Sci-Fi Storm

Can Warner Bros cast remove curse and break the spell that seems to dictate that a Dungeons & Dragons movie can’t be good? It appears they are ready to bet they can, as they acquired the movie rights to the venerable game franchise. And it appears they are moving forward quickly, looking to adapt a script already written by David Leslie Johnson (Wrath Of The Titans). Interestingly, that script was based not on D&D but it’s precursor, Chainmail, a miniatures game which Gary Gygax helped create first before teaming with Dave Arneson on D&D.

Roy Lee (The Woman In Black) will produce with Courtney Solomon, who produced the first two attempts at D&D movies, 2000’s Dungeons & Dragons and the 2005 direct-to-video sequel, Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God. The former was critically panned, while the latter took itself a bit more seriously, producing a moderate effort but nothing to appeal to non-D&D fans.

A third production, Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness, was released last year, appears unrelated to the first two, and I don’t know much about it.

Update 5/10: It appears there is already a snag…it seems Hasbro claims they own the rights, and are working with Universal. They do essentially own the game, as they own Wizards of the Coast, which bought TSR in 1997.

My prediction? Whether movie gets made by WB, Universal, or not at all…the lawyers will get richer.

Warner Bros wants to take on a new version of Homer’s epic Greek poem, The Odyssey – but set it in space. The studio has hired newcomer James DiLapo to write the script, based on his pitch of an idea Terry Dougas of 1821 Pictures (Machete Kills).

DiLapo wrote Devils At Play, a script which won the Nicholl Fellowship and was on the 2012 Black List of the most liked unproduced scripts according to studio executives.

Ron Howard’s ambitious multi-platform project to being Stephen King’s The Dark Tower to life – originally conceived as a trilogy of movies AND two TV series – is looking for studio backing again. After Universal balked on the project a year ago, Warner Bros stepped in – but now it seems even WB has passed on it, despite getting an updated script from Akiva Goldsman and buzz about Russell Crowe interested in a lead role.

But another funding source may be in the hunt, with Media Rights Capital interested. MRC recently funded the Seth MacFarlane hit comedy Ted, and also the upcoming Elysium starring Matt Damon and Jodi Foster and directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9). So for now, the project lives on.

The long- and highly-anticipated live action production of the well-known anime feature, Akira (and I mean long – we first reported about it just about 10 years ago), has been shut down by Warner Bros at least for a couple weeks, to see if the producers can shrink the budget even further.

The budget was already cut down to about $90 million when current director Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax) took over, where previously it was looking close to $200 million. But it appears the studio doesn’t believe the cast can draw the numbers still. The only actor currently signed on is Garrett Hedlund, who only saw moderate success with Tron: Legacy, while actors Ken Watanabe (Inception), Kristin Stewart (the Twilight saga) and Helena Bonham Carter (the Harry Potter franchise, Dark Shadows) in negotiations, but apparently that is not necessarily the star power they want for the budget. It is believed if they can cut another $20-$30 million, however, it may move forward.

It’s never too late: KatzSmith Productions (a partnership between David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith) have reportedly signed a two-year first-look deal with Warner Bros – and one if the fruits of this deal could be a true sequel to the 1988 Tim Burton-directed Beetlejuice.

Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the screenplay for the upcoming Tim Burton movie Dark Shadows, which helped spark the deal. He will write two scripts, one of which is expected to be Beetlejuice 2. No word on whether Burton or title star Michael Keaton will be involved yet.

Well, we might not be longing for more Camelot adventures of a sort for long. Warner Bros, which scooped up the spec script for Arthur & Lancelot from writer/director David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers) in a bidding war last month, has already set a release date of March 15, 2013 and set the budget at $90 million. It is a contemporary re-imagining of the story, with Dobkin set to direct and produce, and Lionel Wigram with Jeff Kleeman exec producing.

This apparently also put the brakes on two other Arthur-based projects in development at WB, including an Excalibur remake,.

Despite the lackluster performance of Green Lantern, Warner Bros. is still planning on a sequel, believing the franchise is worth pursuing. The studio is “somewhat disappointed”, with the movie falling 66% this weekend and a total cume so far of $89.3 million. Given that it took about $200 million to produce without including its extensive marketing costs, “somewhat” seems a bit light, but according to Dan Fellman, WB President of domestic distribution, such “fanboy” films see a similar drop off.

The only way I see a sequel making it is if they find a way to cut the production costs…which likely means less alien scenes and locations.