Dungeons and Dragons Makes the Jump to the Big Screen

AFTER TEN YEARS OF STRUGGLE, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS MAKES THE JUMP FROM GAME TABLE TO BIG SCREEN IN FAIRY TALE STYLE

By ERIC MORO December 8, 2000

After waiting patiently for nearly ten years, role-playing enthusiasts around the world will have their vision of the ultimate sword and sorcery fantasy reach the big screen with New Line Cinema's DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Boasting a high caliber cast, state-of-the-art special effects and a screenplay that remains true to the game, first-time director Courtney Solomon brings the saga he enjoyed as a youth to the movie-going masses.

Set in the wondrous city of Izmer, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS follows the young Empress Savina (played by Thora Birch) and her struggles to bring equality to all in her realm. Challenging her quest is the evil Mage Profion (played by Jeremy Irons), a dark and twisted Magic User who wishes to establish his own rule - one where non-magical subjacents remain oppressed. An internal war is brewing and the winner will be the one who controls the most powerful dragon army.

Enter the Empress's band of adventurers - the two thieves Ridley and Snails (played by Justin Whalin and Marlon Wayans), the dwarf Elwood (played by Lee Arenberg), the apprentice Magic User Marina (played by Zoe McLellan) and the elven tracker Norda (played by Kristen Wilson). The group sets forth in pursuit of the Rod of Savrille, an ancient artifact that controls the mighty Red Dragons, and encounter adventure after adventure the likes of which can only be found in the popular role playing game.

Since its inception in 1974, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS has quickly become the undisputed champion of role playing games, with hundreds of new modules (extensions to game play) and expansion onto the Internet saturating the market. In the 25 years since it was introduced, D & D (as it is more casually referred to) has acquired three generations of fans and become nearly 25 million strong. Additionally, there have been more than 400 paperback fantasy adventure novels published in the D & D world. That's one popular game!

Don't think this hot commodity eluded the eye of Hollywood moguls either. Producers actively pursued the feature film rights to the project, but were unsuccessful in securing them because the game's proprietors feared the distortion of the property by corporate "suits." Perhaps that is why the "at the time" 20-year-old Solomon was able to fly in under radar. The diehard D & D fan cold-called the company and befriended some of the people that worked there. After nearly 18 months, the company agreed to grant this unproven Hollywood executive with no financing and no distribution whatsoever the movie rights. Thus began the 10-year labor of love the director refers to as DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.

"This project's an anomaly," says Solomon. "It's not normal the way this was done. Nobody goes out, having never done a movie before, and makes their first movie a $36 million movie based on a huge trademark with stars and that sort of stuff. There's no precedent beforehand to say, 'This is how you do it.' You make it up as you go along. It's like that line in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, 'I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along.' Obviously, you've got the knowledge, but you have to think your way through the things. Now that I've done it, I know what I would do differently next time around. The learning curve has been huge - what a great experience. That part of it is great."

With issues ranging from "selling" the project to an industry traditionally fearful of the fantasy genre to penning a script that would make game enthusiasts proud, Solomon opted to focus on the root of every good feature - its cast. The director began lining up big name talent in an attempt to legitimize the project and push along financing. The first - and earliest - actor to come on board was Whalin, whose help and involvement in developing the property earned him an Associate Producer credit.

"I got involved early on," says Whalin. "I got involved in 1997. I auditioned for it and I got the part, but the movie wasn't financed yet - the movie wasn't green lit. So Courtney called me up on the phone and said, 'Look, we don't have a movie to do yet but when we do, I want you to do this.' And I said, 'Okay, well sure. Alright.' He called me up and started showing me the sets and stuff he had shot before. We did that for about a year and a half and I stayed on through the whole financing process, which was good because I learned a lot. Second of all, it was better because when we started rewriting the script and we started actually working on stuff, Cory knew who Ridley was. I was able to tell Cory if something didn't or did work for me, which helped because by the time we got [to Prague] he didn't have to worry about what I was doing because we'd already talked for a year and a half about what I was doing."

Whalin's onscreen partner in crime, Wayans, followed suit, attracted to the project because of the script's message. Of course, it didn't hurt that he was a fan of the game growing up.

"First of all, I played the game when I was in high school, but we played the [Brooklyn] version, which was more like PROJECTS & PIT BULLS," says Wayans. "When I played, it was me and this kid named Eric B. who was the Dungeon Master. Eric B. would sit there and smoke weed and say, 'Okay, I'm going to take this hit. If I cough on this next hit, you live.' But seriously, when I read the script I saw this great journey that these characters went on and the friendship that developed between Snails and Ridley. Plus, I always loved Stevie Wonder's "Ebony and Ivory" song. But I read the script and it reminded me of STAR WARS. It was the journey that these guys went on, which was more interesting than the special effects. And at the time, I was doing REQUIEM FOR A DREAM and I wanted to get out of that depressing set for a minute and do something fun."

This is a sentiment shared by costar Birch, perhaps best known for her performance in the Academy Award winning AMERICAN BEAUTY.

"This came right after I finished filming AMERICAN BEAUTY and it was really hard for me to let the character of Jane go," says Birch. "It was very easy for me to stay in that depressed funk I had worked myself into. The character I play in this is the most optimistic person on the planet. Her main goal in the film is to provide a better life for her people and I wanted something that would snap me out of it and was extremely different from AMERICAN BEAUTY because I'm not really like that."

Some of the cast members did not have the luxury of a nice easy transition. In the case of McLellan, who plays the film's main love interest, the actress committed her performance a mere days before shooting.

"I got the part eight days before I started shooting, so I was just sort of thrown into it," says McLellan. "I didn't have time to be nervous about the experience. I had to get my passport, get some luggage and find someone to watch my place while I was gone. I kind of wanted to research the game - I like to dive into research before any role, but I didn't have time. I just read the script, memorized the lines and got on a plane. That was that."

Still others have made a career for themselves playing this type of role. Bruce Payne, who stars as the villainous Damodar, is no stranger to genre films. With such projects such as HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME, WARLOCK III and NECRONOMICON under his belt, the actor has absolutely no fear of being typecast.

"I think its innately in one's spirit that if you have a tapestry or a canvas and you are invited to be a part of the painting, obviously the more back story there is and the more imagination involved the more attractive it is," says Payne. "Whether or not it's something I have particularly pulled in for myself or whether it just happened to be timing, I really think what was meant to be was meant to be. I can think of some incredible actors who equally could have done incredible jobs with this role. I'm just fortunate it happened to be offered to me first and that was that."

Having secured the talent (definitely not a shabby bunch), the 28-year-old director set out on the daunting task of actually directing them - intimidating for anyone, but for a first time director it can prove disastrous.

"I'll tell you, like I always tell everybody," says Solomon. "The one time I was intimidated more so than ever - it was actually two times. The first time was after the eight years it took to finally get the green light and know I was leaving for Prague the next day. That whole day was spent with paperwork. Fine, we got through the day and it all got done. Finally, everybody cleared out of my office and I was alone. I sat there and thought, 'What did you just get into? Are you out of your mind? Are you crazy?' So I sat there for 15 minutes and really thought about it - scared myself sufficiently. Then I took a deep breath and said, 'I can't go on like this. I've been ready to do this, so I'm just going to go and do it.' That was one time. The second time was the first time I had to work with Jeremy [Irons]. That was just a little intimidating. There I am, first time director, little schmuck. And there's Jeremy Irons, Oscar winner, great actor. 'Hi, nice to meet you. So I'm going to have to be telling you when I don't like what you're doing.' That's what I'm thinking in my head. That was intimidating, but he was so nice and so open and so collaborative that it just went away immediately."

Of course, Solomon wasn't the only party suffering from fright. A good number of the cast had never worked with blue screen before and found the task to be quite daunting

"It was kind of a cinematic culture shock for me in terms of the process involved in making the film," says Birch. "Working with a blue screen is a pain in the butt. No matter how many pictures they show you of what you're supposed to be looking at, there's nothing that can make me afraid of a blue piece of paper."

Luckily, the actors had Solomon, whose passion for the project managed to transcend any imagination hurdles.

"I've never worked that way," says Wayans. "All Cory would say is, 'there's a Beholder over there.' And I'd be like, 'What's a Beholder?' And he'd say, 'Oh, it's a one-eyed thing that could eat your ass. You don't want to go over there by the Beholder.'"

With the majority of the production running smoothly, the cast and crew did manage to run into one major snag - a snag that required a re-shoot nearly a year after the production wrapped.

"Actually, the change at the end was very subtle and had nothing to do with my character," says Birch. "It involved Marlon's character and the way that whole situation is resolved. I think they went back to Prague and shot an extra scene. But as far as that, it didn't really change a lot of the overall view of what you see. What you see in the film is pretty much what it was."

Of course, this begs the question: Was it difficult to snap back into character after that large a break? Surprisingly enough, that posed very little challenge for the talented actors. On the contrary, it was the more practical matters that had to be overcome.

"I was in the middle of shooting DOCTOR DOLITTLE 2 and Courtney says, 'We need you to cut your hair'," says Wilson. "And I'm like, 'Are you nuts, man? Have you lost your mind? Put a hood on me.' So when you watch the end of the movie, I've got a hood on. But it was fairly easy to slip back into character because we're all so much like our character. Marlon really is like Snails and I really am annoyed by that. And then I'm a very even type of person and Zoe is very bubbly and Justin's got his way about him. We're all just very close to our characters."

Good to know seeing how Solomon has plans to turn the project into a trilogy. While the fate of a sequel will be determined by the financial success (or failure) of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, treatments have been written, the cast has been pre-signed and elaborate action sequences have been mapped out.

"We read 1,000 different things for DUNGEONS & DRAGONS as source material before we even wrote the script," says Solomon. "When we wrote it out, it was a six hour movie. Obviously, it can't be a six-hour movie, so we made the first movie end, and we knew where the second and third movies were going to go in a rough form. So we have treatments for two and three and in the second one, the characters actually progress to a different level. Also, something I had in the back of my mind was I could show much more of the world in the second one because obviously I'll have more money and I'll be able to go harder edged. But the first one has to be an intro into a fantasy world and one of the hardest things in those eight years of trying to get the project set up was the fantasy genre is just really disliked by Hollywood."

It's good to know that the director has a clear vision for the future of his property, but certain members of the cast have their own ideas as to where their characters should go.

"I'd like Marina to kick a little more ass," says McLellan. "She does, eventually. She grows into herself, learns about the world and becomes a stronger person, but I'd like her to start out that way in the next film. I mean I was referred to as 'The Girl' and 'The Rag Doll'. I'd like to do a little fighting and become better at my magic because I'm going to school - I'm studying magic. My character's brave now and she's definitely stronger, but I'd like to take that up a couple of levels."

The calm and cool Wilson would like to see more of Norda's past make it up on the big screen.

"I think with Norda, she's 234 years old, so there's a lot of history there to explore," says Wilson. "Her nemesis is Damodar and that's something that's sort of alluded to in this first film. So there's a lot of history there and back history we could explore with these two characters."

At the end of the day, the fate of the project will rest on the shoulders of a first time director who poured his heart and soul into pursuing what can best be described as his true passion. But is Solomon ultimately happy with the final product known as DUNGEONS & DRAGONS?

"I'm happy with like 90% of it," says Solomon. "There were scenes like a big dungeon sequence we were supposed to have in the movie - they made me cut it on set. It was like three times the maze sequence but with creatures in a dungeon. That's my biggest disappointment. So guess what? If we get to a sequel, you're going to get that sequence. That was strictly down to one thing: time and money. I mean two things - they're the same thing. I always refer to them the same way. Other than that, I'm really happy with the movie. There are always little things that you nit pick about - this effects shot that effects shot, whatever else it is. But overall, for what we had and how we put this together I'm very happy and I hope the audience is happy. I think they'll have fun watching the movie."

This article can be found at www.eonmagazine.com