DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, once perceived as the domain of only the most hardcore nerds, is now more
popular than ever. The tabletop roleplaying game and its elaborate fantasy setting influenced
countless other games [GURPS, GLOOMHAVEN, PATHFINDER, WORLD OF WARCRAFT, SKYRIM] and
became an essential and immediately recognizable part of pop culture [STRANGER THINGS, COMMUNITY].
Well-known celebrities [Joe Manganiello, Vin Diesel, Jon Favreau, Stephen Colbert] have
openly expressed their fondness for D&D, campaigns like Critical Role rack up millions of views on
YouTube, and the property has expanded to countless novels, comics and videogames,
and even its own long-running dedicated magazine [Dragon Magazine, now digital as Dragon+].
But back in the year 2000, audiences weren’t quite as enchanted about a feature film
adaptation of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS… or at least not the one they got.
Roll for initiative and find out WTF Happened to this movie!
Created in the early 1970s by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons game
sent imaginative adventurers into a sprawling world of monsters and magic … and manuals. A
designated Dungeon Master controls the game and tells the story for players,
who determine the actions and responses of their characters, rolling dice to determine
success or failure. Miniatures are often used to help visualize the swords-and-sorcery scenarios.
After its release, the game attracted a devoted fanbase… along with a degree of controversy from
groups that believed it promoted witchcraft and Satanism. It even prompted a TV movie with a
young Tom Hanks [MAZES & MONSTERS] warning of the purported psychological perils of playing pretend.
Despite that, the game’s popularity only continued to grow, but the closest it came to crossing over
into the mainstream was an animated TV show that ran three seasons in the mid-1980s.
A young D&D fanatic named Corey Solomon wanted to change that.
In 1990, the 19-year-old Canadian contacted the game’s publisher TSR, pretending to be working on
a school project. He learned that the movie rights were available after the company had
failed to see eye-to-eye with Hollywood studios who expressed interest in making a feature.
Over the next year-and-a-half, Solomon persistently attempted to convince the
TSR leadership to option the movie rights to him, even putting together a 30-page
proposal and describing his vision of a STAR WARS-style trilogy of fantasy blockbusters.
Despite Solomon’s age and inexperience, the company was impressed with his ambition and
enthusiasm, and ultimately relented. But that victory would only be the first step into a
realm even more treacherous than ones ruled by Demogorgon or Asmodeus: the Hell of Development.
Solomon’s first formidable task was condensing the vast amount of D&D
lore into an audience palatable feature length script. He wanted to avoid the tone of 80s
fantasy movies [CONAN THE BARBARIAN, BEASTMASTER, KRULL, WILLOW], and also did not want to use the
game itself as a framing device. Concepts and classes from the game would be incorporated into
the script, but rather than setting the movie in an established D&D location, the story co-written
by Topper Lillien and Carroll Cartwright would take place in the land of Izmer, whose young
empress strives to maintain peace while opposing an evil warlock for control over powerful dragons.
With a script in hand, Solomon set about on a world tour trying to secure funding for
his fantasy project, which he discovered would likely cost $100 million. After toiling on his
quest for many months, he was introduced to Hong Kong entrepreneur Allan Zeman.
The successful businessman had been involved in real estate, fashion, music and restaurants
but had never dipped his golden toe in film production. But seeing Solomon’s determination,
as well as the profit potential of the brand, led Zeman to join Solomon in forming Sweetpea
Entertainment to present the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS package to various Hollywood entities.
However, another problem for Solomon was dealing with the leadership of
TSR -- specifically manager Lorraine Williams, who had taken over the company from Gary Gygax
and earned notoriety for her attitude of superiority and general disdain for gamers.
And in his youthful naiveté, Solomon had given TSR approval on the movie’s script and director.
During his years of networking, Solomon brought significant talent to the table – Francis Ford
Coppola, Renny Harlin, Stan Winston, and James Cameron were all attached to the big-budget
fantasy at various points. But TSR couldn’t come to an agreement with any of the heavy hitters,
with merchandising a major point of contention in a potential deal with Cameron and 20th
Century Fox. Solomon later said that Williams basically wanted to sell toys, even though he
stressed that was not of interest to the core D&D audience. But Williams had final approval,
or disapproval as the case may be. Solomon justifiably described the Cameron incident as
“one of the points where I wanted to give up.” But Solomon had rolled a high Constitution stat,
and so he persevered. The script was rewritten, financiers were coming on board,
and another filmmaker was getting involved. Eventually he hooked up with producer Joel Silver,
who instead wanted to turn the property into a TV series and began engaging networks.
But there was even more turbulence at TSR. Under Lorraine Williams’ questionable management,
the company had found itself in massive debt. In 1997, fantasy competitors Wizards of the Coast,
who had published the hugely successful card game Magic: The Gathering, acquired the failing TSR.
But despite earlier promises from TSR to expand Solomon’s contract,
television was not included in his original rights agreement.
Not only did new owners Wizards of the Coast refuse to entertain the idea,
they responded with litigation in an attempt to gain control of the property when Solomon
considered taking the limited available funding to just shoot a low-budget direct-to-video movie.
The lawsuit was settled, but one condition was that production on a feature would
need to begin within a few months or the filmmakers would lose the rights entirely.
Solomon needed to make a saving throw. That came in the form of Allan Zeman,
who ultimately decided to put up the money himself, saying “I was tired of Corey running
around studios going through red tape trying to get a deal done.” So with more than $30 million
to work with, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS became the biggest budgeted independent movie at the time.
There was a catch, of course: Corey Solomon would have to direct the movie himself.
Directing was something he had thought about early in the process before accepting that
a producer role was the best fit. But even with his inexperience behind the camera, the investors
believed his tenacity and understanding of the property made him the best option considering
the looming deadline. And after all the time and effort that had been involved, Solomon
wanted to see his passion project through to completion no matter what it took.
Another stipulation of the lawsuit settlement was that the production could only use the early
script that had been originally authorized by TSR, rather than the new and improved story.
That decision baffled Solomon, since Wizards of the Coast seemed to actively want the project
to fail even though they now owned the brand. It would also require significant script surgery
to conform to the substantially lower budget. While the basic structure of the story remained,
expensive setpieces and creatures were reconfigured or slashed completely.
As another way to maximize the funding, the movie would film in and around Prague to take advantage
of its baroque architecture, suitable locations and most importantly, reduced production cost.
The limited budget also meant the movie couldn’t exactly afford pricey A-list talent. The leading
role of charming thief Ridley would be filled by Justin Whalin, who at the time was probably best
known from CHILD’S PLAY 3 and appearing as Jimmy Olson on the Superman TV series LOIS & CLARK.
Whalin had actually been attached to the project ever since first auditioning in 1997
and establishing a friendship with Solomon, who believed the actor had star potential.
Whalin would be partnered with Marlon Wayans as fellow thief Snails, who Solomon described as “the
town fool”. PASSENGER 57 baddie Bruce Payne would play inexplicably blue-lipped henchman Damodar.
Thora Birch, before she would receive acclaim for the Oscar-winning AMERICAN BEAUTY,
was cast as idealistic empress Savina. The primary party of heroes
was filled out with character actor Lee Arenberg as dwarf fighter Elwood,
Zo[e] McLellan as young mage Marina, and Kristen Wilson as elf ranger Norda. ROCKY HORROR’s Riff
Raff Richard O’Brien and former Doctor Who Tom Baker would also pop up in minor roles.
The last actor cast was the most famous, and the most expensive.
Joel Silver thought the movie needed some prestige talent, and approached his DIE HARD
WITH A VENGEANCE villain Jeremy Irons to play the power-hungry scenery-chewing mage Profion.
The Oscar winner admitted he mainly took the job because of the paycheck and brief time commitment.
When filming started in May 1999, Solomon faced even more challenges both large and small.
The local Prague crew wasn’t particularly well-equipped to handle a complex fantasy movie,
and their inability to execute Solomon’s shots constantly frustrated the director.
Locations that had been previously approved were suddenly not allowed on the day of shooting.
Oscar-winning veteran special effects supervisor George Gibbs, who had worked on LABYRINTH and
INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM, often found the Czechs’ prop fabrication and set decoration
did not meet his standards and needed to be redone even with the limited resources. Changes in
shipping laws meant the effects team was unable to import the specific glue required for prosthetics,
prompting a scramble for any viable substitute for the task.
The actors were performing most of their own stunts, leading to injuries like broken bones.
Joel Silver had warned Solomon of just how difficult directing would be,
but he still nearly ran out of hit points, saying “I’ve been through every emotion and trauma and I
wouldn’t recommend this avenue to anyone.” “That is not how you want to direct your first film.”
With filming wrapped and post-production well underway, the independent movie still needed a
distributor. Warner Bros. allowed their option to expire, and so New Line Cinema acquired the
movie in August of 2000, scheduling it for release that December, exactly one
year before they would begin delivering the celebrated LORD OF THE RINGS saga in theaters.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS opened on December 8, 2000. And… well, it was no LORD OF THE RINGS. The
movie landed in fifth place on its first weekend, and disappeared from the top 10 before Christmas,
finishing with only $15 million domestic and $33 million worldwide.
Critics had minor appreciation for some of the effects and costumes,
but otherwise almost universally savaged the movie, calling it “stunningly bad fantasy
hokum,” “a muddy overreaching mess” and “all the magic and fun of a slow root canal.”
D&D fans had even more contempt, finding it virtually unrecognizable from the source material
they cherished. One chief complaint was the movie’s distinct lack of familiar beings from the
Monster Manual and Fiend Folio. Notable creatures like gelatinous cubes, mind flayers, kobolds,
liches, owlbears, githyanki, black pudding, mimics, and basilisks were nowhere to be found.
Instead fans got brief glimpses of dubious orcs [20:57] and a flash of the iconic beholder, along
with… whatever this purple pickle guy is [32:13]. And despite the title, the movie also didn’t
exactly feature an abundance of dungeon crawling, although it did at least have dozens of dragons,
in a climactic battle that absorbed most of the movie’s effects budget.
But, whether due to financial constraints or creative shortcomings, the thrills of
adventure and exploration too often took a backseat to incoherent exposition, political
machinations and a social inequality plotline. And in an apparent effort to make a family
friendly movie, instead of one comic relief character, most of the main party serves
that same purpose. Whalin’s roguish Han Solo proxy is quick with a quip,
and he’s paired with Wayans’ endlessly irritating wiseguy sidekick, who deserves unfavorable Jar
Jar Binks comparisons. The apprentice magic user Marina is inconsistently cartoonishly inept, while
Elwood often has exaggerated Three Stooges-like reactions [16:54] and even breaks the fourth wall
for no apparent reason [30:36]. And then there’s Irons’ preposterously over-the-top performance,
which is truly in a league of its own. In the years after its release,
Corey Solomon has acknowledged he is keenly aware of the finished movie’s inadequacies,
and considered the painful production a valuable learning experience for his future projects.
While he did produce a direct-to-video D&D sequel with only Bruce Payne’s bald villain returning,
it would be several years before he attempted directing again with the low-cost horror movie
AN AMERICAN HAUNTING in 2005. He’s otherwise since been active behind the scenes producing a
number of modestly budgeted dramas and thrillers. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is now at the height of its
popularity, and after more than two decades, and even further legal conflict over the film rights,
it seems Solomon is getting another chance with the beloved fantasy game.
Sweetpea Entertainment is involved in the latest attempt at a big-budget D&D feature
from GAME NIGHT directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, with actors like Chris Pine,
Michelle Rodriguez, Hugh Grant and BRIDGERTON’s Rege-Jean Page swinging swords and casting spells.
Maybe this time will be the treasure D&D fans are seeking.