Two stories today from the fine fellows at The Tracking Board, the first one concerning a geek property dearly beloved by O.G.s of table-top gaming.
The word is that Rob Letterman will direct the second adaptation of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS for WB. The studio probably inherited the rights to the property from New Line, who released Courtney Solomon’s ill-fated 2000 D&D film that featured an overacting Jeremy Irons and a doomed, pointy-eared Marlon Wayans character named “Snails” (not to mention Bruce Payne and Richard O’Brien kicking around in the background)
Considering Solomon’s film (which he insists was a result of horrendously tangled legal rights and the use of an early, previously discarded script) tanked when it came out almost exactly a year prior to FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, it seems obvious that WB wants to go a completely different route this time, and hiring Letterman seems like a solid indicator of their approach. The director has solely helmed family films up ’til this point, the first two being animated (SHARK TALE, MONSTERS VS. ALIENS) and the latter two being Jack Black vehicles, one dismissed (GULLIVER’S TRAVELS) and one fairly well-received (GOOSEBUMPS). Without making a judgement on those films (I’ve only seen SHARK TALE, forced to watch it on a plane), they fall into a pattern of jokey, high-concept children’s films that are worlds apart from the kind of serious-minded fantasy we’re used to in the wake of LOTR/HOBBIT and GAME OF THRONES. Guess that’s what’s up, Dungeon Masters.
Like MAGIC: THE GATHERING (which dominated the market and the high-school lunch counters in my day), it’s hard to imagine the complex, statistic-and-trivia dominated world of D&D to be compressed and sausaged into a four-quadrant narrative film. Those who play these RPGs typically have a better, more outlandish imagination than most studio-driven films, and the devout fans will undoubtedly cry murder if the style and plot aren’t to their liking. Plus, if the reaction to the first film was any indication, I don’t reckon non-fans will get too excited of a film version of this property (I am worried about the fate of WARCRAFT, guys).
Still, it’s a well-known entity, and that’s the name of the game as far as the current studio boards are concerned, so they’re going to throw money at it and try and spin it into a movie they can release and (maybe) make some coin on.
Anybody out there excited by the guy who directed SHARK TALE and GULLIVER’S TRAVELS taking on D&D?
