The pantheon of races and monsters in D&D makes for a great setting for stories. That's how you had worlds like Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms and novels based on this stuff. Or planar travel and spelljammers. So much material. There's no reason you can't have good movies placed in these worlds.
I wasn't aware there was anything to reboot in the first place. Both HP and LOTR (you may disagree on the first or second) actually have a story considered compelling by the general audience. I wasn't aware Dungeons and Dragons had that. I thought it was mostly guidebooks.
Nah, they need to redo this: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JjhQ1Oi_3k[/yt] Except, you know, half the kids would die. And it would not be as pedantic as "Timeline". :P Mark
There are a ton of D&D novels, including some by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman that are particularly popular and well-regarded, although whether they're used as source material remains to be seen. Edited to add: There's a legal battle brewing over the D&D film rights between WB and Universal/Hasbro. You can read the story here.
My first thought was this was natural competition for Duncan Jones' Warcraft movie. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out - and tying it to LOTR and Harry Potter is a bit more relevant the nine billion superhero movies that sprout every time I turn my back. D&D's license covers dozens of different settings, including pretty much any major variety of fantasy one would care to name. Their most popular setting - Forgotten Realms - is defined as the most vanilla, though, and is the most likely locale for a film.
I've been DMing D&D for more than 25 years so I'm aware of the minutia involved. I'm working under the assumption that a D&D movie, just like the terrible one with Jeremy Irons, would just be a D&D movie, and not a Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Eberron movie or what have you. And the generic D&D setting, what 4e called "points of light" is as vanilla as it gets.
Dragonlance would get my vote for sure I grew up on those novels and have always had a soft sport for the war of the lance story line. Heck, imo the dwarven nations or evlen nations triolgys would be good movies too, but that opinion is probably not wide spread.
Wonder if they will adapt a novel(s), such as the Icewind Dale trilogy: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and The Halfling's Gem.
...But would there be a rights issue? EDIT: Back in the 80s when Dragon magazine had these vague rumors of a possible D&D movie floating around, I immediately assumed it would be about Gord!
I don't think it would have enough moneymaking pull to actually be done but I thought it'd be funny to have a straight fantasy movie but the characters all behave and talk like how most people play at a beer and cheetos game night.
This will probably be dependent on who owns the copyright on the "Gord the Rogue" books. (ie. Did Gary Gygax sign away the rights on the first two "Gord the Rogue" books? Was it a "work for hire" agreement where he didn't own the rights to it?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_for_hire
Would the rights that Warner Bros owns--for the game itself--also include rights to any of the novels?
Good question. According to this article http://www.deadline.com/2013/05/rig...agons-warner-bros-and-universalhasbro-tangle/ The question is what exactly are the rights which Courtney Soloman owns outright, which was decided in a previous binding arbitration. (ie. What exact agreement did Solomon sign with TSR/Wizards of the Coast back in the day).
Here's an old interview with Courtney Solomon. It discusses generally on what he did to get the rights to do the first D&D movie. (No specifics on what exactly was signed with TSR/Wizards of the Coast). http://www.dvdtalk.com/interviews/courtney_solomo.html
^^ I wonder what he would've offered to get the film rights? Seems really short-sighted to have let those go.