[Comicbook.com] Dragonlance Live-Action Project Not Moving Forward

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kyonshi

2024-02-08 09:50:49 UTC

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/drangonlance-live-action-project-cancelled-joe-manganiello-dungeons-dragons/

Dragonlance Live-Action Project Not Moving Forward According to Joe
Manganiello

A planned live-action adaptation of the Dragonlance series has been
cancelled, according to actor Joe Manganiello.

By Christian Hoffer - February 7, 2024 06:52 pm EST

Joe Manganiello has some bad news for Dungeons & Dragons fans,
especially those who loved the epic fantasy series Dragonlance. Speaking
with ComicBook.com's Chris Killian in an exclusive interview, the True
Blood and Justice League actor confirmed that a proposed live-action
Dragonlance project he'd been working on for years was not moving
forward, despite the script receiving high praise from several Hollywood
producers. "Dragonlance is not a property [Wizards in the Coast] are
interested in developing further, currently," Manganiello said.
Manganiello said the planned project was not moving forward due to
several issues, including Hasbro's sale of the eOne studio and the poor
performance of a Dragonlance D&D adventure and board game in 2022, as
reasons why the project was not proceeding.

In the interview, Manganiello spoke about the work he spent attempting
to turn the Dragonlance novel series, which features a group of heroes
fighting against the dark goddess of dragons and her forces of evil.
Manganiello worked with a script writing partner and consulted with
novel writers Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis on the project. "Tracy and
Margaret were all about it," Manganiello said. "It was really me getting
in there and fleshing out the world they built, and a world they hinted
at in some places but didn't shine the magnifying glass on." Manganiello
also mentioned that he was inspired by HBO's treatment of True Blood,
which was based off The Southern Vampire Mysteries novel series.

"What I had planned for the first season was mind blowing," Manganiello
said, speaking about his plans for the series. "I just....I want to make
[the Dragonlance show] because I want to see it and I just want to feel
that excited and electric about something. The characters...like the
casting, I have a look book with over 1,000 pages, but it's not what you
expect. The design concepts I had for the world, for the armor, for the
swords....I had a fresh take on what the dragons were going to look
like, it was going to be nothing like anyone has ever seen. And these
beloved characters that have been read by...I think Tracy said there's
35 million copies in circulation."

Manganiello said that the script he prepared for a Dragonlance pilot was
well-received by those outside of Hasbro and eOne. "The biggest fantasy
literary agent in town, he said and these are his words and not mine,
that it was the best fantasy pilot he had read since the original Game
of Thrones," Manganiello said. "There was another executive that read it
and said it was one of the best fantasy scripts he's ever read. I
actually got an email just this morning from a producer who said it was
awesome and that he wanted to send it to the rest of his company and
hopes I develop another fantasy IP."

"I didn't write a script that was terrible," Manganiello said. "Calls
were made to say this is what you should be making, this is what you
should be doing, but currently it is to no avail."

Manganiello also mentioned that he even attempted to buy the rights to
Dragonlance. "I offered to buy Dragonlance," Manganiello said. "I was
talking to people with money just to get it and separate it so that I
could get the option and take it out on the town."

However, his efforts have currently reached a dead end, although he's
optimistic that things could change. "Maybe somewhere down the line,
someone comes back or the company switches hands and somebody sees the
value," Manganiello said.

Justisaur

2024-02-08 15:21:59 UTC

Permalink

Post by kyonshi
https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/drangonlance-live-action-project-cancelled-joe-manganiello-dungeons-dragons/
"Dragonlance is not a property [Wizards in the Coast] are
interested in developing further, currently," Manganiello said.
Manganiello said the planned project was not moving forward due to
several issues, including Hasbro's sale of the eOne studio and the poor
performance of a Dragonlance D&D adventure and board game in 2022, as
reasons why the project was not proceeding.

That's pretty sad. I'm no fan of DL or Joe, but considering the success
of the last D&D movie (Something I never thought I would be saying) it
seems rather short sighted, and of course out of touch, but Haxbro has
been showing how out of touch they are with many of their moves with
WotC recently. Their successes seem more like lucky blunders that their
IP was loaned to passionate popular intelligent entertaining people.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
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¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

Spalls Hurgenson

2024-02-08 23:37:21 UTC

Permalink

Post by Justisaur

I agree.

I'm not sure a "Dragonlance" movie would be a success, but it couldn't
help but be better than a generic "D&D" movie. Dungeons & Dragons
itself is boring; sure, it's a framework for some awesome and exciting
tabletop (or computer) games, but the default setting is nonsensical.
And while D&D has some interesting settings (Forgotten Realms, Dark
Sun, etc.) they too lack a strong narrative and interesting
characters. They are, by necessity, rather generic, designed so that a
DM can customize it to their own needs for their own stories.

"Dragonlance", on the other hand, was designed ground-up to be an epic
narrative, with memorable characters and an overarching plot and
message. This actually made for poorer role-playing but it's better
suited for things like books, comics, games... and movies.

That's not to say a D&D movie /has/ to be limited to Dragonlance, but
the producers would be better served looking towards existing D&D IPs
with their own stories rather than trying to create a generic "D&D
movie". Instead of "D&D: The Movie: Again", Hasbro (or Tencent, or
whomever) should instead create "Baldurs Gate: The Movie" or "The
Drizzt Duorden Movie". Because every time they try to create their own
"D&D" movie, it feels boringly generic, filled with recognizable D&D
IP (Beholders! Bigby's Hand! Waterdeep!) seemingly put in there
BECAUSE they are recognizable rather than because they fit the needs
of the narrative.

But, of course, that's not going to happen. Because these D&D movies
aren't being made to be good cinema, to tell a good story. They exist
to push the brand, and so are filled to the brim with maximum branding
potential. The story and characters are secondary.

kyonshi

2024-02-09 09:11:42 UTC

Permalink

Post by Spalls Hurgenson

Post by Justisaur

I might have to point out that there already was a Dragonlance movie in
2008. I don't think it was a success, so there's that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance:_Dragons_of_Autumn_Twilight

Of course Dragonlance is in that way maybe the DnD property that it's
owners see as the most adaptable one, because unlike the rest of the
campaign settings this one started rather infamously as a railroad, with
a successful novel series attached to it.
And after all WotC very early on tried to separate Dragonlance from DnD
with Dragonlance: Fifth Age, a SAGA-based system. Not that this seemed
very successful. It also seemed to disappear rather fast.

Spalls Hurgenson

2024-02-09 14:55:03 UTC

Permalink

Post by kyonshi

Post by Spalls Hurgenson

Post by Justisaur

I might have to point out that there already was a Dragonlance movie in
2008. I don't think it was a success, so there's that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance:_Dragons_of_Autumn_Twilight

I forgot about that one. It had an odd mix of CGI and traditional
animation. The movie itself wasn't that bad - although it was
obviously designed to appeal to a younger set - but the artwork (in
both formats) - was terrible. It also followed the original story a
bit too closely, which made it feel very episodic, like a bunch of TV
cartoon episodes strung together into a 'made for TV' movie. But I
think with a higher budget - and written so it was not aimed at
pre-teens - the movie would have been a lot more successful.

Post by kyonshi
Of course Dragonlance is in that way maybe the DnD property that it's
owners see as the most adaptable one, because unlike the rest of the
campaign settings this one started rather infamously as a railroad, with
a successful novel series attached to it.
And after all WotC very early on tried to separate Dragonlance from DnD
with Dragonlance: Fifth Age, a SAGA-based system. Not that this seemed
very successful. It also seemed to disappear rather fast.

<raises finger, in traditional pedant style and makes voice annoyingly
nasal> "Actually, I think you'll find..." ;-)

... that SAGA was started under TSR's leadership, and not Wizards
of the Coast (the earliest books have a copyright of 1996). They were
continued under the TSR imprint after WOTC acquired them. I think the
last books were released in '98 or '99 (anyway, before WOTC retired
the TSR trademark).

But, yeah, it faded away pretty quickly. Partly because TSR stuff was
crap, partly because expectations about the quality of Dragonlance
material was low (thanks to a flood of awful TSR merch), partly
because it demanded people learn an entirely new (and card-based!)
system designed by a company which had repeatedly shown no talent in
designing card-based games, and partly because the strength of the
original Dragonlance game was that it had a conclusive ending, and any
attempt to extend it was doomed to fail. Oh, and because "Fifth Age"
itself really wasn't very good, either as a system or as a setting. It
felt very much like what it was: a desperate attempt to reinvigorate a
beloved brand for business reasons rather than for story needs.

kyonshi

2024-02-10 14:44:25 UTC

Permalink

Post by Spalls Hurgenson

Post by kyonshi
And after all WotC very early on tried to separate Dragonlance from DnD
with Dragonlance: Fifth Age, a SAGA-based system. Not that this seemed
very successful. It also seemed to disappear rather fast.

<raises finger, in traditional pedant style and makes voice annoyingly
nasal> "Actually, I think you'll find..." ;-)
... that SAGA was started under TSR's leadership, and not Wizards
of the Coast (the earliest books have a copyright of 1996). They were
continued under the TSR imprint after WOTC acquired them. I think the
last books were released in '98 or '99 (anyway, before WOTC retired
the TSR trademark).
But, yeah, it faded away pretty quickly. Partly because TSR stuff was
crap, partly because expectations about the quality of Dragonlance
material was low (thanks to a flood of awful TSR merch), partly
because it demanded people learn an entirely new (and card-based!)
system designed by a company which had repeatedly shown no talent in
designing card-based games, and partly because the strength of the
original Dragonlance game was that it had a conclusive ending, and any
attempt to extend it was doomed to fail. Oh, and because "Fifth Age"
itself really wasn't very good, either as a system or as a setting. It
felt very much like what it was: a desperate attempt to reinvigorate a
beloved brand for business reasons rather than for story needs.

I frankly only saw reviews of it after WotC already had bought TSR.
Dragonlance already wasn't something I really was interested in, so it's
not like I took much note of it.

The only SAGA thing I read further into was the Star Wars books, and
that was mostly to get inspiration for a Star Wars retroclone that was
floating around for a while. (Star Wars Galactic Adventures)
Which just the same was basically the stuff they had for the Star Wars
D20 game converted to SAGA.