Deadlord36 wrote:The series is almost a copy of what I said. Minor adversaries at first, leading up to Tharizdun. He doesn't really get romance until near the end, although he does tag a few does along the way.

good one off's would be S3 or even S2

S3 would work to a pretty good film imo. nice mix of past and future involved

and i certainly think D1-2-3 would seriously rock...even S1 would prb make a cool one-off film

The Gord the Rogue idea is a good one and I think that would be the best suited to becoming a movie (admittedly, I haven't read too many D&D novels others than the Gord books though . . . )

What would really be ideal is a TV series . . . 1 hour shows throughout a season.  Look at all the awesome episodes of Babylon 5 and Star Trek TNG there are.  Some episodes would have minor encounters, dungeons, discoveries of magic items, the young wizard could seek a master, the priests given a quest and the season could really follow a low level group as they advanced.

Next season:  A little higher level, more magic, a little more power, etc.

Some episodes can be used towards furthering an overall goal or ultimate bad-guy and some episodes are one shot deals.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer actually did a good job of this - the characters and bit players in episodes were never forgotten and could turn up at any time later.  There was a great sense of continuity and character/relationship development.  Not every episode furthered the season's plot . . . but there always was one that grew and kept you hungering for the climax.

With a movie, they would be forced to try and cram as much into a 2-3 hour story as possible.  All the little details and small quests that make D&D fun would be left out.

Sci-fi channel should be looking at something like that (and no comedy in the show!!!!!).

Tomb of Horrors could be an incredible movie, if, and only if, the first set of adventurers all die horribly.  I envision the low rumble of many six-sided dice pencil scratching immediately afterward, and a "two weeks later" fade-in...

Tomb of Horrors would work quite well.  It has name recognition (anyone whose ever played D&D has pretty much heard about it), a nasty villain (Acerack)  and lots of room for messing around with (you could include some of the original dungeon but include whatever the writer/director wanted as foes/traps).  The DemiLich could have physical form to give it a nice bad ass final battle (I like the Paladin looking for redemption storyline, would work well here).
    I like the idea of sending the first guys in and having them get wiped out in the first hallway or so.  You could pitch it "Indiana Jones with Magic" or whatever to get the point across.  The DemiLich's tomb has an artifact needed for something, this gives you an out for a sequel, plus sets up motivation for your typical mismatched misfits to adventure with the requisite love intereste, humor duo, hidden past, one guy is a traitor, that sort of crap.  I think that would work if done right.
    But why are we fooling ourselves.  If a guy is looking to make a D&D movie and wants to get financial backing, he'd be crazy not to buy the rights to Salvatore's Drizzt line of books and go from there.  The name recognition is gigantic, the books have been on the best seller lists for 15 years.  The storyline has a hero with the required unrequited love/love triangle, he's hated and feared but deep down really a nice guy, he's an outcast who comes from a troubled background, he's got two badass scimitars that he can whirl around, he's visually arresting, etc.  He's got a ready made group in his sidekicks Wulfgar, Cattie, Regis, Bruenor, a nemesis/villain (more than one actually, there are the drow and the assassin Artemis, plus isn't there a demon there somewhere).  There's something like 20 books now to mine for plotlines and ideas (tons of potential for sequels).   It's really very hard for me to believe that someone dosn't own the rights to this (I'm sure someone does, Salvatore himself may for all I know, I bet anything he's either written a treatment at some time or been approached for one).  If I had to bet money on what the origins would be for the next D&D fantasy type movie (If one is ever made), I'd have to place everything on this series as it would definitely fill the bill.  If a guy walks into a meeting with a producer trying to get financing for a D&D movie and says it's based on something called Gord the Rogue (which has been out of print for almost 20 years) or something called Tomb of Horrors (ditto), they are going to have a long uphill battle.  However, if they present the idea of "Drizzt the Drow" and include the fact he's been around for 15 years, has had a dozen or so books on the New York Times top ten list, has some cool storyboards of the dark elf and his companions drawn by a major fantasy artist, plus they can coordinate the movie release with a brand new trilogy written by Salvatore at the same time to increase exposure, plus the fact that the crossover appeal is great (its not just D&D fans interested, it's fantasy fans in general and younger ones at that), of course toss in a few references to Jackson's Middle Earth "See, it's like Lord of the Rings underground with black guys!" or whatever, you might pique some interest.  If done right, this concept would make tons of dough I think (the most important consideration in Hollywood), besides being a passable fantasy movie if they did it right.  Of course, it would also lead to way, way too many power gaming 3rd ed munchkins trying to roll up their own mini-Drizzt for play in campaigns ("And I want to give him a Kewl as hell +5 curvy sword like Drizzt, that's way wicked!")............

Mike B.

Mike, that's the best I've heard so far for a movie.  In fact, after reading your post I can hardly believe it hasn't been on the screen yet.  

Somebody must be paying attention somewhere . . . look how many piece of shit Marvel comics movies were (and are) made before they get it right with both Spider-Man films.  And now Marvel and Hollywood are rolling in the profits!

This is an update for those who haven't heard already. And only slightly off topic.

Have you read the book Eragon?  High Fantasy written by the young Christopher Paolini. I think he was 12 when he wrote it.  Not that bad of a story but I felt, at times, that it was a 12 year old writting it.

Anyway.  I was going through one of the Television/Film trade magazines and I came across a spread advertising the film adeptation of the book.  Due out December 15th, 2006.  20th Century Fox. Directed by Steffen Fangmeier who is making his directorial debut.  He is known as a visual effects guy and supervised VE on many movies some great.  Including Saving Private Ryan.  

And guess who is in it?  Yes!  Jeremy Irons.   I guess he just couldn't wait for another fantasy movie to ruin.  Also featuring John Malkovich.   Hmmm. I don't recognize the other cast members but the pull out poster with the entire cast is very cool.

At first I thought it was a TV series but now i realize it is a movie.

Well I will let you all be the judges.

Here is the website for the movie.   20th Century Fox

Enjoy!   Or not.

Pete

I think making a movie about Drizzt would defeat the purpose. There have been plenty of fantasy movies done about solo heroes, even if he has sidekicks. Personally I always found the Drizzt series pretty much run-of-the-mill, smacking too much of 3E. A good Drow who sunbathes and wields +27 holy vorpal flaming swords of allslaying.........
A truly good D&D movie would be party-based.

I should rephrase what I said earlier.  I think that Drizz't would be the best idea for making a movie and the most likely to be done (with the possibility of still being done fairly well).  I am not a particular fan of Drizz't (I can't even remember how to spell his damn name), but I am trying to think like a movie producer would . . .

The party adventurer idea . . . best suited to a TV show.  

Drizz't and company is an idea that could feasibly come to the big screen someday (don't forget about Elminster too!)

The no name party of low level adventurers is never going to get a movie deal . . .

Well, Drizz't would be a logical choice to base a film around, that is if you were just trying to interest the younger generation of rpg players, or I should say most recent players.  I think a far more viable choice would be to do something with the Dragonlance franchise.  The first trilogy (Chronicles) would work very well, being similar in set up to Tolkien, and vast oppourtunities for special effects.  Added to which, the books have been around longer, and more people, I believe, from the non gaming community have had more exposure to DL than any other form of rpg products.  And it does follow the classic group adventure, although it does fragment somewhat, much like LOTR, which as we all know , was highly successful.

Deadlord36 wrote:Dragonlance would be an excellent candidate for a trilogy.

Hell this could be a series..and when one Age has been done to death, another can be started up (sort of like how Star Trek had its various incarnations...plus with movies coming out should the series take off)

ShaneG.