The Gaming Den

Warner brother's options D&D script. It looks like the script is actually going to be based off of Chainmail rather than D&D itself. They are just going to set it in the d&d universe. I'm not really sure what they mean by this seeing that Chainmail was just a set of rules for a miniatures wargame.

I suppose that this might have something to do with Dave Arneson's Blackmoor setting which would be cool in that they would actually be working with Arneson's materially rather than Gygax.

So basing it off of Chainmail the actors will move in measured increments, and the movie will have Hobbits, Nazgul, and Ents, that the Tolkien Estate will sue over?

Sounds as pathetic as Battleship becoming a movie. What is next a Connect Four movie, or Monopoly movie? With the protagonist get released from incarceration by giving up a business card?

HASBRO really is trying to make D&D all things if it doesn't understand that Chainmail is just fantasy combat, not unlike oh... Chess.

shadzar wrote:So basing it off of Chainmail the actors will move in measured increments, and the movie will have Hobbits, Nazgul, and Ents, that the Tolkien Estate will sue over?

Sounds as pathetic as Battleship becoming a movie. What is next a Connect Four movie, or Monopoly movie? With the protagonist get released from incarceration by giving up a business card?

HASBRO really is trying to make D&D all things if it doesn't understand that Chainmail is just fantasy combat, not unlike oh... Chess.

fwiw I'd pay for a good Monopoly movie.

Chainmail was a minis wargame ruleset which grew into D&D.

Seerow wrote:fwiw I'd pay for a good Monopoly movie.

I think that's what Wall Street one and two were.

They could make a Drizzt movie. Or not, Joe Public may think its racist?

I'd be interested in seeing a historical epic on the unification of Germany running from just before the Congress of Vienna to declaration of Empire, from the perspective of the adoption of and changes made to Kriegspiel.

Dr_Noface wrote:They could make a Drizzt movie. Or not, Joe Public may think its racist?

It would be pretty difficult not to, all things considered. Plus, you know, racism actually is one of the major themes that crops up repeatedly in the Drizzt novels. Usually in the form of mawkish, simplified, overly-sentimental drivel.



But anyway, what I got out of that article (eventually, as the writer apparently knows fuck all about putting words together coherently) was that someone got a script called Chainmail which for reasons unknown is based on Chainmail the game, but is being updated to D&D.

Though why WB would put one of the fuckwits who was involved in the 2000 D&D movie debacle in as a producer is frankly baffling.

Last I checked, the license to make D&D movies is still outstanding as long as movies keep getting made to prevent the license from reverting. That's how Book of Vile Darkness could be made as a SyFy Original. But no power on Earth can stop you from making D&D like movies that are based on older licenses or original content. See: The Hobbit. Further, while "Dungeons & Dragons" has been licensed, the vast array of D&D source material hasn't been.

So you can make a movie called "Chainmail" and have Pelor fighting Hextor in it if you want. Heck, you could have a movie called "Greyhawk" and do the same.

-Username17

Book of Vile Darkness movie was so bad it was fun unlike the other D&D movies. They need to make more movies where you realize the black guy with the funky make up was a goliath AFTER the protagonist put his corpse into a bag of holding.

shadzar wrote:Sounds as pathetic as Battleship becoming a movie.

Battleship was a surprisingly good film about the fact that the best way to win at battleships is to cheat. As in seriously way better than it had any right to be.

FWIW, Sir Ridley Fucking Scott of all people has been attached to a Monopoly adaptation for quite some time now.
And some major studio was working on friggin' Candyland.

So what I'm saying is, if you want to propose a ridiculous adaptation, Hollywood's probably got you beat.

The Clue movie was fucking awesome, but sadly there's been a serious dearth of boardgame-based movies since then.

Surgo wrote:The Clue movie was fucking awesome, but sadly there's been a serious dearth of boardgame-based movies since then.

Not many board games really allow for a plot. Risk? Stratego? Axis & Allies? Most of those games already have Discovery or History channel specials...

DragonLance, Buck Rogers....came from movies/books and ahve movies...

Operation, now there could be an interesting movie to see!

MANY anime have been made from the premise of board games from Go to Chess, and obviously CCGs.

Nothing is as open as Clue for a movie story, and the way they did it would NEVER allow it to work again. It was great, but it something that only works once except in the case of CYOA like D&D Scourge of Worlds, and the method didnt really work at all.

HASBRO would rather make a TV gameshow out of games than a movie.

Somebody should option one of the eurogames. Catan or Carcassone or something along those lines.

Also how was the Dragonlance movie?

It was not very good.

edit: Did you want details?

Cynic wrote:Also how was the Dragonlance movie?

CGI dragons, plus cell-shading, timing problems, poor rotoscoping, dry acting, skipped parts, tried to look like LotR.

but it was the best D&D movie so far as it had a decent story to use, if only they actually used it.

Potential does not a good movie make.

Angel: yes, details would be good.

The animation would have been good in the eighties, but is simply not up to code for a feature in the oughties. And that's before the part where all dragon-related things are CGI for no reason; CGI that would have been good in the 90s.

The film also has too much stuff in it for its runtime. Almost none of the huge cast gets any development, and almost none of the huge number of plot points gets any development. I think they would have done better to just get to the end of the Xak Tsaroth plot, that has a pretty good climax both as an action sequence and on the 'faith' theme. But at the very least they needed to cut filler like the Forestmaster sequence and invest the time better.

shadzar wrote:CGI dragons.

Were those as bad as the Witcher one? Fun fact - it was made around the same time LotR gave us Gollum (yes, I know the Witcher movie had a budget we can't compare with LotR in any way).

Istred wrote:

shadzar wrote:CGI dragons.

Were those as bad as the Witcher one? Fun fact - it was made around the same time LotR gave us Gollum (yes, I know the Witcher movie had a budget we can't compare with LotR in any way).

They were worse.

I actually kind of liked the last D&D movie. It wasn't necessarily quality, but it felt like D&D, and was sort of entertaining. At least it didn't have a Waynes brother or treat sentient non-humanoids like they're just location setting furniture (generally speaking).

Prak_Anima wrote:I actually kind of liked the last D&D movie. It wasn't necessarily quality, but it felt like D&D, and was sort of entertaining. At least it didn't have a Waynes brother or treat sentient non-humanoids like they're just location setting furniture (generally speaking).

except it looks like they took 3rd edition setting and mixed it with the 1E random Harlot table and just made a soft corn slasher porn.

that may work for the BoVD for those immature players that want to play out brothel scene in D&D with only a group of guys around them.. but not everybody is interested in that.

So far ALL of the movies except DragonLAnce has tried to add things they THINK belong in the game jsut to give some credence to it, without understanding that there are better D&D movies like LotR.

D&D: The Movie (glantri kingdom of magic) just tried to emulate stupid player antics with Wayans and overly comedic sidekick. IT works for Elan and Belkar in OotS, but not so much in D&D, and the plot was to heavy as was the second and 3rd movies on dragons.

Wrath of the Dragon God... ok jsut cause the name of the game is dungeons and DRAGONS, doesnt mean dragons are the only thing you fight. Scourge of Worlds.. yup another dragon to fight.

BoVD at least had no reason to have dragons so didnt just shove a dragon into it for no reason.

DragonLAnce, well it is about the only one that should have focused on dragons.

the first movie the writer should have been canned and WizBro should have checked the story Solomon was planning to do to see if it really made sense.

too many gimmicks in these D&D movies to try to make then stand apart AS D&D, rather than jsut showing that D&D is a game about fantasy adventure.

MAYBE, Chainmail being a D&D movie they will get away from the stupid crap that has brought down alll the other LA D&D movies, and bring it back to just a Fantasy action movie like the ones that brought D&D to life when it was growing out of control: Conan, Beastmaster, Krull, etc.

so many settings for D&D from Hollow World to Planescape.. there could be thousands of movies made in them that would be good stories.

now there is a movie idea.. Hollow World.

...why did I look at shadzar's post?