Dungeons and Dragons

advertise on the 'Nest
ADVERTISER LOGIN

	EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE

How can I get an oscar playing a $%£%^& elf?

TSR - creators of the roleplaying genre through its Dungeons and Dragons game- have been through a really rocky patch in the 1990s.

First they totally missed the CCG card game craze which led to them being taken over by Wizards of The Coast, then Wizards of The Coast was itself taken over by some other giant when the CCG craze blew over to new kids on the block like Pokemon (wasn't it Hasbro, the makers of Monopoly etc - Ed)

However, TSR are still hobbling on with their plans to make a Dungeons and Dragons movie (a film that should hit the cinemas a good few years before Tolkien's new Lord of the Rings movie).

The movie is now shot v-a-v its live action sequences, and is in the can for the meaty FX add-ons being planned (or should that be on the digital hard drive). These should be done about August, in time for an October 2000 release.

The budget is less than a quarter of what most studios have been recently spending on SFX driven blockbusters, so we hope the crew can carry it off without too much visual poverty during the movie experience.

Fantasy movies has never quite taken off in the same commercial way as SF. Even Lucas's Willow was a financial pigmy compared to an Indiana Jones or ET.

Most of them have suffered from pigmy budgets too. Just compare Conan to Independence Day ... the former relied on Arnie to pull it through.

Anyway, our Courtney Solomon (an ex-RPG fan himself, now the producer) was the brave chappie who pitched the movie to TSR - notoriously 'artistic' about the use of its brand by its own writers and illustrators (let alone third party companies).

This is Solomon's first time in the director's hot seat, having served on over 20 films and TV movies in various functions.

His main challenge has been to keep the movie true to the D&D universe so the fans don't come away cheated, while at the same time making sure the hordes of non-RPG'ers don't walk away bemused by the plot.

Rather unsurprisingly, the plot features a group of adventurers on a quest together (including all the main character classes: thieves, wizards, dwarves, elves, and rangers). Even the spells in the film are all extracted from the magic section of the D&D rulebook.

Actors drafted for this major fantasy fest include Kristen 'Doctor Dolittle' Wilson, Justin 'Lois and Clark Jimmy Olsen' Whalen, Jeremy 'The Mission' Irons, Richard 'Rocky Horror Show' O'Brien, and Tom Baker - a big draw for the Doctor Who fans.

Tom 'luvvie' Baker plays the King of the Elfen race, an excellent role for someone who may just be as mad as a proverbial brush, and the level of chat in Doctor Who related newsgroups has been hotting up in anticipation of their fave Doctor's new cinematic outing.

Will the D&D movie live up to its hype? Or will it suck? If it's the former, it'll be breaking a most noble tradition set by movies such as Wing Commander and Mario Brothers.

Hmmm. Time will tell.

Browse the latest Dungeons and Dragons gear

FREE SF MAGAZINE
Sign up for the Crowsnest SF e-magazine - full of funny reports and gossip. Be the first to find out about hot sci-fi opportunities & news!