Reply With QuoteHuh, I thought the TALL one was Elwood. I always get my Blues Brothers confused...Originally Posted by Dean
I finally saw this the other night thanks to the Netflix cue. I had avoided it because I figured it was a crassly commercial sell-out designed to rope D&D fans in the first weekend but really having nothing to do with D&D. I didn't go the first weekend, and after that the word of mouth was so bad that it has taken until now to show up on my TV.
What amazed me was that it wasn't put together by a committee of writers who had never heard of D&D, it was put together by a first time filmmaker who secured the rights himself, and was a life-long D&D player. Seemingly exactly the type of person all the fans wanted to make the D&D movie. The credited writers seem to be studio guns for hire, but in the commentary (yes, I was curious enough on this one to watch at least some of the commentary) the director keeps talking about writing the opening scene, or "when we first started this three years ago..."
This was one of those movies that would have been better with some of the deleted scenes from the DVD. It wasn't until seeing the deleted scenes that I found out that the dwarf's name was Elwood, and that he was uncomfortable with his baldness so would fly into a berserker rage whenever someone knocked off his helmet. It seems as though the studio had final cut (not really a surpise with a first time director on a fairly big budget special effects movie) and they didn't give a shit about story or any kind of continuity as long as it came in at 90 minutes so they could cycle more brain dead drones through the local megaplex.
The lead actor seems to have been in it from the beginning too. He's a no-name, and seems to be great friends with the director. They keep going on about the director's cut and the sequels they're going to make, and I just can't help wondering if anyone showed them the reviews, or if they heard the huge outpouring of "it sucks" that was all over the net when the movie came out. Who knows, it probably made money and there's a sequel in the works.
Also Marlon Wayans is doing some weird Amos and Andy shit that he should really be embarrassed about, and Jeremy Irons really seems embarrassed about what he's doing. There's one point in one of the documentaries where they show one of his scenes being filmed, and as soon as the director yells cut he shuts right down and walks off set (presumably to his trailer). There was a weird vibe whenever the director mentioned him, as though he wasn't going to say anything at all because he'd already had his head handed to him by Mr. Irons.
Why all this? Just venting.
Huh, I thought the TALL one was Elwood. I always get my Blues Brothers confused...
He's not exactly a no-name. He's Justin Whalin, and while he hasn't done a ton of "high-profile" stuff, he's been around.
A lot of it was crap, but he's got a pretty long filmography at IMDB.
No. There was never a D&D movie! Ever! I refuse to believe it. *shakes uncontrollably as sweat pours down his face*
Here's the article as it appeared on scifi.com
Strange that they mention Star Wars novels, but not the Dark Elf/Icewind Dale stories he's famous for in the Forgotten Realms books.12:00pm ET, 25-March-02
Forgotten Realms Due For TV
Fireworks Television has bought the TV rights to the Forgotten Realms series of fantasy novels, Variety reported. Genre author R.A. Salvatore (the Star Wars novelizations) will write the live-action TV pilot, which will also be titled Forgotten Realms, the trade paper reported.
Forgotten Realms will tell the story of a land filled with wizards and sorcerers. Wizards of the Coast, which owns the Dungeons & Dragons game property, will help Fireworks develop Forgotten Realms storylines, the trade paper reported.
*prays to Bhaal*
The story goes back even farther; it took Courtney Solomon nine+ years from a proposal at age 19 to Lorraine Williams at TSR to get the movie into production. Most of that time lag was caused by massive screwing around by TSR, then the WOTC buy-out and a threat from WOTC to cancel the movie contract, because they decided they wanted to go Hollywood and do movies, too. That the movie was eventually produced at all is a minor miracle, and a tribute to Courtney's passion and drive. Sure, the studio trimmed too much and he made some rookie director mistakes; one hopes the sequel will be better for it.
Note that the movie *did* make money and there will probably be a sequel. On a budget of about $30 million, they brought in $50 million in box office and and estimated $5 or 6 mill on DVD/VHS rentals and sales so far. On top of that, Courtney is a savvy business man who knows Hollywood and the pre-sale of International rights, plus what New Line paid for the film, means that the movie was in the black before it was released. That almost never happens.
I consulted with Courtney in 1996/1997, when his Sweetpea Entertainment owned the MegaTraveller license via the Imperium Games subsidiary, creating a design proposal, budget and development plan for a persistent world for the game. That eventually fell through, obviously (and therein is a story in itself. A sordid tale of several people at Imperium Games committing fraud and theft, basically stripping the company in the dead of night and absconding. Not pretty; it basically killed Imperium).
At the same time, I was involved as an advisor in Sweetpea's attempt to buy TSR. Yep, they were the other bidder up against WOTC and you'd never believe how close Sweetpea came to owning TSR. My NDA on this expires in about a year and I plan on writing an extensive article about it; the whole thing was a fascinating process.
-Jess
>No. There was never a D&D movie! Ever! I refuse to believe it
Completely agree. Never happened. The dreck that was made bore no resemblence to D&D at all (you might as well call Reign of Fire a D&D movie), and judged on its own merits without regard to the source material was...abysmal.
So, is there an opinion that a Director's Cut of this movie (with the deleted scenes added) might make it worthwhile? I've been avoiding watching it, but now I'm curious to see if there was some potential in the material.
OTOH, I'm still waiting for the sequel to "The Sword and the Sorceror." I think the Talon character could have some good stories in it. :oops:
Heh -- haven't seen the D&D movie or the Wing Commander movie, though I've been tempted to rent both. I can't even bring myself to watch the crappy sci-fi series that are free on TV, however. I know that sounds snobbish, but the experience of those TV shows is nothing like the joy I got from reading interesting sci-fi over the years. They're just action shows dressed up in funny costumes. (That said, I do watch Outer Limits often. It's pretty good.)
Jessica -- interesting behind the scenes look at the movie and Sweetpea. I'll look forward to your article when your NDA runs out.
>Heh -- haven't seen the D&D movie or the Wing Commander movie, though I've been tempted to rent both
They're both very, very bad, and yet the Wing Commander movie is still much better than the D&D movie. The D&D movie is "Postman" bad, or "Battlefield Earth" bad. I actually can't imagine how they could have done a worse job.
No, not if the deleted scenes on the DVD, which are much worse than the one's in the movie, are any indication. The alternate ending is just hideous.
I find it hard to believe one could do worse with the ending it already has, which makes you wonder what the hell Solomon was smoking, and maybe he ran out of whatever he was smoking throughout the editing and filming of this movie. The fact that a sequel is even being considered makes me want to ram plastic sporks underneath my eyelids.
Sweetpea vs. WOTC over TSR? I'm kind of intrigued that Sweetpea was even close to beating out WOTC, considering the size and relative power of WOTC (which seems to be crumbling a bit these days). Playnet owns the massively multiplayer rights to Traveller; whatever became of the said rights for MegaTraveller?
--- Alan
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