Dungeon And The Dragons

[Oday Forster]

DungeonsDragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 American fantasy heist film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio from a story by Chris McKay and Gilio. Based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, it is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and has no connections to the previous film trilogy released between 2000 and 2012. The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Reg-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant. In the film, bard Edgin Darvis (Pine) and barbarian Holga Kilgore (Rodriguez) recruit a team of unlikely heroes to steal an ancient and powerful relic but come into conflict with evil forces.

Production went through various phases in development since 2013, beginning with Warner Bros. Pictures after beating Hasbro and Universal Pictures in a lawsuit over the film rights to the tabletop role-playing game, before moving to Paramount Pictures, each with various writers and directors. Goldstein and Daley were the final writers/directors, using elements from the previous attempt by director Chris McKay and screenwriter Michael Gilio. Filming began in April 2021 in Iceland and later Northern Ireland.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 10, 2023, and was released in the United States on March 31, 2023, by Paramount Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances of the cast, Goldstein and Daley's direction, visual effects, writing, score, humor, and tone, but underperformed at the box office, grossing over $208.2 million worldwide, possibly falling short of its break-even point.[12] A spin-off television series is in development at Paramount+, with Drew Crevello serving as an executive producer and showrunner.

Accompanied by barbarian Holga Kilgore, Edgin attempted to make a new life for himself and his daughter Kira by turning to theft, teaming with amateur sorcerer Simon Aumar, rogue con artist Forge Fitzwilliam, and Forge's mysterious acquaintance Sofina. While raiding a Harper stronghold, Edgin attempts to steal a "Tablet of Reawakening" to resurrect his wife, but he and Holga are captured, though their accomplices escape.

After two years' imprisonment in arctic Revel's End, the pair, unaware they have been pardoned, escape to Neverwinter and learn Forge has become Lord there after its prior lord became mysteriously incapacitated. Forge has been taking care of Kira, convincing her that Edgin's greed led to his arrest. It is revealed that Sofina is a Red Wizard and together they orchestrated Edgin and Holga's capture.

Sofina attempts to execute Edgin and Holga, but they escape and decide to rob Forge's vault and bring Kira home during the upcoming High Sun Games, needing the tablet to prove their innocence to Kira and resurrect Edgin's wife. The gladiatorial games had been banned, but Forge reinstituted them, promising that the games would bring tourists and money. Edgin and Holga track down Simon to help; he suggests also recruiting Doric, a druid whose forest community is fighting forced logging ordered by Forge.

Shapeshifted into a fly, Doric infiltrates Forge's castle, finding the vault has magical defenses from Mordenkainen, which Simon cannot disable. Simon believes a magic relic, "The Helm of Disjunction," could disable them. They travel to an old graveyard to ask Holga's ancestors where to find it. Simon resurrects the dead with a talisman long enough for them to answer five questions each. The corpses reveal they gave the Helm to Xenk Yandar, a paladin who fled his country, Thay, when Szass Tam turned Thayans into an undead army.

After forcing Edgin to swear to distribute any gained bounty to the people, Xenk guides the group through the Underdark to retrieve the Helm. With the help of a teleportation staff obtained from Holga's halfling ex-husband, they find the relic but are attacked by Thayan assassins sent by Sofina. Xenk fights off the assassins and helps the group escape from the obese red dragon Themberchaud before departing.

Simon has trouble mastering the Helm's power, so they decide to use the staff to enter the vault during the games. Simon and Holga infiltrate the vault but find the room empty except for a magical trap. Sofina, disguised as Kira, subdues Edgin. The group is captured and forced to participate in the games, but escapes the stadium. Doric discovers Forge has loaded the treasure onto a boat and is preparing to flee. The group steals the boat for themselves and rescues Kira from Forge, who threatened Kira's life.

As they escape, the group realize Sofina organized the games to draw a massive crowd and turn them into an undead army using the curse that destroyed Thay. The group returns, transporting Forge's stolen riches out of the boat with the teleportation staff and spreading them across the city by hot-air balloon, drawing people out of the stadium before Sofina's spell takes effect.

Enraged at her defeat, Sofina attacks the group, but Simon nullifies Sofina's time-stop spell, allowing Kira to use an invisibility pendant Edgin and Holga gave her as a child to place an anti-magic bracelet on Sofina. Sofina is killed when attacked by Doric in owlbear form and then crushed by falling debris, but Holga is fatally injured. Edgin uses the tablet to bring her back to life, accepting that he wanted to bring back his wife only for his own sake while Holga had become a true part of their family. Doric signals openness to a relationship with Simon.

Additionally, the film features Spencer Wilding as Gorg, a hobgoblin inmate at Revel's End; Will Irvine as Tobias, a guard at Revel's End; Nicholas Blane as Chancellor Anderton, a human member of the Absolution Council at Revel's End prison; Bryan Larkin as Chancellor Norixius, a silver dragonborn member of the Absolution Council at Revel's End prison; Clayton Grover as Chancellor Jarnathan, an aarakocra member of the Absolution Council at Revel's End prison; Sarah Amankwah as Baroness Torbo, a female halfling member of the Absolution Council at Revel's End prison; Paul Bazely as Porb Piradost, a nobleman of Waterdeep; Hayley-Marie Axe as Gwinn, a barbarian who is the second wife of Marlamin; Tom Morello as Kimathi Stormhollow, a spectator at the High Sun Games; and Jude Hill as Boy in Stands.

The main characters from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon make live-action cameos during the High Sun Games, with Edgar Abram as Hank, Seamus O'Hara as Presto, Emer McDaid as Sheila, Trevor Kaneswaran as Eric, Moe Sasegbon as Diana, and Luke Bennett as Bobby.[27][28]

On May 7, 2013, Warner Bros. Pictures and Courtney Solomon's Sweetpea Entertainment announced a film based on Dungeons & Dragons with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick writing the script and Roy Lee, Alan Zeman, and Solomon producing.[29] Two days later, Hasbro issued a lawsuit saying that they were co-producing a Dungeons & Dragons film at Universal Pictures with Chris Morgan writing and directing.[30][31][32][33][34] On August 3, 2015, after U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee urged Sweetpea Entertainment and Hasbro to settle the film rights case, the Warner Bros. film was set for pre-production with Hasbro.[35] On March 31, 2016, Rob Letterman was in negotiations to direct Johnson-McGoldrick's script,[36] with his role confirmed on May 13, 2016.[37] In April 2017, actor Joe Manganiello, an avid fan of Dungeons & Dragons, revealed that he had written a script with John Cassel for the project and was "talking to all the right parties" to make the film happen.[38] Upon completing the script, Manganiello worked in collaboration with Brad Peyton and Dwayne Johnson, who were both in negotiations to develop the film.[39]

In December 2017, after varying degrees of progression, the film was moved by Hasbro to Paramount Pictures and was scheduled for a release date of July 23, 2021.[40] In February 2018, Paramount was in talks with both Chris McKay and Michael Gilio to direct and write the film, respectively.[41] In March 2019, it was revealed that Gilio had completed a first draft and studio executives expressed excitement for the film. The studio began negotiations with various talent, as the casting process began.[42] On July 30, 2019, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley were in talks to direct.[43] Goldstein and Daley began meeting with Paramount following Daley talking about his career with a literary agent at a sports bar in Sherman Oaks during a game between the Chicago Cubs, which Daley is a fan of, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. After saying to the agent that he and Goldstein had left directing duties on The Flash, the agent asked if they were looking for work. The agent tipped off Paramount, who presented Goldstein and Daley with the script for Dungeons & Dragons.[44]

By January 2020, Goldstein and Daley announced that they had co-written a new draft of the script.[45][46] Ultimately, Daley, Goldstein, and Gilio received screenplay credit, while McKay and Gilio received story credit.[47] The film is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons.[48][2] Goldstein stated that "ours is a movie that doesn't take itself with great seriousness, but it's never a spoof. It honors the world of D&D and celebrates it but, hopefully, it gives the audience an engaging and fun ride".[49] Daley commented that the film's influences include The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones, with the Indiana Jones structure evoking both a "dungeon crawl" and the heist film genre that they wanted to draw on. Daley highlighted that the heist genre is familiar to the audience, which provides the framework for the "uninitiated" so that "they understand what our characters are setting out to do without being overwhelmed by lore or proper nouns".[49] Daley also wanted the film to be accessible for those unfamiliar with the fantasy genre.[50] The Austin Chronicle highlighted "since the basis of most tabletop campaigns is a group of strangers coming together to complete a job, the thematic parallels between heist movies and fantasy roleplaying campaigns offer a shared language for newcomers".[50]

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