There was a D&D movie. It was fractally bad. It was a low-budget movie that didn’t use what budget it had well and it didn’t actually have much to do with D&D. There were two direct-to-video D&D movies that followed - the first was a semi-sequel to the theatrical movie. They still weren’t good movies, but at least they were recognizably D&D.
A Dragonlance movie in some form has been in development hell since the 80s. A direct-to-video animated movie was finally released, and it was not good. It was at least recognizably Dragonlance.
And of course, there was the “classic” Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning animated series in the 80s.
I think a movie/TV adaptation of D&D runs into a few problems. For one thing, D&D is a broad game brand. There are a lot of D&D worlds and stories and characters, but there’s no single D&D world/story/set of characters, the way there is for, say, Tolkien’s works.
Closely related to that, it’s a high concept that is hard to actually summarize as a high concept. I mean, it’s dungeons and dragons, but…what do you do with that? Old school D&D is about exploring fantastical dungeons and slaying dragons, but that’s not much of a plot. Newer D&D settings/stories/characters can get more involved, but often lose or at least de-emphasize the dungeons and/or the dragons. It’s really hard to briefly summarize to an outsider what Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark Sun, and the Forgotten Realms have in common.
Finally, D&D and video games and fantasy fiction in general have had so much interacting feedback that at this point, there have actually been a lot of D&D movies and TV shows made, under other labels. At the same time, a D&D movie or TV show would probably feel cliched and derivative to general audiences.
The Riverworld series by Philip José Farmer has been mentioned. It has been adapted twice, once in 2003 and one in 2010. I think the books are great. It appears (although I haven’t seen either one myself) that the adaptations are terrible. Both adaptations even changed who the hero was. For what it’s worth, I think that idea that great books make great movies (or miniseries or whatever) is wrong.
Not a popular author here, but Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. There was a low budget ( straight to video) attempt at a trilogy that I don’t think ever got finished. And at least the first two were horrible. So has never quite been made into a movie.
I think if anyone is to seriously give D&D a go as a movie or series, they have to look at things like Dragonlance that show how it can be done. It’s hard to reduce the complexity and wide variety of gameplay of a role-playing game as old as D&D to something easily consumable, but Dragonlance managed it (as did a few spin-offs and other variants like Forgotten Realms).
Not that they should copy it exactly, nor expect a following like Lord of the Rings, but it at least shows how to take the tropes of the game, such as the multi-race troupe of adventurers, dragons and kobolds and orcs etc, treasure hunting and trap avoidance, and tie it into a grand epic adventure that can sustain a franchise while also be consumed in bite-size episodes if necessary. Every attempt so far has failed to get the balance right, and then they give up on it as too hard, but it really isn’t. They just have to empty themselves of preconceptions.
They tried to make the Sword Of Truth a series, with rather limp results. Same with Shannara. Next up will be Wheel Of Time (I do not have high hopes, they’re taking forever to get their act together for that). But in the right hands any of them could have been great. I think there’s a space for D&D if it’s given to the right creative team.
I’m not quite sure if Game of Thrones has made it more, or less, possible to make a miniseries out of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Chalion novels. People unfamiliar with the series would see a quasi-medieval European setting with knights and castles, magic, and a religion based on a Father, Mother, Daughter, Son, and Bastard pantheon, and dismiss it as a GoT ripoff. Which is a shame, as the world of the Five Gods is thematically, stylistically, and tonally nothing like Martin’s work. On the other hand, the Harry Potter movies didn’t stop 20th Century Fox from making Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. I would love to see The Curse of Chalion on a big screen. ( I’d really love to see Paladin of Souls; can you imagine a swords-and-sorcery epic whose hero is a widowed, middle-aged grandmother?)
The Penric and Desdemona novellas might be a good basis for a miniseries, or, stitched together, a feature-length movie; you could get a contiguous story line starting with “Penric’s Demon” and flowing right into “Penric’s Mission”, “Mira’s Last Dance”, and “Prisoners of Limbos”, the unifying thread being Penric and Nikys’ evolving relationship with the natural end point being their marriage.
Casting it might be a fun exercise - I could see Caitriona Balfe as Ista. Liam Cunningham would be a great Cazaril, except he’s a bit too old - would make the romance with Betriz a bit squicky, unless she was aged up as well. But Cunningham has the necessary mixture of humility, competence, and threat for Caz.
It would be really hard to top Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany.
Well, maybe not Crowe, for Jack Aubrey. But Paul Bettany was born to play Stephen Maturin.
The one book I have been hoping they’d turn into a movie is “The Forge of God,” by Greg Bear. Of course, I’d want it to be faithful to the story and I think it’s probably closer to what a real invasion by aliens would be like for humans. The sequel novel, however, they wouldn’t need to make into a movie. Unless you wanted to bore people to death.
Another one I’d like to see is a graphic novel: DC’s “Kingdom Come.” Maybe as a trilogy of movies, if done faithfully.
The Flashman series by George McDonald Frazier would be great if they did it right. There was one movie made in the 1970s, not very good, Roddy McDowell was not a good Flashman.
I don’t know if he’s up to it these days. He was always kinda middle-talent with the occasional good idea, but the last couple of things I read from him were pretty bad (though that was a few-several years ago).
If he treats the Christopher Snow series like he did Odd Thomas, I’d rather not read it.
Came here to post this, but so much of what made those two books work were Christopher Snow and his internal monolgue. (Perfectly matched by the audiobook narrator, try it!). But could you capture Christopher’s unique “damaged optimism” without two hours of voice-over?
And now that I’m really thinking about it, I agree with Face… , I’d rather keep it to two brilliant books if the third one won’t be as good.
Extrapolating from that, I’d rather not have a movie if it can’t be as good as the 2/3 Of A Trilogy.
It’s essentially Indiana Jones in theme and flavor so that’s good, but not sure the pro imperial British Empire flavor would sell, nor the era and Indian history for American audiences.
I’d enjoy seeing Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories turned into a movie.
Niven’s Ringworld is another great idea that was mentioned upthread, but it might make a better TV series than a movie, just because it’s rather lacking in overall plot arc. As a TV series, it could draw from all of the Known Space stories – although the Man-Kzin wars could easily be a movie or movie series of their own.
As much as I love the Stainless Steel Rat books, there would have to be a LOT of updating on the tech to make them work today. Things just aren’t as hackable as Harrison thought they would be.
I quite agree. It would be interesting to see whether it would do better with the first trilogy turned into a movie and the second trilogy turned into another, or with the POVs intermingled and all six books made into a single movie or miniseries.
I remember reading that back in the ‘80s when I was a member of the Science Fiction Book Club. Great book!
I remember the protagonist showing up with expedition gear that was supplied by the lowest bidder (or something like that) and was all pretty crappy. As he used it, the quality of the gear improved.