Exclusive: Dungeons & Dragons filmmakers explain keeping the game's spirit
The filmmakers behind the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons film have explained how they kept the popular role-playing game's spirit alive.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves comes to cinemas on Friday (March 31) with an all-star cast featuring the likes of Chris Pine, Regé-Jean Page, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith and Sophia Lillis.
The film sees a thief and some unlikely adventurers band together to undertake a heist to retrieve a lost relic. But things soon go dangerously awry when the group encounters the wrong people.
With an already die-hard fanbase surrounding the iconic game, many will be comparing the impending big-screen adaptation to its tabletop counterpart.
Related: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves lands strong first reviews
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley explained how they kept the spirit of the game alive in the filmmaking process.
"I think that that was the ultimate challenge of this in terms of the writing, to create the illusion of spontaneity in a movie that we’ve crafted down to the movement. It has no real spontaneity, except that sometimes actors would come up with something," Goldstein said.
He went on to describe himself and Daley as "Dungeon Masters of the film" and that it was up to them to "create the vibe of playing" the game within the film's narrative.
"But we wanted to make sure that if we captured the spirit of play, then we knew that those who know the game would respond. Maybe it’s not exactly like their Dungeon Master would do it," he continued.
Related: Michelle Rodriguez reveals sweet reason she did Dungeons & Dragons movie
Daley also commented on the challenges that came with adapting such a complex game into a cohesive film.
"The challenge is: how do you adapt something that doesn’t have any set story?" he said.
"What we were really adapting was the spirit of the game. I think anyone who’s played, kind of understands that when they see it. We also had a lot of different characters that allowed us to explore different methods of gameplay and different kinds of personalities that are representative of the players."
The pair, who co-wrote the script for Spider-Man: Homecoming, compared the experience of creating a Marvel film to that of their latest project and how the superhero studio set the overall tone for Dungeons & Dragons.
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"Marvel films’ success has opened the door to studios being okay with the notion that you can have both big, expensive action sequences and laughs in one movie. That’s a relatively new thing. I mean, Spielberg did it effectively with Raiders and movies like that," Goldstein said.
"But I think studios are a little nervous about combining genres. They want a serious medieval movie, not one that makes you laugh. I think Marvel did kind of pave the way for us to be able to do this in a D&D world."
Daley added: "It was also a challenge for us to think, 'OK, what do we do to set ourselves apart from that as well?' That was kind of what prompted our exploration into the practical elements of the filmmaking, using more practical locations and sets.
"Because to us, that’s what’s so fun about it. It harkens back to the adventure films like you said, that we love from the ‘80s and ‘90s – The NeverEnding Story and Willow – but also those big, Spielbergian blockbusters like Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones."
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves is out in cinemas on March 31.
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