Thursday 21 July 2022

The DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie gets its first trailer

The first trailer has been released for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves.

The trailer sees bard Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) and barbarian warrior Holga Kilgor (Michelle Rodriguez) assembling a team to take on evil-doers. The rest of their party is rounded off by a paladin (Regé-Jean Page), half-elven sorcerer Simon (Justice Smith) and tiefling druid Dorig (Sophia Lillis), who specialises in transforming into an adorably murdery owlbear during combat. They have to face off against a number of foes, including the foppish Forge Fitzwilliam of Neverwinter (Hugh Grant), although they also have their work cut out facing down a displacer beast, a black dragon, a gelatinous cube and several evil sorcerers.

The movie is set in Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms world, specifically along the Sword Coast North with a focus on the city of Neverwinter (well-known from video games like Neverwinter Nights), and marks the first time the Realms - which have sold somewhere in the region of 100 million novels, over 10 million video games and several million RPG products - has ever been portrayed in live action. Reportedly we may see some cameos from major Forgotten Realms characters, so keep those eyes peeled for Elminster or Drizzt Do'Urden (who is also having his own live-action TV series developed back at Hasbro's production arm).

The film was written by Chris McKay and Michael Gilio, with Jonathan Goldstein and John Daley directing. The film hits cinemas on 3 March 2023, and looks like a cheesy fun time. It will have to go some to be worse than the four previous attempts to bring D&D to the screen, resulting in one dubious cinematic feature in 2000 (although worthwhile for Jeremy Irons' mind-boggling performance as the villain), two unwatchable straight-to-DVD attempts in the 2000s and a forgettable, animated Dragonlance film in 2007.

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