Buckle up. One of hallowed bastions of nerddom with one of the worst records at making a related movie that is in any way watchable has just been optioned for another adaptation. That’s right. Warner Bros. wants to make a Dungeons & Dragons movie.
From Deadline the heralds come with news: Warner Bros. seeks gallant scribes to forge it a great movie production, or at least a half decent script. But it seems the heralds have been out paced by events, as the WB already intends to use a previously acquired script called Chainmail after a Gary Gygax created game that preceded D&D.
The studio is actually quite far along in the development of the project, as it will use a script by Wrath Of The Titans and Red Riding Hood scribe and Frank Darabont protege David Leslie Johnson. That script, Chainmail, was acquired last year as a free-standing project, based on an obscure game that was also hatched by D&D designer Gary Gygax before he and Dave Arneson launched D&D. It is being retro-fitted to fit the much bigger game creation. The film will be produced by The Lego Movie producer Roy Lee and Courtney Solomon. The latter actually directed a 2000 Dungeons & Dragons feature, a film that starred Jeremy Irons and did not do well.
So… that seems like a really, ah… promising creative pedigree. Just don’t ask me to elaborate on what it promises. I’d intended to make a joke here about the “silent archer” archetype, but lets face it, the most authentically D&D thing about this movie will probably be that it will contain… a dragon. Lets just watch the Doubleclicks and promise to make time for another session of our ongoing campaign soon.
(via Deadline.)
