Hey folks, Harry here.... Sparky here had some time to sit down and talk with the head dwarf in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS film, and also saw and hung out to see the panels about the film that took place at DRAGONCON.... all in all, he found that he was in a perfect position, and with his newly charged electric cells (thank god for jumper cables) he managed to be alert the whole time. Here ya go... enjoy...

Hey Harry...

Sparky here, and after hearing a few of the reports sent in from the country's biggest Sci-Fi/Fantasy Con, I had to put my two cents in concerning the Dungeons and Dragons movie. I was pretty close to the front for the extra large session (which was originally billed as a screening, BTW, but turned out to be just a preview) so I got a better listen than most that have written in. Corey Soloman is directing this film, and this guy has some brass cahones. He walked in to TSR Headquarters when he was 19 and asked to purchase the worldwide exclusive film rights to the Dungeons and Dragons franchise. He said that they laughed at him. But, after perseverance and meeting the right backers, they sold him the rights and this has been his baby for 10 years now. Lee Arenberg was on the panel as well. He plays Elwood the dwarf in the movie, and amazingly, he's about 5' 8" or so. I bumped into him in the Dealer's room on Sunday and he hung around and just shot the shit with me for about 15 minutes or so. He said that he spent most of the movie squatting down, but with the extensive dwarven costuming, you really couldn't tell. Justin Whalin, star of the film, plays a thief named Ridley. He explained during the panel that the world that this movie is set in is a brand new one, and not part of any current or past D&D world. In this world, the magic is held by the social elite and nobility only. The common people are magicless and trodden on by the upper class mages.

Justin did mention that the stupidest thing he did in the movie (he and Lee did most of their own stunts) involved a labyrinth called the Thief's Maze. Richard O'Brien plays the smarmy head of the Thieves Guild who sends Ridley in. During the entire shoot, apparently, Corey started every morning by telling Justin "Today, I'm gonna kill you" or "Justin, today's the day you're gonna die for this movie." Well, the final day of shooting was the Thief's Maze. Corey pulled Justin aside and said, "Justin, I've missed you up until now, but today's the day that we're gonna get you killed." They finished the shoot, and then looked at the shot. One of the shots involves swinging axes that Justin had to time his way through, but he never got that close to them in the shot. He looked at Corey and said "I should probably be in the shot with the axe, huh." Corey agreed, and the rest of the crew shuddered. The axes each weighed about 300 lbs a piece and Justin bravely stood in front of the first on and told them to let it go. He said that he was amazed how fast it came swinging down at him and barely moved out of the way. In the freeze frame you can see the axe brush his clothes. He ran thought the other axes and looked at the crew. He said that the screen writer was in the corner crying, the rest of the crew looked shocked and the DP came up and just said, "Boy are you stupid." Then Corey came running out yelling "That was awesome!!!"

The "trailer" they showed was an older tape that they brought around to TSR/WOTC/Hasbro as well as Warner Brothers just to show what they had done so far. The effects looked cool, but the dragons weren't finished yet. They moved gorgeously, but they weren't quite the filled out, beautiful creatures you'd expect. They will be soon, though. Corey said to expect the advertising campaign to start in 60 days with a finished trailer. To reiterate from other posts, there is no fixed release date, but Warner Brothers is considering making this film a major release on either Memorial Day or Thanksgiving. The film print should be finished within 2 weeks or so and then shown to the execs so they can make a decision. If they like the movie that much, they're gonna mass market the film and merchandising, merchandising, merchandising. That means Memorial Day. If they decide that it's good but they don't want to merchandise (doubtful) then Thanksgiving. Corey and the rest didn't care when it was released as long as it was.

One more interesting note about the panel was the discussion about D&D vs. LOTR. Corey mentioned that he went to the execs in charge of LOTR and brought them footage of the D&D flick and they showed him footage of LOTR. They had a long talk about the two film and decided that LOTR is LOTR and D&D is D&D and that no matter what they did, it would be good for the genre, so they don't want to compete with each other. If this D&D film goes off and succeeds, then the rest of the trilogy will be made and obviously, all of LOTR is coming out, so why not bounce off of each other, rather than compete. So, to that I say....HELL YEAH! Let's hear the cheers fan boys. Get out there and support D&D the Movie! Long Live Epic Fantasy!

Sparky