history, alongside the rampage of the Jersey Devil and the Tanzanian laughing plague. (Google them. You know you want to.)
Next you’ll be telling me that there were sequels to Highlander.
Didn’t Courtney Solomon make that “bad egg salad sandwich”? I want a really great D&D/FR movie but I wonder if Courtney Solomon is capable of delivering.
Oh, dear god, Amy, I think you’re right.
Aaargh. Amy, I hadn’t realized Courtney Solomon was behind the 2000 version. Looking at the list of films he’s directed since, it appears you’re absolutely right… the man does not have a reputation for quality hits.
Year Film
2000 Dungeons & Dragons
2005 An American Haunting
2005 Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God
2007 Captivity
2009 Universal Soldier: Regeneration
2009 The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations
2009 Slaughter
2009 Perkins’ 14
2009 Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
2010 Prowl
2011 The Task
2011 Seconds Apart
2011 Husk
2011 Fertile Ground
2011 51
2011 Scream of the Banshee
2012 Transit
2012 Bullet to the Head
2012 Dragon Eyes
2012 El Gringo
2012 The Philly Kid
2012 Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
2012 Stash House
2012 Re-Kill
2013 Dark Circles
2012 Bad Country
2013 Getaway
2014 Cake
2016 Burn Your Maps
America’s answer to Uwe Boll.
The only movie in that list I’ve heard of is the D&D movie.
Now if only I could forget about it…