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NecroDancer
2017-08-05, 09:24 PM
Although there have been people talking about a supposed d&d movie I always felt like a TV show would be better as it would allow for a longer and more complete story that's able to add more things in as it goes through the seasons.

If I had any say in this hypothetical tv show I'd like to see something like Game of Thrones but set in Eberron with a bit more focus on treasur hunting. I also wouldn't be oppose to a Dark Sun tv show with a Walking Dead Survival tone.

daniel_ream
2017-08-05, 10:09 PM
D&D is a rules system, not a setting, story or other dramatic structure one could hang an entire narrative on. Making a D&D TV show makes about as much sense as making a movie out of a board game.[1]



[1] Yes, I am aware of the existence of the movie Battleship. It is central to my point.

Koo Rehtorb
2017-08-05, 10:21 PM
What does D&D add to the formula that couldn't be better achieved by a fantasy TV show not based on a ruleset?

Noje
2017-08-05, 11:15 PM
Although there have been people talking about a supposed d&d movie I always felt like a TV show would be better as it would allow for a longer and more complete story that's able to add more things in as it goes through the seasons.

If I had any say in this hypothetical tv show I'd like to see something like Game of Thrones but set in Eberron with a bit more focus on treasur hunting. I also wouldn't be oppose to a Dark Sun tv show with a Walking Dead Survival tone.

"Supposed" movie? There was a movie already (albeit not very good but it still exists). There was also a cartoon that got a few seasons in the 80's. There has also been a few shows and movies about people playing D&D if that's your thing (e.g. Harmonquest).

daniel_ream
2017-08-05, 11:24 PM
"Supposed" movie? There was a movie already (albeit not very good but it still exists).

There have been three movies, actually. Of decreasing quality as the series goes on (yes, it is possible for a D&D movie to get worse than the 2000 one).

The problem is that the movie rights for D&D are owned by the company currently making the bad movies, and they keep the rights as long as they keep making movies. Since IP rights are gold in Hollywood, they will keep making a crap D&D movie every few years until circumstances change.

goto124
2017-08-05, 11:33 PM
D&D is a rules system, not a setting, story or other dramatic structure one could hang an entire narrative on. Making a D&D TV show makes about as much sense as making a movie out of a board game.

Pick one of the many DnD settings. Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Warcraft...

Whether or not they work well is another story :smallbiggrin:

Anymage
2017-08-06, 12:35 AM
A "core" D&D movie would suffer from the flaw that, while you'd have a lot of product identity stuff, it's all more kitchen sink than anything with a cohesive identity. Vague kitchen sink fantasy is hard to make anything really standout from. (Note that the core conceit of the 80's cartoon was people from the real world transported to a fantasy world and given cool stuff. That's more Saturday Morning Cartoon style than anything official D&D.)

A movie for a specific setting might be more doable. IIRC, there were talks to make something set in the forgotten realms some time back. The issue here is that while there was a time when a setting like FR or Dragonlance had wide enough appeal that you could make something profitable from it, that time has long since passed. Right now, even if you could get the rights to one of the D&D settings, you're unlikely to get enough funding or support to make more than direct to DVD crap.

MasterMercury
2017-08-06, 12:51 AM
I feel like the benefit of D&D is, in part, it's "kitchen sink" attribute. You could just give it to a good director, and see what happens. Imagine an Eberron heist movie, or a Dragonlance war movie, or just a Cthulhu horror movie, with the main character an unwilling warlock. D&D is so pliable, I think you could make a huge variety of good movies out of it.

Kalashak
2017-08-06, 04:01 AM
There have been three movies, actually. Of decreasing quality as the series goes on (yes, it is possible for a D&D movie to get worse than the 2000 one).

The problem is that the movie rights for D&D are owned by the company currently making the bad movies, and they keep the rights as long as they keep making movies. Since IP rights are gold in Hollywood, they will keep making a crap D&D movie every few years until circumstances change.
I'm fairly certain Sweetpea doesn't have the rights anymore

Kitten Champion
2017-08-06, 05:59 AM
Any television/cinema adaptation of Dungeon & Dragons will be either Forgotten Realms or a wholly invented setting specifically made for that medium like the cartoon. Though, I believe the movie Hasbro studios is in some point in the process of making has been stated to be using the Forgotten Realms settings. Which makes sense, it's the de facto default setting for the game, where you can play in it with the initial core materials, and around which other settings exists in contrast. It's also the one with all the best selling novels and video games, and the one general audiences will most recognize as Dungeons & Dragons based on its conformity to tropes.

Putting that aside and going into what I'd do though -- for a foundation I'd use the IDW comics. Not the specifics perhaps - you could if you wanted to but it's not central or anything - but for general feel to such a series it would be a good place to start. Basically what you'd expect, an eclectic party of quasi-mercenary/treasure hunters who start with a job or some kind of big score they're looking into but things happen and plots go from there, with each character having their own life before ending up in this role and individual character arcs woven into to the broader story, keeping it evocative of the colourful sort of fantasy D&D can produce but not cartoonishly so.

I wouldn't use any of the novels, it ties you too much to a single vision and story which - for a property based around building narrative easily - would be far too limiting. I would, however, look into the huge body of short stories done under the D&D name, lot of room there for characters and individual stories. High Fantasy has a wide body of those sorts of short stories largely collected in huge anthologies, but unlike with SF there hasn't been much in the way of outlets in other medium in which they can be presented. A D&D show with sufficient production could be that outlet.

kraftcheese
2017-08-06, 06:13 AM
I feel like you've got similar problems to making a video game into a movie, except amplified; it just doesn't seem to translate well.

Stan
2017-08-06, 08:57 AM
There have been three movies, actually. Of decreasing quality as the series goes on (yes, it is possible for a D&D movie to get worse than the 2000 one).

The problem is that the movie rights for D&D are owned by the company currently making the bad movies, and they keep the rights as long as they keep making movies. Since IP rights are gold in Hollywood, they will keep making a crap D&D movie every few years until circumstances change.

That's been true for the entire 21st century so far. WOTC has never had control of movie rights as TSR has already made a crappy deal.

However, after a bunch of litigation, there was a settlement a couple of years ago. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/dungeons-dragons-legal-settlement-paves-812674)

Progress has been made on a movie. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2906216/) However, it's all very sketchy - hoping it's better than the older D&D movies.

D&D's name recognition has increased greatly in the last 5-10 years in popular media so a movie has a much better chance of succeeding than ever before. Beyond the rules, D&D is full of memes and tropes that could be mined. The trick would be to do it in a way that still a great movie and to stay away from cheese and tedium. Unlike WoW, a D&D movie isn't likely to have much of a Chinese market to fall back on.

Lvl 2 Expert
2017-08-06, 09:18 AM
There have been three movies, actually. Of decreasing quality as the series goes on (yes, it is possible for a D&D movie to get worse than the 2000 one).

I don't know. I've never seen part 1, but 2 and 3 were fairly decent B-movies with actual roots in the game. They're not Lord of The Rings, or even The Gamers, but they're enjoyable.

NecroDancer
2017-08-06, 10:54 AM
That's been true for the entire 21st century so far. WOTC has never had control of movie rights as TSR has already made a crappy deal.

However, after a bunch of litigation, there was a settlement a couple of years ago. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/dungeons-dragons-legal-settlement-paves-812674)

Progress has been made on a movie. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2906216/) However, it's all very sketchy - hoping it's better than the older D&D movies.

D&D's name recognition has increased greatly in the last 5-10 years in popular media so a movie has a much better chance of succeeding than ever before. Beyond the rules, D&D is full of memes and tropes that could be mined. The trick would be to do it in a way that still a great movie and to stay away from cheese and tedium. Unlike WoW, a D&D movie isn't likely to have much of a Chinese market to fall back on.

I'm fairly certain that the movie is stuck in the development 9 hells.

Just to clarify, by "d&d tv show" I mean a tv show taking place in one of the settings of d&d not an actual tv show about d&d. The reason I support settings that aren't FR is because they would bring a breath of fresh air into fantasy tv by being something other than "generic fantasy land #283".

goto124
2017-08-06, 11:10 AM
Just to clarify, by "d&d tv show" I mean a tv show taking place in one of the settings of d&d not an actual tv show about d&d.

I can see a theater putting on a play in a DnD setting, but a TV show? What DnD setting even has TVs? Must be Tippyverse!

Stan
2017-08-06, 11:40 AM
I'm fairly certain that the movie is stuck in the development 9 hells.

That seems to be the case. A few names were attached ~1 year ago, then nothing.


Just to clarify, by "d&d tv show" I mean a tv show taking place in one of the settings of d&d not an actual tv show about d&d. The reason I support settings that aren't FR is because they would bring a breath of fresh air into fantasy tv by being something other than "generic fantasy land #283".

It could work. I also support non-FR for something that doesn't make D&D look like all other fantasy. There hasn't been much success in movies or shows based on games. But D&D has much more depth of background than other games. It also might be analogous to supers shows, which were very hit and miss at first. Once someone really gets how to make a movie/show based on something like D&D or MtG, it will be the new big thing. Supers have also demonstrated that you can have show with some CGI on a budget appropriate to a cable TV show.

Blackhawk748
2017-08-06, 11:49 AM
I would almost say do it like The Gamers, so a comedy. I mean, play it straight (as in, don't do their Murder Hobo schtick, cuz thats their thing) but just pull out every now and then or just let us hear what they are saying. Drop some references (probably to Dio or Metallica, or to the distinct lack of Mountain Dew in the fridge) but have the characters keep doing what they do.

Personally im imagining Jack Black playing a Bard and doing it totally straight, even though the Player based the character off of Tenacious D and so all of his bardic music is actual Jack Black songs. :smalltongue:

Darth Ultron
2017-08-06, 06:19 PM
A basic D&D show would be easy:

You take a cast made up of one of each type of character, put them in a generic fantasy world filled with iconic and Named D&D things, and make it an action adventure type show.

Of course, you might want to cut down the ''main characters'' heroes a bit to more ''Fighter, Rogue, Cleric and Wizard'', and have the rest as ''supporting characters''. And you might need to make the ''cleric'' a more ''non religious follower of something very non religious like''.

And this could work, even more so for one of the silly ''like 11 episodes a season'' junk they do nowadays.

But then you run into the big, big problem of ''what to do'', even for just 11 shows. Do you just do 11 random adventures? Do you make an arc? And you'd run into the huge problem of ''TV Writers'' vs. ''Gamers'', that you get with anything like this.

And it gets Worse....Hasbro, WotC, and such are very ''kid focused'', so they will worry that little kids might watch something called ''The D&D show'', so then they have to step in and make everything rated PG, at best. And you get a lot of the typical TV show with weapons where everyone just sort of ''knocks down'' the bad guys. Like the best Wolverine cartoons were he pops out his claws, says a one liner, attacks, retracts his claws and then punches the bad guy and they fall down and go boom.

It might work if like HBO or Starz can make it....and make it for adults. But the ''D&D'' name is such a draw for kids that is very unlikely.

daniel_ream
2017-08-06, 07:59 PM
To be honest, if you were concerned with name recognition the saga of Drizz't Do'Urden would be your best bet. I suspect DragonLance is too long in the tooth to have much resonance these days.

Darth Ultron
2017-08-07, 07:05 AM
To be honest, if you were concerned with name recognition the saga of Drizz't Do'Urden would be your best bet. I suspect DragonLance is too long in the tooth to have much resonance these days.

Drizz't would make a great HBO TV -MA ''this show is intended for very mature, very adult audiences, viewer discretion is advised." Though they might want to avoid the unsung the ''D&D'' words to fool the little kids and just make the show title more like ''The Dark Elf''.

Dragonlance works good if you want a more rated PG show on like TNT or USA. So the good guys can do stuff like draw their sword, drop their sword, and then punch an orc. Dragonlance does have the nice classic ''good is good'' and ''evil is evil'' that is unpopular in Hollywood now a days, but that the rest of the country except a couple places along the coasts understands and aggress with.

Lacuna Caster
2017-08-07, 07:34 AM
What does D&D add to the formula that couldn't be better achieved by a fantasy TV show not based on a ruleset?

But then you run into the big, big problem of ''what to do'', even for just 11 shows. Do you just do 11 random adventures? Do you make an arc? And you'd run into the huge problem of ''TV Writers'' vs. ''Gamers'', that you get with anything like this.
I'm convinced that a fantasy-frontier equivalent to The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly could capture the feeling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOr0na6mKJQ) of the system quite well. Don't get too hung up over the details of any particular setting or playing a high-fantasy geopolitical-wargame (most games aren't really about that.) Just focus on spinning the various dials of mercenary ambition, sadistic butchery and mutual bonding when it comes to individual characters and their responses to eachother, the law and other situational stimuli. Evil and Grace, Order and Chaos.

Pugwampy
2017-08-07, 09:52 AM
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d7/Dungeons_and_Dragons_DVD_boxset_art.jpg/250px-Dungeons_and_Dragons_DVD_boxset_art.jpg


Youre a bit late .....by 30 years. been there , done that .

CharonsHelper
2017-08-07, 10:19 AM
I'm not saying that it'd be amazing - but a Drizzt movie and/or short min-series could be fun in a popcorn-flick sort of way. (they'd probably have to make drow more purple than in the books to keep it from being perceived as blackface though)

I'm actually surprised that it hasn't been done yet.

Darth Ultron
2017-08-07, 12:08 PM
I'm not saying that it'd be amazing - but a Drizzt movie and/or short min-series could be fun in a popcorn-flick sort of way. (they'd probably have to make drow more purple than in the books to keep it from being perceived as blackface though)

I'm actually surprised that it hasn't been done yet.

Or..well....just hire dark skinned actors to be Drow. Or just make the show outside of the USA.

And I'd say a Drizzt movie/show would need to be R/MA at least.......but you'd have the huge kid fan problem. Though maybe the character is old enough that no person under 18 knows who they are?

The trick is to make a Drizzt show with real depth...show his personality and dislike for killing and fighting The Hunter and all that. And not just make the kiddie version of ''cool guy with two swords and a cat..pew pew Drizzt Rules!". So more Deadpool or Logan then any 'pew pew' X-man movie.

Joe the Rat
2017-08-07, 12:18 PM
If you want to get traction (and by traction I mean Hollywood money), here are two words to use in the pitch:

Shared Universe

Seriously, studios are going nuts with the cinematic universe idea. Tie the properties together, and you are "guaranteed" success (eyeroll). The MCU, DCMU, yeah, but Universal Monsters? John Wick?

But it could actually work for D&D. Multiple parties or story focus, multiple worlds. Epic crossover potential.

CharonsHelper
2017-08-07, 12:24 PM
The trick is to make a Drizzt show with real depth...show his personality and dislike for killing and fighting The Hunter and all that. And not just make the kiddie version of ''cool guy with two swords and a cat..pew pew Drizzt Rules!". So more Deadpool or Logan then any 'pew pew' X-man movie.

A lot of Drizzt's appeal always was ''cool guy with two swords and a cat..pew pew Drizzt Rules!". Salvatore's forte was always crazy over-the-top fight scenes which seem both reasonable and awesome while you're reading it. The rest of them... are okay?

But they'd definitely want to keep it a light PG-13. (PG-13 movies generally make the most $. I liked Logan - but from what I understand Jackman actually took a pay-cut to get it made.)

Really, while they were my favorite Drizzt books (of the 6-7 I read) I'm not sure if the prequels would make good movies. They take place over a long time-span, and that's difficult to pull off on-screen.

It'd be much easier to just have Drizzt as the badass ranger with two scimitars who is hated/misunderstood because of the rest of his race being evil. (Basically the premise of Twilight's lead - but in a world which makes more sense. Yes - even FR makes more sense than Twilight's world. And yes - I did audiobook the 1st Twilight just to know what the fuss was about.)

Pugwampy
2017-08-07, 06:38 PM
As much as I too would love to see Drizzt on the big screen , there is this lil social and survival factor ingrained into the human psyche that has plagued homo sapiens since the dawn of time and will ensure TV producers won't touch that concept with a ten foot pole.

Skin color backlash potential.

And that's before we talk about the supreme nasty darker aspects of drow society. Demon sex FemiNazi chicks mon is bad ju ju.

Koo Rehtorb
2017-08-07, 06:50 PM
As much as I too would love to see Drizzt on the big screen , there is this lil social and survival factor ingrained into the human psyche that has plagued homo sapiens since the dawn of time and will ensure TV producers won't touch that concept with a ten foot pole.

Skin color backlash potential.

And that's before we talk about the supreme nasty darker aspects of drow society. Demon sex FemiNazi chicks mon is bad ju ju.

What's the matter with you?

JBPuffin
2017-08-07, 06:51 PM
I think a DnD movie/tv show ought to tie together the real world and the game world. Out-of-character drama reflects itself in the campaign, a character death leads to the player rolling another which gets unceremoniously thrown into the party where the other left off, etc. It might not even have to be in a standard setting in that case.

Kitten Champion
2017-08-07, 06:59 PM
As much as I too would love to see Drizzt on the big screen , there is this lil social and survival factor ingrained into the human psyche that has plagued homo sapiens since the dawn of time and will ensure TV producers won't touch that concept with a ten foot pole.

Skin color backlash potential.

And that's before we talk about the supreme nasty darker aspects of drow society. Demon sex FemiNazi chicks mon is bad ju ju.

I think you could work around that by changing the colouring somewhat to something like this...


https://www.spielzeug.world/spielzeug/Maskworld/Drow-Ohren-von-Maskworld-2120765.jpg

More of a rather dark lavender/bluish colour with an oil-slick effect to it like insect chitin than going purely black. Besides the obvious problematic complications from converting Drow character art straight to an actor's make-up, there's the more practical on-screen issue of it obscuring their expressions while looking weird in most lighting conditions anyways.

daniel_ream
2017-08-08, 01:32 AM
Completely coincidentally, I discovered today that this (https://www.mythicamovie.com/) is a thing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU1ZtjWZML4

It has Kevin Sorbo in it.

Kevin Sorbo.

You're welcome.

Pugwampy
2017-08-08, 05:31 AM
There is plenty of DND stuff in Game of Thrones including 3 dragons and lots of dungeons .
The last of the Stark children are the classic DND adventure party . The noble Knight , the wounded princess , vengeful assassin and the crippled seer .
Dany has rolled so many 20s on her dice of life that she must be some sort of goddess queen and born with fire immunity. When she took that boiling bath in episode i thought she was just upset and ignoring the pain .
Cersi,s anti Maester sidekick is a friggin necromancer which is the next best thing if you have no super powers .
Zombies , giants , Dire wolves , barbarians both north and south , fairy folk who created the zombies . druids who posses animals .

Lets not forget the Raise Dead spell . Lots of that.

Darth Ultron
2017-08-08, 06:40 AM
A lot of Drizzt's appeal always was ''cool guy with two swords and a cat..pew pew Drizzt Rules!". Salvatore's forte was always crazy over-the-top fight scenes which seem both reasonable and awesome while you're reading it. The rest of them... are okay?

But they'd definitely want to keep it a light PG-13. (PG-13 movies generally make the most $. I liked Logan - but from what I understand Jackman actually took a pay-cut to get it made.)

Really, while they were my favorite Drizzt books (of the 6-7 I read) I'm not sure if the prequels would make good movies. They take place over a long time-span, and that's difficult to pull off on-screen.

It'd be much easier to just have Drizzt as the badass ranger with two scimitars who is hated/misunderstood because of the rest of his race being evil. (Basically the premise of Twilight's lead - but in a world which makes more sense. Yes - even FR makes more sense than Twilight's world. And yes - I did audiobook the 1st Twilight just to know what the fuss was about.)

Well, the appeal to Kidz and some people is the ''cool guy with two swords and a cat..pew pew Drizzt Rules!". But that is not the whole character or story. It's not like Drizzt is an Anime character or anything.

The big probem with companies like Sony, Marvel, DC, and Disney is they only make stuff for the ''kidz'' and people that like ''kidz'' type stuff. Some how they think that is the only fan base. But the real trick is getting the thoughtful, intelligent fan base. The ''kidz'' fans will go see anything, they are moths to a flame. It's getting the other fan bases that is the tricky part.

I think the 'Homeland' saga would make a good enough movie: escaping the Underdark and becoming a good guy.

Though the Crystal Shard would translate nicely into a movie.

Pugwampy
2017-08-08, 07:04 AM
How ever you want to paint Drizzt . The reality is the over sensitized minority will point to numerous racial analogies and cause a stink . The fact that Drizzt is not human nor planet earth wont make a lick of difference .

Heck some majority folk might be upset as they were in Avatar because it made their people look like bad guys beating up on peace loving natives on Pandora to mine their resources ........they were 3 metre tall blue aliens with tails and cat features. Drizzt has pointy ears......

CharonsHelper
2017-08-08, 07:26 AM
Heck some majority folk might be upset as they were in Avatar because it made their people look like bad guys beating up on peace loving natives on Pandora to mine their resources ........they were 3 metre tall blue aliens with tails and cat features. Drizzt has pointy ears......

And yet Avatar (which really - while it had cool special effects being the first movie with the new 3d - but the movie itself sucked - nothing but a bunch of cheesy movie clichés - I mean, 'unobtanium' - really? lol) made stupid money anyway. Who cares if a few people are grumpy if you're making that kind of cash!?

Darth Ultron
2017-08-08, 07:45 AM
How ever you want to paint Drizzt . The reality is the over sensitized minority will point to numerous racial analogies and cause a stink . The fact that Drizzt is not human nor planet earth wont make a lick of difference .

Heck some majority folk might be upset as they were in Avatar because it made their people look like bad guys beating up on peace loving natives on Pandora to mine their resources ........they were 3 metre tall blue aliens with tails and cat features. Drizzt has pointy ears......

Some people will never be happy. But this does not stop movies from being made.

daniel_ream
2017-08-08, 08:22 AM
Who cares if a few people are grumpy if you're making that kind of cash!?

It's worth keeping in mind that action movies are produced as investment vehicles, not films qua films. They're extensively market tested and tuned to maximize ticket sales in critical markets (cf. Donnie Yen in Rogue One).

The whole "people will complain" issue I can't really address without veering into verboten topics, but I will say that Hollywood producers generally do not seem to have cottoned on to the Chick-Fil-A effect.

CharonsHelper
2017-08-08, 08:48 AM
the Chick-Fil-A effect.

Not that Chick-Fil-A did it on purpose. One of their family members (I don't think that it was technically the company) gave a pretty small amount to an iffy group (not going to weigh in on its particulars here) and some people freaked out and tried to get them boycotted for it. Chick-Fil-A just spun it into being a net positive.

daniel_ream
2017-08-08, 10:10 AM
Not quite.

Loud shouty extremists are a tiny minority of any customer base, and in any event tend not to spend very much money per capita anyway.

What Chick-Fil-A learned was that if they refrained from capitulating to the shouty extremists and carried on, not only did they not lose money from the boycott, they made record profits from the silent majority of their customers who were fed up with the extremists.

Hollywood tends to capitulate to shouty extremists; as an industry it does not seem to know how to exploit the Chick-Fil-A effect (but PM me about the Hallmark Channel).

CharonsHelper
2017-08-08, 10:40 AM
Not quite.

Loud shouty extremists are a tiny minority of any customer base, and in any event tend not to spend very much money per capita anyway.

What Chick-Fil-A learned was that if they refrained from capitulating to the shouty extremists and carried on, not only did they not lose money from the boycott, they made record profits from the silent majority of their customers who were fed up with the extremists.

How was that contradictory to what I said? (Though they didn't just ignore the shouters. They did do some interviews etc. to try to explain/spin the issue.)

Darth Ultron
2017-08-08, 11:46 AM
What Chick-Fil-A learned was that if they refrained from capitulating to the shouty extremists and carried on, not only did they not lose money from the boycott, they made record profits from the silent majority of their customers who were fed up with the extremists.


It's been in the recent news that Hollywood is worried about the future as ticket sales are starting to drop as it seems less and less people are going to see movies. One though is people are getting burned out from the endless remakes, re-imagings, sequels, and general bad movies. It is worse when Hollywood is spending many millions of dollars on a movie, and not even making the coast of the movie back. So it is possible for Hollywood to shift from ''how many millions can we spend on a bad movie'' to ''lets just make a good movie."

Guess the Black Panther movie might give some indication on a possible Drizzt movie with dark skinned actors as Drow might do....

CharonsHelper
2017-08-08, 11:53 AM
So it is possible for Hollywood to shift from ''how many millions can we spend on a bad movie'' to ''lets just make a good movie."


You mean shift from "let's make the most $ we can" to a different theory on "let's make the most $ we can"?

Darth Ultron
2017-08-08, 12:04 PM
You mean shift from "let's make the most $ we can" to a different theory on "let's make the most $ we can"?

Well, more of a shift to ''lets spend only as much as we need to make a good movie that will make us money'' and a little less of ''lets throw money at a movie to make us more money''.

Because if they keep just ''tossing money at moives'' and they don't ''make any money'' they will have a problem. They kind of need people to go see movies to make money.

TheYell
2017-08-08, 12:36 PM
You could aim for a D&D show, but it would have to pass muster by the copyright owners, and it would have to be Game Of Thrones epic without seeming to copy GOT.

Anymage
2017-08-08, 12:52 PM
Back when the original D&D movie came out, the actress who played the elf happened to be african-american. (The elf was a standard D&D elf, not a drow. And african-american to note brown skin as opposed to the drow's midnight black.) The connotations of black elves were noted by a few nerds, but in the end the movie with a brown-skinned elf wasn't any different than it would've been if they put a white actress in the role. While drow society might not be something you want to bring up (matriarchal spider-demon worshipers with a penchant for GoT levels of intrigue and bloodshed), a single black person trying to prove their worth against prejudice wouldn't upset too much of the market.

The bigger problems with a hypothetical Drizz't movie/show are twofold. First, DC tried going the "grittier and more mature" route to contrast Marvel's lighthearted family-friendly shtick. You can check their pre-Wonder Woman reviews to see how well audiences and critics went for that. They'd have to play up the "cool antihero does kewl stuff" angle. Second, and more importantly, ensemble casts do better than a single-character focus. I was never personally much interested in FR novels to begin with, so I don't know too many fine details. But I don't know how well different FR characters would do in an ensemble setting.

CharonsHelper
2017-08-08, 01:28 PM
Second, and more importantly, ensemble casts do better than a single-character focus. I was never personally much interested in FR novels to begin with, so I don't know too many fine details. But I don't know how well different FR characters would do in an ensemble setting.

Outside of the prequels (and even parts of them) Drizzt stories are ensemble - albeit with him in the lead.

Dr_Dinosaur
2017-08-08, 01:42 PM
TBH I think the best way to make a "D&D" show (rather than an adaptation of novels etc) would be giving the Voltron: Legendary Defender treatment to the old cartoon. Update the characters, either remove the Dungeon Master character or have him only appear indirectly for a season or two, and give it a cohesive narrative with satisfying character arcs.

Vogie
2017-08-08, 02:50 PM
It really depends on what type of D&D show you want. Do you want a show about people playing D&D? Or a Show set in a D&D IP? Or a fantasy show that contains D&D elements? I could see something like the Knights of Badassdom being turned into a TV show, for the first, and the third could certainly work if there's a comedic unreliable-narrator style of world scrounging. The second would be impossible with the normal D&D/Pathfinder/WoD IP, because it's too broad, in both variations and timing.

However, if you choose a single campaign with defined episodic "seasons", such as Godsfall (http://www.godsfall.com), that could probably be made into a TV show.

I could see an Erfworld-style show, where it is an average guy thrust into a D&D-inspired world with a protagonist who uses gaming meta-knowledge to get things done.

Most likely, I would expect that we would see a Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle-meets-Suckerpunch style show, where it's a group of people playing an RPG around a table, but the combat is actually be shown as fantastic combat. The reason I think this is going from "Jungle video game" to "tabletop fantasy game" is tiny.

daniel_ream
2017-08-08, 04:05 PM
It's been in the recent news that Hollywood is worried about the future as ticket sales are starting to drop as it seems less and less people are going to see movies. One though is people are getting burned out from the endless remakes, re-imagings, sequels, and general bad movies.

There's a book called Sleepless in Hollywood that documents this phenomenon; movie profits have been falling off a cliff for over a decade now and producers are panicking. The endless re-makes, re-imaginings and sequels are Hollywood's attempt to fix this (that model minimizes marketing costs, which are the lion's share of a movie's total budget).

I think that like RPGs, Hollywood movies are undergoing a correction to their long-term sustainable ROI, which is going to be way, way down from the days of cocaine and wh*res they're used to.

Mikemical
2017-08-09, 09:32 AM
And yet Avatar (which really - while it had cool special effects being the first movie with the new 3d - but the movie itself sucked - nothing but a bunch of cheesy movie clichés - I mean, 'unobtanium' - really? lol) made stupid money anyway. Who cares if a few people are grumpy if you're making that kind of cash!?

James Cameron could make a film about watching a dog's turd from when the dog poops it out to when flies gather on top of it to it's inevitable drying up and disassembling under the rain, and marketing would still find ways to convince people to go watch it. Because he's James Cameron, he made Titanic! And after it releases, critics would find ways to make up 'deep symbolical meaning' behind the film and commend it for being so daring, because it was made by James Cameron, the guy who made Titanic. Years later, people would get the blu-ray edition of "A Turd's Life" with director commentary and deleted scenes, and the film would be have it's own cult following trying to descipher the real meaning behind the movie, because it was made by James Cameron.

James Cameron is to emotional character films what Michael Bay is to action movies. They're the name you put on the poster to ensure that no matter whatever you push out, no one can criticize it.

Yes, that was also a poop joke.

Stan
2017-08-09, 10:30 AM
James Cameron could make a film about watching a dog's turd from when the dog poops it out to when flies gather on top of it to it's inevitable drying up and disassembling under the rain, and marketing would still find ways to convince people to go watch it. Because he's James Cameron, he made Titanic! And after it releases, critics would find ways to make up 'deep symbolical meaning' behind the film and commend it for being so daring, because it was made by James Cameron, the guy who made Titanic. Years later, people would get the blu-ray edition of "A Turd's Life" with director commentary and deleted scenes, and the film would be have it's own cult following trying to descipher the real meaning behind the movie, because it was made by James Cameron.

James Cameron is to emotional character films what Michael Bay is to action movies. They're the name you put on the poster to ensure that no matter whatever you push out, no one can criticize it.

Yes, that was also a poop joke.

Then you'd have the larger camp yelling "it's just poop!" while millions would declare that they cry every time they watch it.

Darth Ultron
2017-08-09, 12:01 PM
The bigger problems with a hypothetical Drizz't movie/show are twofold. First, DC tried going the "grittier and more mature" route to contrast Marvel's lighthearted family-friendly shtick. You can check their pre-Wonder Woman reviews to see how well audiences and critics went for that. They'd have to play up the "cool antihero does kewl stuff" angle. Second, and more importantly, ensemble casts do better than a single-character focus. I was never personally much interested in FR novels to begin with, so I don't know too many fine details. But I don't know how well different FR characters would do in an ensemble setting.

Well, like any thing you have to do it right. You can't have an no talent idiot make a fantasy movie...have the movie be bad...and then say ''oh, fantasy movies are no good and don't sell."

The big problem with ''mature'' is they only go like ''MA-14 ish'' and they stop and are like ''wow, this is super hard core and so mature it's old!''

I'm not sure ensemble casts are such a big hit, other then with the demanding political correct folks that want at least ''one'' of ''everyone'' in every movie for their political activist reasons. So they complain and scream and say ''if X is not in the movie we won't watch it, and we will tell all of our followers not to watch it either''.

Rogue One was an ''ensemble'' cast, and did not come out the great. Like wow, look at all the colorful bland characters they put in the movie to each say a few lines, do a thing, and then die in nice safe explosions.

Still The Crystal Shard would be a nice ''ensemble'' like cast....though you have to change the characters around a bit to make it ''correct'' and have one of each ''type'' that ''they'' demand must be in all movies. So like Carti-Bree would be played by Linda Park, Brunneor would be like Tyler Perry, Reigus would be Tony Shaloub and Wufgar would be Ronda Rousey.

Joe the Rat
2017-08-09, 01:38 PM
James Cameron could make a film about watching a dog's turd from when the dog poops it out to when flies gather on top of it to it's inevitable drying up and disassembling under the rain, and marketing would still find ways to convince people to go watch it. Because he's James Cameron, he made Titanic! And after it releases, critics would find ways to make up 'deep symbolical meaning' behind the film and commend it for being so daring, because it was made by James Cameron, the guy who made Titanic. Years later, people would get the blu-ray edition of "A Turd's Life" with director commentary and deleted scenes, and the film would be have it's own cult following trying to descipher the real meaning behind the movie, because it was made by James Cameron.

James Cameron is to emotional character films what Michael Bay is to action movies. They're the name you put on the poster to ensure that no matter whatever you push out, no one can criticize it.

Yes, that was also a poop joke.
There's one problem with this idea. It's James Cameron.
It would be a CGI poop.

Pugwampy
2017-08-10, 04:00 AM
It's been in the recent news that Hollywood is worried about the future as ticket sales are starting to drop as it seems less and less people are going to see movies.


You can buy between 1 - 3 DVDs for for a movie ticket price . 2 movie tickets would buy us a season of Game of Thrones or whatever other TV show .

Thats assuming we dont just run to the net and pull something off for FREE . 99

Darth Ultron
2017-08-10, 06:29 AM
You can buy between 1 - 3 DVDs for for a movie ticket price . 2 movie tickets would buy us a season of Game of Thrones or whatever other TV show .

Thats assuming we dont just run to the net and pull something off for FREE . 99

There are more ''distractions'' then ever before to draw movie goers away.

And price is a big deal as you can spend a ton of money just for two people to go see a movie, and it really feels like a waste if it's a bad movie.

And it does not help that the average theater is a horribly run overpriced dump.

FreddyNoNose
2017-08-10, 02:45 PM
It's been in the recent news that Hollywood is worried about the future as ticket sales are starting to drop as it seems less and less people are going to see movies. One though is people are getting burned out from the endless remakes, re-imagings, sequels, and general bad movies. It is worse when Hollywood is spending many millions of dollars on a movie, and not even making the coast of the movie back. So it is possible for Hollywood to shift from ''how many millions can we spend on a bad movie'' to ''lets just make a good movie."

Guess the Black Panther movie might give some indication on a possible Drizzt movie with dark skinned actors as Drow might do....

I am sick and tired of hearing celebrities and their political viewpoints.

I have seen zero movies in the theater this year. They come out on bluray so quickly and at a price that is reasonable. So in a couple of weeks, I will see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and hope it will be fun. Can you believe that the industry is talking about putting movies out on streaming 30 days after release? That will just make it worse for the box office.

Stan
2017-08-10, 05:13 PM
Can you believe that the industry is talking about putting movies out on streaming 30 days after release? That will just make it worse for the box office.

Probably. But if they don't have to have a separate marketing push for streaming/DVD, they might save enough to make it worthwhile.

tomandtish
2017-08-10, 08:07 PM
To be honest, if you were concerned with name recognition the saga of Drizz't Do'Urden would be your best bet. I suspect DragonLance is too long in the tooth to have much resonance these days.

DragonLance had an animated movie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance:_Dragons_of_Autumn_Twilight) back in 2008. It did not get good reviews (although the voice cast was impressive).