• Re: The new Dungeons & Dragons series is canceled by Paramount+

    From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to spallshurgenson@gmail.com on Wed Jun 12 10:20:32 2024
    XPost: rec.games.frp.dnd

    spallshurgenson@gmail.com wrote:

    Well, no surprise here after the lackluster response to the D&D movie.

    Really? I thought it did respectfully well, at least better than previous attempts and enough to discuss another movie.

    I've said it before, and I'm saying it again:

    Dungeons & Dragons is not an exciting license on which to base a
    television or movie franchise. The GAME is exciting. The various IPs >-Ravenloft, Baldurs Gate, Drizzt DuOrden, Spelljammer- are all great.
    But D&D is a lousy license that alone can't carry a movie. A D&D movie
    (or TV show) without those associated worlds is... well, it's just
    dull fantasy adventure with some license-specific monsters. Nobody is
    going to go to see the D&D movie /because/ the wizard uses "Bigby's
    Grasping Hand" or so they can see a rust monster. They'd go to see a
    D&D movie because they want to see Raistlin or Elminster or Drizzt.

    But -for whatever reason- we never get movies that use those
    intellectual properties. Whether its because Hollywood doesn't want to
    be bound to somebody elses world-building, or because Hasbro isn't
    licensing anything but the D&D branding, I don't know.

    And, honestly, I'm not even sure that /with/ the characters and
    settings associated with D&D you'd get a good movie. What makes for a
    good game setting doesn't necessarily translate into a good cinematic >experience. The D&D world is weird; a melange of ideas that is
    designed for DMs to pick-and-choose to make their own exciting
    adventures. Its character classes are unrealistic, designed for game
    balance (and, at least in the older editions, for team-building) over >realism. It has little structure and coherence. It's fun for a game.
    It's not really great for narrative.

    I don't think it's surprising that D&D and Hollywood have never really
    come out with a hit product based on the brand. It is surprising that
    it took Hollywood to realize it.

    How would do it, if you had to?

    --
    Let's go Brandon!

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