Dungeons & Dragons

News for November 1999:

24 November, 1999

Okay, if you don't want to know plot details, just skip right over today's update. I guarantee that you won't be happy with yourself if you don't. However, if you're the sort who can't wait to open their presents and peeks at them in advance, this is for you. This is a description of the beginning of the movie. It does a nice job of filling in the details and setting up the plot. It sounds pretty cool actually. I'm printing it in white in case you don't want to read it. If you do, just drag your mouse over it.

Another time, another place ….

We begin in a dungeon in Sumdall where the evil mage PROFION (Irons) creates a magical rod to control an evil Red Dragon. Unleashing the beast, he finds that his magic is not strong enough and is forced to kill the dragon by dropping a heavy gate on it. It is not all bad news for Profion, however, he receives news that his plan to poison the Emperor has succeeded and that the PRINCESS SAVINA (Birch) has been sworn in as Empress. Profion accuses Savina of trying to increase her power and blames her for the death of the Red Dragon. He petitions the Council of Mages to take the family Royal Rod of the Gold Dragon control from her. The only way that Savina can save Sumdall from Profion is by finding another rod known to control the all-mighty Red Dragons. Into the middle of this stumble RIDLEY (Whalin) and SNAILS (Wayans), two thieves who just happen to be robbing the Magic School when DAMODAR (Payne) arrives to steal the scroll, which will lead him to the Magic Rod. With the scroll in their possession, Ridley and Snails join forces with Savina, a student magician named MARINA (McLellan) and a tough dwarf named ELWOOD (Arenberg), to find the Magic Rod, destroy the evil Damodar and restore the world to its proper balance.

J&M Entertainment is the foreign distributor of the picture. They recently posted a several images from the movie on their website.

A big thanks to Don at the unofficial D&D Movie Website for coming up with this stuff.

22 November, 1999

USA Today ran a tiny little bit on the movie recently. There isn't any news you didn't already know if you've read this site but it does have a great shot of Jeremy Irons on the Bone Church set. The costume he's wearing creates a very regal image for the evil wizard. My thanks to Cirdan for sending in to us.

19 November, 1999

Even more pictures from the film. Some of them will probably look familiar to long time readers. The shot of the orcs appeared over a month ago. This is however a larger and much sharper version. You will also note that the last two shots are essentially the same as the two that appeared a couple days ago. Again these are larger and much sharper. There are two shots of Jeremy Irons, the first shows him talking with director Corey Solomon. The second shows him on the Bone Church set. Finally there is a shot of the thieves Ridley and Snails facing some unhappy looking individuals. Click on any of the pictures for a larger version.

17 November, 1999

The fine folks over at the unofficial D&D Movie Website gave us the heads up on a couple of new pictures from the movie. These are apparently from the November issue of Total Film, so you might want to keep an eye out for it on newstands. Anyway the first shot shows the Empress talking with the sage Vildan, played by Edward Jewesbury. The second picture shows Snails and Norda, Marlon Wayans and Kristen Wilson respectively, having a quiet moment. I have to say I continue to be impressed by the images from this movie. They show a real visual style that makes you think this can rise above the typical fantasy movie.

9 November, 1999

Dark Horizons ran a report today from someone who claimed to have a friend on the set of D&D. This is the report:

"A go to Columbia College Film School in Chicago and a friend of mine returned from a production assistant internship in Praque, Chech Republic for the film Dungeons and Dragons. Although he was sworn to secrecy to the few scenes he witnessed being shot, he let me in on some of the dialogue and scenes. Thora Birch has a few good lines which include the following, "Your skin will break, your blood will spill, ours won't, we're ready, your not, lets go." One scene included a special effects shot where Thora Birch was screaming. The continuity supervisor told him that it was an effects shot that would be altered later so that Thora turns into a man! Kind of wierd if you ask me. Besides of alot of scenes where Thora and an army of elves are running around and reacting to nothing in front of them, he did mention there was alot of stress on the set and was complaining that J***** ***** was apparently very angry and ignorant to everyone on and off the set."

Curious about it, since it didn't seem to match what I knew of the production, I contacted Grant Boucher, who was kind enough to send in the picture from The Hollywood Reporter a couple weeks back. Here is his take on the report:

"Thora Birch's line as reported herein is not good dialogue. Therefore it is not accurate. Perhaps he has the order or the words confused.

"The empress does not turn into a man. A beautiful woman putting on armor might confuse someone who had their eyes closed.

"There aren't a lot of elves in any shots. If he is confused, then he might be talking about blue screen effects sequences, where the dragons are definitely not nothing, hehe.

"Jeremy Irons was the finest gentleman I have ever seen on a set. He was gracious, allowing Dave Arneson and I to use his chair during shooting. He was helpful to anyone who asked and had many great ideas for each and every shot. He was the consummate professional and a master craftsman, and then some. To say I was impressed with both his performance and his conduct would be a gross understatement. To say otherwise ends all credibility for this report.

"All sets have tons of stress, but that hardly indicates (based on everything else in the paragraph) that anything else he's written is the least bit accurate.

"In general, I'd say whoever is being quoted by a friend of a friend here is being taken for a ride by a fool.

"Oh, and you can quote me on that...hehe"

Grant Boucher :}

Consider yourself quoted Grant. Thanks for setting the record straight.

4 November, 1999

'Harvey' strikes again with some more great images from the movie. The first picture is of the Thora Birch as the Empress. She is wearing a pretty wild suit of gold armor. The design is pretty unique I think. The second shot is an action shot of Jeremy Irons as the evil wizard Profion performing some act of magic. 'Harvey' wouldn't say exactly what was going on but he did mention that that isn't a computer generated effect. This shot was taken during the shooting of the scene and hasn't been modified. Click on the images for a full sized version and I mean full sized. These are big.

28 October, 1999

So did you like the shot from The Hollywood Reporter a few days ago? Well that was nothing. Today I've got two shots even they won't have. They were sent in by our spy on the inside, Harvey (6 foot invisible rabbits make the best spies don't you know). Harvey says "this is a shot of the Bone Church set, used as the villain Profion's (Jeremy Irons) Lair. The menacing figure in the background is Profion's lieutenant and the arch-nemesis of the heroes, Damodar (Bruce Payne). Fans of the film should note that 90% of this set is real, not Hollywood props and set dressing. Over 40,000 human skeletons are supposedly entombed here. It is supposedly the first time this location has ever been shot on film." That's the first shot of the two below. The second shot "shows the two thieves Ridley (Justin Whalin) and Snails (Marlon Wayans) moving about the School of Magic. While there is no action per se in this photo, it does show off just one of the elaborate locales used in the movie."

I have to say I'm really impressed by these. When I first heard of this movie I was extremely skeptical but as more and more details roll in I've become less and less so. Now that some actual images are appearing I'm starting to get excited about this movie. Utilizing unique locations like the Bone Church in Prague seems to really make for a great look and reduce costs too. Click on the images below for the full size versions. They're pretty big so expect to wait a little.

23 October, 1999

Okay, today I've got another picture for you to check out. This was taken on set in Prague at the Bone Cathedral. Pretty creepy looking place they've got there. Anyway, in it you see Jeremy Irons who plays the evil wizard Profion talking to director Corey Solomon. The Bone Church is a real location that doubles for Profion's Lair in the movie. Click on the picture for a larger version.

11 October, 1999

It's been awhile but some new pictures have popped up. Below we have what appears to be pictures of a group of orcs and an elven archer. The elf looks good. I'm guessing that's Kristen Wilson as the elven ranger Norda. I'm going to withhold judgement on the orcs simply because I can't see them move. They look pretty good but I get the feeling that if they don't move well than they could end looking pretty bad. As I said, I'm not going to judge them yet.

Update:  It's been confirmed that that is Kristen Wilson in the picture. She is playing a elven ranger. The orcs in this picture won't be moving too much. They're really just background characters. These particular costumes are just meant to look good.

6 October, 1999

In an interview with SFX, Tom Baker talked about his role as the elven leader. "I play an elf. I play the King of the Elves… When I went there, I spoke to the director - when I was finally convinced that he was the director - and I said to him ‘Now look, I don't mean to pry, but I'm very much a victim of what my mother used to tell me, and she used to tell me that elves were quite small.’ He said ‘Man, times have changed.’ And just then a midget came in. The director said ‘See that guy there? He's a giant.’ At that point I thought ‘Well, f___ it, then. I don't care.’ I have a small genius actually for enjoying any old shite."

4 October, 1999

An article from Wired News provides some interesting details on the movie. It points out that Richard O'Brien, best known as the butler in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Tom Baker, best known as the Doctor in the Doctor Who TV series, have cameo parts. O'Brien plays the part of Nilus, leader of the thieves guild and Baker plays the leader of the elves. Since Baker is six foot four he was instructed by the director to not stand up.

Director Corey Solomon had a few comments about the picture. He talks about a need for real characters that are enhanced by the action instead of just a means to action. "I always hate when I go to a great action film that has a ton of action and great effects, but there's no characters for you to latch on to," he said. "That's what I loved about Star Wars. It had great characters that you could get into." Because of that, great care is being taken with the special effects scenes, in particular the aerial battle of dragons. "I want to be careful with that scene, because I don't want it to look cheesy."

Solomon talks about the long road to get this movie made. It's taken nine years from his first concept to winning the rights to make the movie, to the actual production. It looks like TSR is pretty pleased with the movie based on their creation. VP Ryan Dancy said, "At the end of the day we were very pleased, more pleased than we had a right to be" That may have to do with an effort to create a balance between a movie that makes gamers happy and one that can attract people unfamiliar with the game. "Even if you don't play D&D anymore, it should bring you back to the fun times you had when you were young," said Solomon. "And if you know nothing about D&D, then you're still watching a movie that you can get into."

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