Warner Bros. has snapped up the rights to develop a "Dungeons & Dragons" movie.
"Wrath of the Titans" writer David Leslie Johnson wrote a script in 2012 known as "Chainmail" that was to be developed at Warner Bros. The as-yet untitled "D&D" movie will be based on that script, with some tweaks to it more in the style of that world-famous role-playing game. The original script took its cues from the pre-"D&D" tabletop wargame with the same name, developed by Gary Gygax.
The sort of fanbase that enjoys "D&D" is the stuff that studio execs dream of, but there's not really a way to capture the spirit of the open-ended game system on film. The storyline is co-created by the players and led by one Dungeon Master, with the adventure unfolding based on throws of the dice and minute-by-minute decisions. Trying to "reboot the franchise for a new generation," as Deadline describes it, is a fallacy because people still play "D&D" on a regular basis, and while there are various versions with different rules and settings, you can set up a game any time, any place, with nothing but your imagination and a polyhedral dice.
There's already been one D&D movie, a 2000 New Line flick with Jeremy Irons, Marlon Wayans, and Thora Birch, but it did bupkis at the box office. That movie's director, Courtney Solomon, is one of the producers of this project.
Let's see if they roll a natural 20 this time around.
[via Deadline]
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