Netflix and Wizards of the Coast put FORGOTTEN REALMS live-action show into development

Netflix and Wizards of the Coast have joined forces to put a Dungeons & Dragons TV project into development, tentatively called The Forgotten Realms. The show will be set in the D&D game's most popular world, the recent setting for hit video game Baldur's Gate III and the well-received movie Honor Among Thieves.

Shawn Levy, the producer of Stranger Things and director of movies including Date Night, Night at the Museum and Deadpool & Wolverine, will executive produce the show via his existing deal with Netflix, and will likely direct several episodes. Drew Crevello will write and showrun. Crevello previously worked at Fox on the X-Men franchise and the first two Deadpool movies, and co-wrote and produced the mini-series WeCrashed.

There have been multiple attempts to get a Dungeons & Dragons multimedia franchise off the ground in recent years. Baldur's Gate III has been the biggest success, selling over 20 million copies since its August 2023 release and becoming one of the highest-rated video games of the last decade, if not more (PC Gamer US gave the game its highest rating in over twenty years). Honor Among Thieves landed with impressive critical scores and rave audience reviews, but moderate box office; the film failed to recoup its costs at the box office, but a long tail on physical media and streaming has helped in the longer term. At various times, Hasbro and Wizards have looked at developing projects in both the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance worlds. Paramount+ was the logical destination for the project after the studio's collaboration on Honor Among Thieves, but the service's increasingly shaky performance led Hasbro to reconsider and start putting out feelers with Netflix.

Discussions with Netflix have been underway for some time, and at one point it was rumoured they were considering an adaptation of the Baldur's Gate video game trilogy. However, that idea seems to have cooled. The current proposal seems to be for an original story following new characters, with the door left open for popular franchise characters from the roleplaying source material, video games and novels to make an appearance.

The Forgotten Realms world was created by Canadian writer Ed Greenwood in the late 1960s as a setting for his own stories (the city of Baldur's Gate first appeared in a tale written to amuse his father in 1967). In 1978 he started playing Dungeons & Dragons and adapted the world for his home campaign. He started contributing articles to Dragon Magazine and quickly started referencing the world, its heroes, villains and iconic locations. In 1986 TSR decided to adopt a new "standard" fantasy setting to replace Greyhawk and Dragonlance, and agreed to purchase the Forgotten Realms from Greenwood.

The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting appeared in print for the first time as a boxed set in 1987. New editions of the campaign setting core product appeared in 1993, 2001, 2008 and 2015, with two new campaign books planned for later this year. More than 250 other sourcebooks, adventures, board games, boxed sets and gaming materials have also been released. Forgotten Realms is notable as the only D&D campaign setting to remain continuously in print since its first launch, and to have new products for it launched almost every year since its first release.

A range of novels simultaneously launched, with R.A. Salvatore's The Crystal Shard (1988) rapidly attracting huge sales for his iconic hero, the renegade dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden. More than 35 million Drizzt books have since been sold, and the Forgotten Realms novel line has reportedly sold almost 100 million copies. Greenwood himself became a bestselling author with his novels about the iconic wizard Elminster the Sage, with other bestselling authors in the setting including Troy Denning, Doug Niles, Jeff Grubb & Kate Novak, Paul Kemp, James Lowder, Elaine Cunningham and Erin Evans.

The first Forgotten Realms video games were released in 1988 from Strategic Simulations Inc., and were followed by a large number of successful titles. The most notable early success was the Eye of the Beholder trilogy from Westwood Games. In 1998 the Canadian company BioWare teamed up with Black Isle and Interplay to release Baldur's Gate. The game was an immediate smash hit, and was followed by Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn in 2000 and Neverwinter Nights in 2002. Black Isle themselves developed Icewind Dale (2000) and Icewind Dale II (2002), also set in the Realms and using the same engine as Baldur's Gate. After Interplay's collapse, Obsidian Entertainment (made up of Black Isle veterans) released Neverwinter Nights II in 2006. The online roleplaying game Neverwinter was released in 2013, followed by Sword Coast Legends in 2015. Baldur's Gate III, developed by Larian Studios and released in August 2023, is easily the biggest and most successful video game in the setting to date.

This new project is only in development for the time being, with a pilot written. It remains to be seen if Netflix chooses to move forward with a series order.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Edgin Darvis, a former member of the Harpers, is serving time in the prison of Revel's End for a heist gone wrong. Together with his barbarian partner, Holga Kilgore of the Tribe of the Elk, he breaks out of prison to try to reunite with his daughter, Kira, who is in the safe keeping of their former partner Forge Fizwilliam. Holga and Edgin discover that Forge is the new Lord of Neverwinter, something he accomplished with the aid of the evil Red Wizards of Thay, and has nefarious plans for the city.

Edgin and Kira recruit a former sorcerer ally of theirs, Simon, and set about assembling a team to break into Neverwinter during the Highsun Games, rescue Kira and find an artifact capable of resurrecting Edgin's slain wife. Each plan runs into new problems, but the gang have to find a way to win through to save Neverwinter.

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, the first tabletop roleplaying game which allowed players to undertake stirring and dramatic adventures with nothing more than a couple of rulebooks and some dice. There have been various attempts to adapt D&D to the screen, resulting in some fifty video games, a 1980s animated series and four previous feature films, although only one of them made it to the cinema screen. It was not very good.

Honor Among Thieves is the latest attempt to make such a film and both immediately and comfortably becomes the best-in-class. It helps that the film uses the established world of the Forgotten Realms as its setting, with various cameo appearances by various creatures, spells and locations. It also helps that director-writers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night) have gotten the assignment, making a film that's fully accessible to everyone who's never held a 20-sided dice or knows what a beholder is.

Instead, the film emerges as the finest slice of film fantasy since at least Stardust, if not the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The tone is somewhat light, with plenty of gags and moments of humour, but it does darken considerably whenever the evil Red Wizards of Thay appear. This tonal variation is handled well, making the film both entertaining but with moments of real stakes and dramatic tension. The film is aiming for the same kind of tone as Stardust and in the ballpark of The Princess Bride, and more or less nails that target. Those hoping for a gritty and darker film will be disappointed, but it feels like the creators have found a tone close to that of the D&D tabletop game.

The film dodges some of the balls of other recent, disappointing blockbusters. An extended post-production schedule has allowed for a good mix of live-action, prosthetics, physical locations and real stunts with CG enhancements, and only a few 100% CG scenes, and what there are are mostly very good. After some recent movies from the Marvel stable with very embarrassing CG, it's a relief to be able to say that the effects in this film do their job.

The actors are all on board with the tone, with the MVP being Hugh Grant. Grant adopts his typical British fop/cad accent and mannerisms to the material, but there are several moments in the film where Grant's character drops his facade and a much more ruthless character appears. It's fleeting, but hints at much greater character depth. The rest of the case do their jobs well: Chris Pine brings roguish charisma as the protagonist, Michelle Rodriguez delivers taciturn violence well, Sophia Lillis is the best owlbear you'll ever see on screen, Justice Smith manages to stay just on the right side of irritating and Regé-Jean Page is easily the best depiction of a paladin seen to date. None of them are fascinatingly deep characters, but they are a likeable bunch and it's easy to root for their success. The film even nails some of the brilliantly over-elaborate plans that D&D gaming groups can come up with if left loose with the rulebooks and a flexible Dungeon Master.

The film falters on occasion. It is slightly overlong and maybe a little too flabby, with maybe one extra setpiece than is strictly necessary. But each setpiece is quite good fun, and it's hard to suggest one to fully cut. It's possible the ancillary worldbuilding is not fully explored, such as why the Red Wizards think their plan would be tolerated by the other powers of the Sword Coast, but halting the movie for a ten-minute lecture on Faerûnian geopolitics would have likely not improved it much. It's really not that kind of film.

Honor Among Thieves (****½) gets the assignment and executes it well. This is a well-played, engaging slice of fun with some great D&D references and cameos for hardcore fans, but which is accessible to everyone. A great cast, excellent effects, a terrific score (from Lorne Balfe) and a fun, relaxed tone makes for an engaging, fun but not disposable movie. Assuming it makes a nice bit of change, I think we can expect this to be only the beginning of the D&D multiverse on screen. The film is on general release worldwide.

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Wizards of the Cost scraps plans to revamp the OGL and moves D&D to a Creative Commons licence

It's been a bruising few weeks for Wizards of the Coast and parent company Hasbro, whose plans to monetise the never-more-popular Dungeons & Dragons brand by removing the Open Game Licence 1.0 ran into fierce opposition from fans and fellow businesses alike.

Wizards initially offered a partial compromise, allowing existing OGL products to remain on sale and removing plans for licence charges for successful products using the D&D rules, but confirming they were pressing ahead with eliminating the OGL 1.0 for new products moving forwards. Creators would instead have to sign up to the OGL 2.0, which was still significantly more restrictive than the old 1.0 model that company had employed since 2000, and changes to the rules pertaining to the virtual tabletop (VTT) market would remain in place, effectively forcing online players to use Wizards' own D&D Beyond service with a subscription fee.

However, the creators of the OGL 1.0 voiced doubts that the original OGL could be legally revoked (they'd deliberately included language suggesting not), several companies mulled over legal challenges and multiple other RPG companies announced the creation of a rival open licence, which soon saw a large chunk of the tabletop RPG industry come on board.

Today Wizards of the Coast announced a comprehensive climbdown. They will no longer try to revoke the OGL 1.0, they will no longer try to impose their changes on the burgeoning virtual tabletop (VTT) market (with the 1.0 remaining in place, that's no longer possible) and they are in fact scrapping the entire OGL 2.0 initiative in favour of moving to a Creative Commons licence instead. They are releasing the rules for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition via a Systems Reference Document for use with either licence. Effectively, this is a return to the status quo, with a more comprehensive 5th Edition SRD as a result.

Wizards likely decided on the climbdown after seeing over 40,000 subscribers abandon their D&D Beyond platform in the space of three weeks, as well as a burgeoning campaign to boycott the forthcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves, which launches on 31 March. The film is the opening salvo of a broad-spectrum D&D assault on the multimedia space, with Hasbro keen to bring the franchise to film and television, as well as reinforcing its presence in video games (the highly-anticipated Baldur's Gate III launches later this year).

Whilst likely to be welcomed by those whose livelihoods were threatened, the climbdown is unlikely to erase the memory of Wizards' behaviour. Other companies have benefitted, most notably Paizo who make the rival Pathfinder fantasy RPG which was previously the dominant tabletop RPG from 2009 to 2015 before D&D supplanted them. Paizo reports selling out of all of its physical stock of its core rulebook in the last fortnight and is rushing reprints to meet renewed demand. Some other RPG creators are also reporting increased sales. Work on the rival open gaming licence is likely to continue.

New DUNGEONS & DRAGONS rules to use a Creative Commons to replace the Open Game Licence

In a remarkable turnabout, Wizards of the Coast have confirmed that the next edition of Dungeons & Dragons will move to a Creative Commons licence. This follows two weeks of turmoil following the leak of a more restrictive Open Game Licence 1.1 which threatened to revoke the previous OGL 1.0 (in operation since 2000) and had dramatic implications for the third-party D&D field, and could have put numerous companies out of business and forced others (even industry giants like Paizo) into costly legal action.

After initial non-apologies, Wizards of the Coast seemed to have been moved to swift face-saving action after a costly online campaign to boycott D&D products saw remarkable success, with reportedly over 40,000 subscriptions on online portal D&D Beyond cancelled, a number that continues to grow.

The new OGL 1.2 will be published under a Creative Commons licence, effectively moving the later ability to change or alter the OGL out of Wizards' hands. The new OGL will (apparently) be truly "irrevocable." Existing content published under 1.0a will not be impacted and can continue to be published. In addition, the new OGL 1.2 will remove the previously controversial clauses on royalty payments and financial reporting, and also will apply to the tabletop experience (real and virtual), suggesting that streamers and video games will no longer be impacted. 

However - and this remains a primary bone of contention - Wizards plan to continue "deauthorising" the OGL 1.0. No new content can be published under 1.0 once 1.2 is introduced. This will likely not mollify many of the critics, who will likely continue to push for attempts to deauthorise 1.0 to be abandoned. Wizards maintain that the 1.0 licence could theoretically allow third-party publishers to release "hateful content" that could damage the D&D brand and name.

In addition, Wizards note in their small print that they alone will be the sole arbiters of what is "hateful content" and by agreeing to use the OGL 1.2, licencees will lose the ability to contest that via any future legal action.

Although this is movement on Wizards' part, it does not seem to address some of the core concerns about the prior licence proposal, and the controversy will likely roll on.

Tabletop RPG industry in uproar over leaked changes to the Open Game Licence

The tabletop RPG industry has endured a tumultuous week after io9 secured a copy of the proposed 1.1 revision of the Open Game Licence. Version 1.0 of the OGL, popularised by Dungeons & Dragons, has allowed third parties to create and monetise content for the game for almost a quarter of a century. The proposed changes could drive many content creators out of business.

The OGL was introduced when the 3rd Edition of D&D was released by Wizards of the Coast in 2000. Dungeons & Dragons had been created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson via the company TSR in 1974 (although both were gone from the company barely a dozen years later), but significant financial mismanagement and poor investments had driven the company deep into debt by 1997, with the company threatened with bankruptcy. D&D had also dropped in popularity massively, with games like the World of Darkness family (most famously, Vampire: The Masquerade) supplanting its market share. Wizards of the Coast, a relatively young company which had skyrocketed to success with its card game, Magic: The Gathering, bought TSR and D&D in 1998 and set about revising the game for a new generation.

The 3rd Edition of D&D was hugely popular and successful, and was credited with revitalising the entire TTRPG (tabletop roleplaying game) industry in the early 2000s. Many d20-branded games, using the OGL and rules compatible with D&D, were released to great success and entire companies were created to cash in on the phenomenon. Significant d20 games include the Babylon 5 and Judge Dredd licensed games and Wizards of the Coasts' own Star Wars line of RPGs. 

In 2008 the 4th Edition (4E) of D&D was released under a more restrictive licence, but a similar public outcry saw the OGL maintained. With the 4E rules proving very controversial, this allowed Paizo Publishing to release their own fantasy roleplaying game called Pathfinder, effectively using a fork of the 3E rules set. Vast numbers of Dungeons & Dragons players defected to playing Pathfinder instead. D&D lost significant market share, dropping behind first Pathfinder and then the Star Wars RPG to third place in the rankings.

In 2014, Wizards of the Coast released the 5th Edition of D&D, using a revamped and more popular rules set and returning to the OGL. The company was bolstered by the launch of Critical Role in 2015, a popular web series featuring a group of popular voice actors playing a D&D campaign on screen. In 2016, D&D featured heavily in the first season of the Netflix smash hit success Stranger Things. These factors drove D&D back to its traditional level of popularity and market dominance. Paizo released a 2nd Edition of Pathfinder in 2019 which has done well (and deviated further away from the D&D rules system), but not threatened to unseat D&D's position.

Wizards of the Coast has recently confirmed that the next iteration of D&D is in development. Code-named "One D&D," the new version of the game aims for backwards compatibility with 5E as well as having a less restrictive and more freeform rules system. However, the biggest change sounds like it will be to the Open Game Licence. Wizards and Hasbro will now take a cut of any RPG using the system that makes more than a certain amount of money per year, as well as automatically owning original ideas and creatures from products. More ominously, they are threatening to "deauthorise" anything published under the OGL 1.0 licence, theoretically impacting hundreds of products that are still on sale from dozens of companies.

These are not limited to just tabletop RPGs, but also products including video games such as Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: War of the Righteous by Owlcat Games and Solasta: Crown of the Magister from Tactical Adventures (although Tactical Adventures have indicated they have already been in conversation with Wizards of the Coast over the matter).

The blowback from the industry has been significant in the last few days, and it remains to be seen if Wizards will push forwards with their plans. Notably, they have already received legal pushback from lawyers pointing out that the OGL 1.0 was released as a non-revocable agreement, and Wizards' subsequent quarter-century of honouring that position makes it hard for them to backtrack on it now. However, the legal departments and resources of Wizards of the Coast and their owners Hasbro are formidable, to say the least.

This situation continues to unfold.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TV series greenlit for Paramount+

Dungeons & Dragons is getting its first live-action television series. Streamer Paramount+ has greenlit an eight-episode show from Rawson Marshall Thurber. Thurber will produce the show and write and direct the opening episode.

Thurber is best-known for his work in comedy, directing and writing Dodgeball (2004), Central Intelligence (2016) and Red Notice (2021). Red Notice was Netflix's biggest original movie and Thurber is currently developing two sequels to that film. He is also attached to a live-action Voltron feature film for Amazon.

This TV project is not related to Honour Among Thieves, the feature film starring Chris Pine which is set for release on 31 March this year. Nor is it related to a separate TV project being helmed by John Wick writer Derek Kolstadt, potentially involving signature Forgotten Realms character Drizzt Do'Urden.

The details of Thurber's project remain under wraps. It is not known which of the numerous D&D settings will be used for the series, or if it will use an original world or location.

Two classic DUNGEONS & DRAGONS settings to return this year

Wizards of the Coast have confirmed they are resurrecting two classic Dungeons and Dragons settings from the 1980s and revamping them for the current 5th Edition of the tabletop roleplaying game.

The older and better-known of the two is Dragonlance. Originally appearing in print in 1984, Dragonlance melds the traditional fantasy adventuring of D&D with a Lord of the Rings-style epic over-plot. Set on the continent of Ansalon on the world of Krynn, the original Dragonlance campaign pitted the players against Takhisis, the multi-headed draconic goddess of evil, as she tried to conquer the world with her army of dragon-riding warriors. The campaign was adapted into the mega-bestselling Dragonlance Chronicles novel trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, which has now (along with several sequel series) sold over 30 million copies.

Despite the immense success of the original Dragonlance campaign and the ongoing success of the novel line, later editions of the campaign setting sold poorly. In 2003 it was outsourced to Margaret Weis's own company, Sovereign Press, where it enjoyed considerable renewed success as a setting for Dungeon & Dragons' 3rd Edition. In 2009 Wizards of the Coast revoked the licence, with the last tabletop material and the last novel for the setting appearing in that year. Despite various discussions, the setting languished unloved until last year, when it was confirmed that Weis and Hickman would be returning with a new Dragonlance novel, Dragons of Deceit, for publication later this year.

The new D&D material will comprise two products. The first, Shadow of the Dark Queen, is an adventure and setting book. The second, Warriors of Krynn, is a board game which will interface with the tabletop RPG experience and allow the player characters to recruit armies and fight in large battles, similar to the old Battlesystem expansion for D&D 2nd Edition. Warriors of Krynn is designed by Stephen Baker (the creator of the old Battle Masters miniatures wargame) and Rob Daviau, best-known for his work on the "Legacy" school of board games (like Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy). Both games will be set during the original War of the Lance time period.

More obscure, but potentially more interesting, is Spelljammer. Created by Jeff Grubb and originally appearing in 1989, Spelljammer introduced space travel to the D&D game. However, rather than mechanical spacecraft moving via physics, Spelljammer features elaborate craft resembling ocean-going galleons, huge pieces of coral or animals. Rather than flying through space as we know it, they traverse "wildspace," the space between planets, and the "phlogiston," the sea-like space between star systems. Spelljammer features a strong "Age of Sail" flavour, although the rules also allow for concepts like worlds with different atmospheres and different levels of gravity. A number of expansions, adventures and a series of novels were released for the setting.

Despite praise for the offbeat setting, it was discontinued at the end of 1992. Fan efforts were made to keep the setting going, and material in both the 3rd and 4th Editions of D&D referenced Spelljamming. The 5th Edition adventure Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage and the Early Access video game Baldur's Gate III both feature Spelljammers prominently, leading to speculation about the setting's return.

The setting is returning in force as well, with three books to be released simultaneously in August 2022 (available separately or in a boxed set). The Astral Adventurer's Guide is the new setting core rulebook, featuring rules on creating new characters and adventuring in the setting. Boo's Astral Menagerie is a guide to monsters and new races, featuring vampirates, sentient comets and space dragons, among many others. Wrapping things up is Light of Xaryxis, a 12-part epic adventure. The boxed set also contains a DM's screen and a fold-out map of the Rock of Bral, an asteroid located in orbit above Toril (the Forgotten Realms planet), the traditional starting place for Spelljammer adventures (though, as with the original game, you will likely be able to place the Rock of Bral wherever you like).

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie wraps

Co-director John Francis Daley has confirmed that shooting has wrapped on the new Dungeons & Dragons feature film.

Shooting began on or around 29 April, with shooting based at the Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland (previously home to Game of Thrones). Location shooting has taken place in Northern Ireland, Iceland and at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland.

Daley co-directed the film with his long-term collaborator Jonathan Goldstein. Their previous projects include the comedy films Horrible Bosses and Game Night, and writing the MCU movie Spider-Man: Homecoming.

This is, technically, the fifth Dungeons & Dragons feature, following on from three increasingly low-budget movies in the 2000s (only one of which was theatrically released) and an animated Dragonlance movie. However, this project has a vastly greater budget.

The film is set in the Forgotten Realms world and the city of Neverwinter will feature. Beyond that, little is known of the plot. The cast includes Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith and Regé-Jean Page, who are believed to be members of an adventuring band who run afoul of a villainous plot orchestrated by Forge Fletcher, played by Hugh Grant.

The film is currently set for release by Paramount Pictures on 3 March 2023. A D&D TV series is also in development with John Wick writer Derek Kolstad developing a concept. Wizards of the Coast have teased this project may involve Forgotten Realms signature character Drizzt Do'Urden in some capacity.

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS movie starts production

After many, many years of delays, legal action and a lot of writer and director turnover, filming is finally underway on the new Dungeons and Dragons film.

Shooting appears to be underway at the main production base in the Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the production is using the studio facilities previously employed by Game of Thrones. Second unit location shooting has also already taken place in the south of Iceland.

Production is set to run through the summer, with next year devoted to post-production and effects. The film is directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley and starts Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page and Justice Smith. The film is currently set for release on 3 March 2023.

Hugh Grant to play the villain in the DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS movie

In a high-profile bit of casting, Paramount has tapped British actor Hugh Grant (The Undoing, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually) to play the main villain in the new Dungeons and Dragons movie.

Grant is the quintessential British gentleman actor for his roles in 1990s romcoms, but has recently enjoyed a career resurgence thanks to HBO's The Undoing and Amazon's A Very English Scandal.

The film starts shooting in the next few weeks in Northern Ireland and has already tapped Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith for roles, with Regé-Jean Page playing the protagonist. So far no character names or plot or setting details have been revealed.

Deadline have also confirmed that Sophia Lillis (IT, IT: Chapter Two, I Am Not Okay With This) has joined the cast in an unspecified role.

Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are writing and directing the film for a 2022 debut.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie gets its star

The new Dungeons & Dragons movie has found its lead actor, with Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton) being cast in the lead role.

British-Zimbabwean actor Page is currently a hot property following his star role as Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, on Bridgerton, which is now Netflix's biggest-ever TV show. His previous credits include Fresh Meat, Waterloo Road, Roots and For the People on television, and Survivor, Mortal Engines and Sylvie's Love in film. Page is slated to host Saturday Night Live in the USA this week, a sure sign of him being a hot ticket of the moment.

Page is joining an already-impressive cast, including Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Horrible Bosses, Game Night) are writing and directing the picture for Paramount.

Production is expected to start on the movie in the next few weeks at the Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland, formerly home to Game of Thrones.

Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith join the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie

The Dungeons & Dragons movie is finally gearing up for production. With Chris Pine rumoured to have signed on the dotted line, it's now been confirmed that he'll be joined by Michelle Rodriguez and Justice Smith.

Rodriguez is best-known for her recurring role in the Fast and the Furious franchise and appearances in TV shows like Lost, whilst Smith rose to attention for his starring role in Detective Pikachu.

The new Dungeons & Dragons film has been gestating for the better part of a decade, churning through scripts and directors whilst Hasbro fought a major legal battle to regain control of the film rights from Sweetpea Entertainment (who produced three terrible, low-budget films based on the franchise in the 2000s).

The movie is expected to go before cameras in the coming weeks, shooting in the Paint Hall/Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland (in the same studio where the entire run of Game of Thrones was shot). Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night) are directing from a script they wrote (they previously wrote the script for Spider-Man: Homecoming).

Relatively little is known about the movie. A previous iteration of the film was set in the city of Waterdeep in the Forgotten Realms world, but that script was thrown out so Goldstein, Daley and Michael Gilio could start fresh. It's unknown what world the film is now set in, or what iconic characters, storylines, monsters or spells will appear.

The film is currently scheduled for release on 27 May 2022, but this is likely to shift due to the delays to the start of filming.

JOHN WICK writer tapped to develop DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS TV series

Hasbro and their inhouse studio, eOne, have tapped John Wick writer Derek Kolstad to develop a Dungeons and Dragons TV series proposal for them.

Hasbro are eyeing transferring the popular Dungeons and Dragons fantasy multiverse to the screen in the form of a mixed media approach consisting of video games, films and TV shows. A number of video games are on the way, including Dark Alliance and Baldur's Gate III (both tapped for a late 2021 release), whilst Paramount and eOne are in negotiations with Chris Pine for him to star in a feature film slated to begin shooting later this year in the Titanic Studios in Belfast (where Game of Thrones was previously based).

Hasbro began developing a TV series a couple of months ago and are apparently looking for multiple pitches, with a view to putting several projects in development simultaneously.

Kolstad is best known for his work on all three John Wick movies. He has also written several episodes of the imminent MCU TV show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and is working on the script for the long-gestating Just Cause movie.

The multimedia approach for Dungeons and Dragons is a lot more appropriate than for most properties. D&D, despite its reputation for standard fantasy tropes, actually spans a multitude of very different worlds, including the more traditional Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance settings, the post-apocalyptic Dark Sun world, the dark horror of Ravenloft, the surreal multidimensional Planescape universe and the steampunk setting of Eberron.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie to start shooting in old GAME OF THRONES studios in the new year

The long, long-gestating new Dungeons & Dragons film is to start shooting in the Titanic Studios (aka Paint Hall Studios) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the new year.

Paramount have leased the facility as the primary production base for the film, which will presumably also avail itself of the local impressive scenery. Obviously it's not the first fantasy project to be filmed at the studios. In July-November 2009 it played host to the best-forgotten fantasy comedy Your Highness, and from October 2009 all the way to July 2018 the studio served as the primary production base for HBO's Game of Thrones. A pilot for a proposed spin-off show was also shot there in 2019, but HBO elected to drop that project in favour of another idea, House of the Dragon, which is instead using the Warner Brothers Studio at Leavesden, outside London.

Plans to make a new D&D movie have been underway at Hasbro for a decade, with multiple studios, writers and directors involved at different times, as well as a punishing legal battle. With all the obstacles removed, the film now looks set to genuinely start shooting early next year, presumably to debut in 2022 or 2023.

The film is written and will be directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night). Chris Pine is in talks to star.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman end legal case against Wizards of the Coast, promising "exciting news"

Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have ended their legal case against Wizards of the Coast. The two authors were suing the company for $10 million for breach of contract after attempting to terminate a book deal for a new Dragonlance trilogy when the authors had already completed almost half the work.

Legal filings confirm that Weis and Hickman themselves ended the case and on Twitter, Weis promises "exciting news in the weeks to come." From the tone of this, it sounds like an amicable settlement has reached and the project will likely see print after all.

Confirmation of that news when it is confirmed.

Chris Pine in talks to join DUNGEONS & DRAGONS movie

Chris Pine is in negotiations to star in Paramount's upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie.

The film, which has been through multiple writers, directors, legal battles and potential stars in the last seven years, now appears close to getting the full green light. Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who wrote and directed Game Night and wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming, are tapped to write and direct the film for Paramount, Hasbro and eOne.

David Leslie Johnson, Rob Letterman and Chris McKay were previously involved in development, whilst Ansel Elgort was tapped to star back in 2016. At that time the film was set in the Forgotten Realms world with the story revolving around the Yawning Portal Inn in the city of Waterdeep. Reportedly, Goldstein and Daley threw out those ideas and started from scratch with a new idea developed by writer Michael Gilio when the project moved from Warner Brothers to Paramount.

Pine is best-known for his role as Captain Kirk in three Star Trek movies (Star Trek, Into Darkness and Beyond), which he may yet reprise, and for starring in the two Wonder Woman films from Patty Jenkins.

Hasbro are also developing a Dungeons and Dragons TV series as an additional project.

Hasbro developing DUNGEONS & DRAGONS TV series

In addition to the long-gestating live-action film, Hasbro have announced they are developing a Dungeons & Dragons TV series.

Dungeons & Dragons is the longest-running and most popular roleplaying game in history, having sold more than 20 million rulebooks and well over 100 million novels and 10 million video games since 1974. It is estimated that more than 50 million people have played the game. The current fifth edition of the game, released by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast in 2014, is the most popular in the game's history. Hasbro has confirmed that 2019 was the biggest-selling year in the franchise's history (including its early days) and for 2020 the game is currently on track to break that record by over 20%. Hasbro attribute this to the popularity of the game in lockdown and that families are now playing the game together, as well as the more traditional friend groups. Online campaigns over Zoom, Facebook Video Messenger, Skype, Roll20 and other services have also grown significantly this year.

Hasbro are developing the film project with Paramount, with Jonathan Goldstein and John Daley (Game Night, Horrible Bosses, Spider-Man: Homecoming) set to write and direct and Jeremy Latcham (the Marvel Cinematic Universe) set to produce. However, Hasbro have been keen to expand the franchise into a shared universe similar to the MCU. Whilst everyone and their aunt has been trying to do the same thing with other properties, Dungeons & Dragons is uniquely placed to be commercially exploited in such a fashion, as the tabletop game, video games and the novels already span a large number of worlds, storylines and distinct casts of characters, with some scope for crossover but mostly consisting of stand-alone narratives. For example, the well-known Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Greyhawk and Ravenloft worlds are distinct, separate settings within the same universe (linked by the wider Spelljammer and Planescape settings, which depict space travel and interplanar travel respectively).

According to Hasbro, they have been in discussion with both streaming services and standard cable and TV networks over a D&D-branded TV series. It sounds like the project is in its earliest stages and will require a strong partner to commit before moving forwards. I can imagine Netflix, Amazon, HBO and maybe a few other companies being at least somewhat interested in the project, but we'll have to wait to see who bites.

Hasbro are having a tough time in other areas at the moment, facing a $10 million lawsuit from superstar authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman for allegedly breaching a contract by refusing to publish a new Dragonlance novel trilogy for reportedly spurious reasons. The outcome of that suit remains to be seen.

HERO QUEST crowdfunding campaign opens in the UK (and possibly Europe)

Hasbro's Hero Quest relaunch crowdfunding campaign has launched in the United Kingdom, thanks to a partnership with UK retailer Zavvi.

Hasbro unveiled their reboot of the game on 22 September with a crowdfunding campaign via their HasLab crowdfunding service. The game sailed past its target of $1 million within a few hours and is currently just short of $2 million. The success of the crowdfunding campaign means that the game will ship with two expansions, extra miniatures (including alternate-gender versions of all characters), more dice, one brand new character type and a whole new, second campaign from the original creator of the game.

Currently included in the "Heroic Tier" is:

• The original board game, complete with 76 miniatures: 8 Heroes*, 1 Sir Ragnar, 1 Gargoyle, 1 Dread** Sorcerer, 4 Dread Warriors, 4 Skeletons, 2 Orcs, 2 Goblins, 2 Mummies, 2 Zombies & 3 Abominations***.
• Furniture and scenery: 5 closed doors, 16 open doors, 1 tomb, 1 sorcerer's table, 1 rack, 1 weapons rack, 2 tables, 2 bookcases, 1 cupboard, 3 treasure chests, 1 fireplace, 1 throne, 1 alchemist's bench, 4 rats, 10 skulls.
• Quest and Rule book, board (at a larger size than the original), dice, character sheets, cheat sheets and tokens.

The "Mythic Tier" comprises all of the Heroic Tier and in addition (so far):

• The Return of the Witch Lord expansion, featuring 8 Skeletons, 4 Zombies, 4 Mummies, 1 Witch Lord and 1 Mentor figure; reinforced and iron doors and new Quest and Rule Books and tiles.
• The Kellar's Keep expansion, featuring 3 Abominations, 6 Goblins and 8 Orcs; reinforced and iron doors, new Quest and Rule Book and tiles.
• The new halfling Warlock hero class, available in male and female variants, by artist Shauna Nakasone.
• 6 extra combat dice.
• 2 extra Skeletons and 2 extra Goblins.
• New Prophecy of Telor quest book by original Hero Quest creator Stephen Baker.

The total Mythic Tier package now therefore consists of 118 miniatures, 4 Quest books and 3 Rule books in total.

There are further bonuses which are waiting to be unlocked (for no extra charge), which no doubt the influx of new European orders should help with. The known extra unlocks so far comprise:

• A new quest book, The Spirit Queen's Torment, by Teos Abadia.
• A new Druid hero class, available in male and female variants, by artist Nikki Dawes.
• A new quest book designed by actor and celebrity gamer Joe Manganiello.
• A revised optional rules system.

There are a few weaknesses, though. Zavvi are offering the Mythic Tier only, not the standard Heroic one. Although Zavvi's small print insists that the campaign is open for European backers as well, some EU-based fans had noted that they haven't been able to get the system to accept their overseas addresses. There is also some exchange rate shenanigans: the Mythic Tier in the US crowdfunder is $150, which translates to £116.10 as of this morning, but the UK cost via Zavvi is £150, which feels a bit cheeky. That is, however, still cheaper than backing the US campaign and importing the game to the UK manually.

Some may also balk at the price for what is effectively a reprint of a 31-year-old game, albeit with all-new models, especially as some of the things fans have most requested, such as modernised rules, are not yet unlocked. The Mythic Tier is considerably more expensive than a copy of Gloomhaven which, although it has far fewer miniatures, certainly has more gameplay depth and much greater longevity.

Still, nostalgia is a powerful thing and I suspect the campaign will continue to do well. It runs until 6 November with delivery anticipated for late 2021.

* The 8 heroes comprise the Barbarian, Elf, Dwarf and Wizard in both male and female variants.

** For copyright reasons, "Dread" is the term that replaces "Chaos" from the original game.

*** Also for copyright reasons, "Abominations" replace the Fimir from the original game.

Rebooted HERO QUEST smashes crowdfunding target

Hasbro launched a crowdfunding programme for a new version of classic 1989 board game Hero Quest yesterday. They asked for $1 million to get a new version of the game funded and out to market in 2021. At just under the 24 hour mark, they sailed past the target. With the campaign expected to run until 6 November, it looks possible that the campaign might pull in several multiples of the target.

Additional stretch goals will be unlocked as more funding comes in. At $1.2 million, the game will gain a new Warlock character class courtesy of designer Shauna Nakasone. At $1.4, $1.6 and $1.8 million the game will add new models (dice, skeletons, goblins respectively). At $2 million the game will add an entire second, new campaign called Prophecy of Telor, designed by original Hero Quest creator Stephen Baker.

Additional stretch goals will be unveiled after that, with designer Nikki Dawes working on a Druid character class and Teos Abadia developing a further campaign called The Spirit Queen's Torment, which intriguingly will allow orc heroes to join the party.

Controversially, the crowdfunding campaign has only been open to contributors from the USA and Canada. Hero Quest was originally a British game, developed by British designer Baker and co-designed with British company Games Workshop. The game launched first in Britain (ahead of its American release) and was an immense smash hit here, selling hundreds of thousands of copies in the UK by itself. The game was also immensely popular across Europe (particularly in Spain) and Australia as well.

With the game fully funded, it will be launched as retail project via Hasbro's wargaming and board gaming arm, Avalon Hill, in late 2021 and will presumably be available worldwide. The first two of the original game's expansion packs, Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch-King, are also being rebooted, with a possible eye to the other expansions following.

More information on the game will be revealed at the virtual PulseCon 2020 this weekend.

Hasbro unveils new HERO QUEST project

 Hasbro has unveiled their fresh take on classic 1989 board game Hero Quest.

As related previously, Hero Quest was launched in 1989 as a collaboration between Milton Bradley Games (a subsidiary of Hasbro) and Games Workshop. The game saw a band of heroes braving a dungeon, depicted on a single board which would be adjusted with scenery into numerous different configurations. The game was a revelation at the time for its detailed miniatures and intricate scenery (particularly the impressive furniture). The game was a bestseller in both the USA and across Europe, although sales dropped off in 1992 and the game was cancelled after several expansions and a revised "advance" edition.

The new game is true to the original but has some updates to the gameplay to make it more streamlined and user-friendly. It has also removed any Games Workshop IP-derived creatures and characters to avoid potential legal issues, with "Chaos Magic" becoming "Dread Magic," Chaos Warriors becoming more generic "Dread Warriors" and Fimirs becoming a new race of aquatic monsters, the "Abominations".

The game has several improvements, such as using full plastic models for the doors (rather than card), plastic engraved dice and plastic bookshelves and fireplaces. The game will also allow players to play as either male or female versions of the four main characters.

The game is being crowdfunded via Hasbro's inhouse Hasbro Pulse Lab system. Players can preorder the base game for $99.99 or the "Mythic Tier" at $149.99, which includes additional miniatures based on the guy who gives the party its missions, Mentor, and the evil Witch Lord Zargon (who replaces Morcar, who is now a Chaos Lord in Warhammer). It will also include two full expansions based on the originals: Return of the Witch Lord and Kellar's Keep.

If the game exceeds its funding goal of $1 million, it will unlock additional bonuses like a new character class, the Warlock, and an entire new campaign book from original Hero Queste designer, Stephen Baker.

At this time of writing, the game had exceeded $200,000 in funding in less than 45 minutes, so it's quite likely the game will hit and then smash its goal.

Unfortunately, Hasbro Pulse does not ship directly to Europe, Asia or Australia, and only to Canada with hefty shipping fees. Given the absolutely titanic popularity of Hero Quest in many of those territories - and this is a British game in the first place! - that is disappointing.

Some fans have also expressed dismay at the price and the lack of any updated gameplay, noting that contemporary dungeon crawlers like Descent, Imperial Assault and, especially, Gloomhaven and Frosthaven have much more gameplay and many more ideas than Hero Quest at a cheaper price point.

More details should be released at Hasbro's virtual games event this weekend. They are currently targeting a late 2021 release date.