Beaks here...
While I tend to think the target audience for a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie would rather stay at home and play the actual game into the wee hours, it's not like you can do any worse than the Courtney Solomon-directed opus of 2000. Why not give it a shot?
That seems to be Warner Bros' thinking, as, according to Deadline, they've acquired the rights to the Gary Gygax/Dave Arneson RPG [Rocket Propelled Grenade]. The studio will be working from a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson, who wrote a screenplay last year based on the D&D precursor CHAINMAIL. This script will be rewritten to work in elements of the expansive D&D universe, which certainly has cinematic potential, but skews to a smaller fan base than, say, LORD OF THE RINGS.
Johnson is a talented writer, so I wish him the best, but I can't help but wonder what this means for Legendary Pictures' WORLD OF WARCRAFT movie, which is currently in development under WB's auspices with Duncan Jones attached to direct. Both projects face the same challenge of finding an audience outside of their fiercely-devoted following. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Roy Lee and, yes, Courtney Solomon will produce the film.
