Genre: Fantasy/Action/Adventure.
Studio:
Unknown.
Production Company:
Sweet Pea Entertainment.
Project Phase: Development Hell.
Who's In It:
Justin Whalin.
Who's Making It:
Courtney Solomon (Director, Producer); Topper Lillian, Carole Cartwright, Mark Leahy (Screenwriters); Kia Jam (Producer);
Joel Silver (Executive Producer); Digital Domain (Special Visual Effects).
Premise: Based on the role-playing game of the same name, expect a diversity of characters banding together to fight evil forces, including dragons. There ought to be a good deal of violent action and a touch of that old black magic. Picture Romania, or some comparable medeval setting. Wanna play?
Release Date: Fall 1999.
Comments: With TSR Inc. being bought up by Wizards of the Coast, there may well be a (long) delay with this project getting off the ground.
Rumors: None.
Scoop Feedback:
[Draft role-played by 'Ace'.]
April 29, 1997... Premiere magazine mentioned a storyline a couple years back dealing with a rogue character and a magical item that can control dragons. Stan Winston was listed as second unit director as well as having created about 14 or so monster costumes concerning creatures 'native' to the D&D game world. As all other sci-fi films claim, the final scene in the film would contain unprecedented special effects concerning a 'dog fight' of many dragons. [Scoop from 'Atomic Boy'.]
June 28, 1997... The script has been finalized and it is now in pre-production. Shooting looks to begin in the next couple months. Originally planned as a TV show with Silver Pictures, project was put on hold due to TSR buyout buy Wizards of the Coast. Budget for film is still undetermined, and no casting has been done yet. [anon.]
August 10, 1997... Courtney Solomon and Kia Jam will be producing, with Courtney possibly directing, and screenwriter Mark Leahy has done a rewrite. One possible location being considered for filming is Romania. Storyboards have been comissioned and are underway. Discussions with Digital Domain are happening right now. Most studios are currently reviewing the project, so distribution is not sure, but it's hoped principle photography will start by the end of November '97.
April 29, 1997... Looks like Joel Silver will be on board as an executive producer. [Offered by... anonymous.]
November 10, 1997...
Speculation ahead. First of all, although a Dungeons and Dragons
movie is mentioned
November 22, 1997...
"Many people were certain that the TSR buyout (they were
purchased by Wizards of the Coast, makers of Magic: The Gathering) would
kill the chances for any movies from TSR properties. I did some digging and
found out that TSR still retained all auxiliary rights to its material,
including film and book rights. TSR also bought back its independence not
too long ago. HOWEVER... this has also meant that any and all movie
projects are back in limbo, at least for now." [Keep on digging Gline.]
We asked around and learned that 'Gline' was partially in error. Our sources told us TSR hasn't had ANY of the film rights since
around 1994 or '95, thereabouts. As for TSR, all the contracts TSR had with others were held up when WotC bought them.
December 26, 1997...
We confirmed that Universal has indeed signed to handle all foreign distribution earlier this year, while domestic is still
being shopped. Bids are still being taken for the CGI work. Some test footage shooting has taken place in LA, but the bulk of
shooting will be done overseas in Feburary. (again, nope.)
February 9, 1998...
Sweet Pea Entertainment has finally announced that they have
started work on the Dungeons & Dragons movie, due late next
year. The deal for the Dragonlance movie fell through.
[Thanks to 'jeremyh', 'spirit', 'rohobbs', and 'marym'.]
June 21, 1998... Some info about the old stages of the project as well as some info on the latest
stage was sent to us.
A few years back we heard some pro names rumored to be in some form of consideration with the project. Stan Winston was
being considered as director for the film at one point, we know that. We've also heard of Francis Ford Coppola serving as
(possibly) an executive producer, and then later James Cameron was mentioned as somehow connected to the project.
Nevertheless, Paramount Pictures and Lightstorm Entertainment couldn't reach an agreement on the financing side of things,
and nothing more was heard about Winston, Coppola or Cameron. Had Paramount reached the agreement we may have never seen
Titanic last Christmas.
We were also told that the Dragons in the movie will be creatures sought out by the good guys to help win
a war. [Submitted by Russell Hutton.]
A different scooper sent us this synopsis of the film's storyline:
"The plotline (which is set in the 1980's for some reason) follows five teenage friends in a small town in Ohio who are transported to the world of Dungeons and
Dragons via a 'magical twenty-sided dice' which one of the boys buys from an old man at a D&D convention (the old man later appears as a wizard in the film.) Once in
this new 'Realm' they find that they've 'become' their D&D characters (complete with swords and spells) and begin a quest to get back home, during which they meet
several strange CGI creatures, descend into a Dungeon, accidentally waste several 'wishes' from a magical ring, and do battle with a computer generated Red Dragon.
Once they defeat the Dragon (big surprise) they decide to STAY and continue to have adventures, instead of going back to Ohio and slaving away in college. This leaves
it wide open for a ton of sequels and creates a (much hoped for) franchise." [Sent in by 'Bevardos'.]
The same scooper also gave us their take on the long production path this baby's been on:
"Sweet Pea Entertainment, producers of Walt Disney Pictures' comic-book based feature, GEN 13, has acquired all rights to the popular role-playing game
'Dungeons and Dragons'. The company is now developing the property into a feature film in collaboration with Grand Design Entertainment. This project hopes to take
advantage of the virtually untapped literary market of role-playing game fans, for which there is an established audience of over 12 million players worldwide.
"Even before the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon was in production (1983) there was tremendous interest from Hollywood in producing a movie based on Advanced
Dungeons & Dragons. Gary Gygax, the creator of D&D, was active in working with various agents and would-be producers and studios with an aim towards making a
movie deal actuality.
"A script from James Goldman (The Lion in Winter, White Nights) was acquired by TSR, Inc. (owners of Dungeons and Dragons). Several studios were
interested. Mr. Gygax did all he could to get a major theatrical motion picture into production. Sid Shineberg, then
president of Universal expressed his interest in acquiring the D&D film rights, but due to complications at TSR, no contract was ever signed." ['Bevardos'.]
June 25, 1998... Thanks to one of our former scoopers for helping us clear up some bad D&D information
and our own false assumptions. Contrary to what we believed, some principal photography did take place for a week at the
end of August '97. The footage was editing and also scored. [Scoop scribbed on one side of a d20 by Russell Hutton.]
Lots of you seem to be more in-the-know than ourselves concerning this production. Multiple scoopers wrote to us
that 'Bevardos' scoop (alleging that the storyline followed 5 teenagers from Ohio transported to the world of D&D)
is utterly incorrect. Come to think of it, 'Bevardos' plotline sounds more and more like the one used on the Saturday
morning cartoon series as well as a series of books entitled Guardians of the Flame by author Joel Rosenberg.
"'Guardians of the Flame' follows a group of college students who get sent to the D&D world," scooper 'Dredd' said in their follow-up to
'Bevardos' post. "Their college professor (who acts as their DM for their weekly gaming session) wants them to defeat a dragon and open
the gateway between that world (where he originally came from and was a wizard of great fame and power) and our world. At the end,
after defeating the dragon, they are faced with a choice between going back to normal boring lives and staying there where they
can be somebody (e.g. the crippled kid can be a strong dwarf, the engineer can actually build 'great' things instead of just trying to
compete for glory, etc.), they choose to stay in the gaming world."
[Thanks to Bryce, 'Dredd', Russell Hutton, 'Myrth', and anonymous for firing off their magic missiles at our domain.]
June 28, 1998... During an online chat, actor Justin Whalin (who portrayed Jimmy Olsen from ABC's Lois & Clark series) stated
that he has signed as one of the leads in the D&D movie. ['Renfield64' hands us the scoop on a rat-stick.]