Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Dungeons and Dragons' aims to recapture 80s film magic

27/03/2023

Dungeons and Dragons' aims to recapture 80s film magicThe makers of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves wanted their blockbuster to be a throwback to the classic family films of the 1980s.

by Agence France-Presse

27-03-2023 08:37

in Entertainment

Image from Twitter by Jerome!

More jokes and less reliance on computer effects the makers of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves wanted their blockbuster to be a throwback to the classic family films of the 1980s.

--

In transferring the beloved role-playing game to the big screen, directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein said they wanted the mix of earnest fun and absurd comedy of their childhood favourites like Raiders of the Lost Ark , The Goonies and The Princess Bride .

They were also bored of overly serious fantasy fare.

We've seen stoic, humorless portrayals of fantasy characters in almost every other film and television show, and this was our reaction against that, Daley told reporters in Paris.

--

ALSO READ | BAFTA red carpet rolls out for All Quiet' and Banshees'

The film stars Chris Pine as a reformed thief, with Hugh Grant as a slimy villain and Bridgerton heart-throb Rege-Jean Page in a scene-stealing turn as warrior Xenk, who is completely impervious to irony or sarcasm.

Pine has experience with cherished fantasy properties, having played Captain Kirk in the recent Star Trek reboots, but said he was unafraid of upsetting the D&D fanbase.

--

One should be wary of taking anything on, especially with the internet now being so angry and loud and acerbic, he told AFP.

But we made a really fun film and we've heard we've put enough in there for diehards, and even people who have never played are surprised how much they like it.

ALSO READ | The Queer Superhero sings their love letter to the queer community

Gelatinous Cube' It helps that Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game in which players to a certain extent make up the story as they go along.

We weren't beholden to anything other than satisfying certain desires of audiences to see a Gelatinous Cube or an Owlbear, said Pine, referring to two of the game's more bizarre creatures.

And the fact that it is a critical hit suggests they have pulled it off. IndieWire declared that its heartfelt story, enchanting characters, dazzling visual effects, and fun-filled nature will allow the film to be a treasured classic .

The directors, who made their names as writers on comedy Horrible Bosses and Spiderman: Homecoming , said the script was a priority.

ALSO READ | Babes secures' Uthando Lodumo: Life After Mampintsha'?

And that was oddly not very common in the world of blockbusters, said Daley.

Often you hear from studios: It's greenlit, let's get to work, we'll fix the script along the way.' And that's a really shortsighted way of working.

Puppets and real-life effects were used where possible to recreate the feel of classic films.

Audiences have gotten a little tired of over-reliance on CGI (computer-generated images), said Goldstein.

Pine's genius' As for Grant, he said he was relieved to no longer be playing the hero.

ALSO READ | Ant-Man': stumbles but still tops North America box office

No one wants to play the good guy, the British actor told AFP.

That's why Chris Pine is such a genius because he isn't annoying or nauseating or too-good-to-be-true.

Co-star Michelle Rodriguez, known for action franchises such as Fast and Furious , was grateful for some softer scenes between the action set pieces.

My favourite part was being able to grow some armpit hair and fight, she said.

But as I get older, it comes more naturally to be softer. The soft power of a woman is not exploited enough, especially in action movie world.

By Eric Randolph Agence France-Presse

How much of a rugby fanatic are you? FIVE simple answers could win you R1 000 in cash!
LINK: https://www.thesouthafrican.com/culture/entertainment/dungeons-and-dra...
See more stories from thesouthafrican

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

17/07/2026

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke Brie Clayton July 17, 2026 0 Comments Spline-based AI powered plugin accelerates time-consuming rotoscoping, helping...

17/07/2026

A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio

A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton July 17, 2026 0 Comments SBIFF jury award winner finished fro...

17/07/2026

Wheatstone to Feature Virtual Mixing Platform at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Trump Threatens Networks Over Speech Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Lightware Sustainability Report Details Product Efficienc...

Lightware has published its second voluntary Sustainability Report, showing how energy efficiency, product longevity and responsible material use are increasing...

17/07/2026

Foundry Unlocks Professional-Grade AI for VFX with Gripta...

Creative software developer Foundry today announced Griptape Enterprise, a new tier of the Griptape AI workflow orchestration platform, extended to meet the str...

17/07/2026

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke

Creative software developer Foundry today announced the availability of SmartRoto, a new AI-powered plugin upgrade for Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Studio, and Nuke Indie ...

17/07/2026

The Final Release of Blackmagic Fairlight Live is Now Available!

The Final Release of Blackmagic Fairlight Live is Now Available! Brie Clayton July 16, 2026 0 Comments Fairlight Live is a new audio mixer designed fo...

17/07/2026

Leveraging All of Entertainment's IP

Leveraging All of Entertainment's IP Andy Marken July 16, 2026 0 Comments Nobody ever wins the games. Period. There are survivors. There\s no win...

17/07/2026

RT Radio 1 continues its summer of stories, music, sport and conversation

New and returning series, live festival broadcasts, powerful documentaries and major sporting moments headline RT Radio 1's summer schedule RT Radio 1 is...

17/07/2026

NVIDIA Vera Rubin Maximizes Intelligence per Dollar for Post-Training Workloads - a Key Metric for Agentic AI

Think of a professional athlete. What separates elite performers is what happens...

17/07/2026

Dith, Jacqui and Louise bring hurling fans together ahead of the All-Ireland Finals

Up For The Match - Live From Croke Park this Saturday at 8pm on RT One and RT ...

17/07/2026

DiscoverIreland.ie announced as official show sponsor of The Traitors Ireland series 2

RT Commercial has today announced DiscoverIreland.ie, as sponsor of The Traitor...

16/07/2026

Business Innovation Synergizer: Grants of up to 30,000 for media organisations

Media organisations with tested plans for new products, services or revenue models can now apply for grants of up to 30,000 through the Business Innovation Syn...

16/07/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Kaden Sherman, Albany State University

This recent graduate and Georgia native has turned an early fascination with live production into a growing passion for camera work In the live-sports-video in...

16/07/2026

TNDV Marks First Year of Aspiration 35 Cinematic Production Truck

TNDV is marking the first anniversary of Aspiration 35, a mobile production truck built around ARRI Alexa 35 Live camera systems. Over its first year, the truck...

16/07/2026

ATSC Releases First Major Revision to A/85 Audio Loudness Recommended Practice Since 2013

ATSC has completed a major revision to its A/85 Recommended Practice: Techniques...

16/07/2026

FloSports Named Exclusive Global Media Partner for 2026 CrossFit Games

FloSports has announced an exclusive global media partnership with CrossFit for the 2026 CrossFit Games, presented by Air National Guard, beginning July 21 in S...

16/07/2026

Sennheiser Releases Spectera Firmware 1.4 and Command Button

Sennheiser has released firmware version 1.4 for its Spectera wireless system and announced the Spectera Command Button (Cat. No. 701014). The update adds comma...

16/07/2026

ESPN and Southwestern Athletic Conference Announce Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement Through 2030-31

ESPN and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) have announced a multi-year...

16/07/2026

Audio-Technica Releases 20 Series Control Application for Elgato Stream Deck

Audio-Technica has announced the 20 Series Control Application, a Stream Deck plug-in for compatible Audio-Technica USB microphones. The application is compatib...

16/07/2026

SSL Live L550 Plus Consoles Power Audio Production for The Voice France Season 15

The fifteenth season of The Voice - La plus belle voix on TF1 used four Solid St...

16/07/2026

Gray Media and Atlanta Hawks Announce Georgia-Wide Broadcast Partnership for 2026-27 NBA Season

Gray Media and the Atlanta Hawks have announced a broadcast partnership that wil...

16/07/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Quarterback Showrunner Joe Zucco on Cinematography, Building Trust, Carrying On the NFL Films Legacy

Season 3 of Netflix's docuseries, which dropped this week, follows Jayden Da...

16/07/2026

Texas Rangers Switch Direct-to-Consumer Streaming Partner to BZZR

The Texas Rangers and Rangers Sports Network presented by Progressive (RSN) have announced BZZR as the new direct-to-consumer distributor for Rangers game broad...

16/07/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: BBC Sport on Moving Across the Pond to Bring the Atmosphere of the Final Matches to Fans

With England's FIFA World Cup 2026 team getting ready to fly home after losi...

16/07/2026

With 36 Unilateral Cameras, NBC Sports Shapes 154th Open Championship Coverage for U.S. Viewers

In a return to Royal Birkdale, the team enjoys partnering with ETP and Gravity M...

16/07/2026

Altitude Sports & Entertainment's Tim De Lay on New SkyCam Digital Feed, Upgraded Studio Space

Along with a new studio at Ball Arena, the Colorado-based RSN is working with XR...

16/07/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: Inside ORF's Austria-Based Production to Bring All the Emotions of the Tournament to Fans

Austria was back at the World Cup for the first time in 28 years, and the team d...

16/07/2026

Inside Gravity Media's Effort To Power the 154th Open Championship Production

With 42 RF cameras and high-power radio mics deployed, the spectrum environment ...

16/07/2026

Baby Audio release SubCulture

A new benchmark in bass enhancement Described as a new benchmark in bass enhancement , Baby Audio's latest release has been designed to augment the lo...

16/07/2026

Other Worlds Evolved from Zero G

Popular library rebuilt in new Orbita Engine Other Worlds Evolved is the latest of Zero G's sample libraries to be treated to a ground-up rebuild using ...

16/07/2026

Native Instruments announce Super*Saw

Created in collaboration with A. G. Cook The newest addition to Native Instruments' software collection introduces a new synth created by A. G. Cook, a ...

16/07/2026

NITV and SBS bring Australians to the heart of Garma

NITV and SBS bring Australians to the heart of Garma 16 July, 2026 Media releases The Garma Festival returns from 31 July-3 August, with NITV and SBS deliv...

16/07/2026

Rohde & Schwarz supplies conformance test systems to Marquistech for India's first GCF RTO and PTCRB ATL lab

Rohde & Schwarz supplies conformance test systems to Marquistech for India's...

16/07/2026

The Gauge: Poland | June 2026

June brought stabilization to the television market. Poles spent an average of 3 hours and 36 minutes a day in front of their TV screens exactly the same as i...

16/07/2026

New studio monitoring leads Glensound's 60th year line-up...

Glensound returns to IBC with a major new addition to its intelligent loudspeaker range, the Greater Divine Supernal studio monitor, alongside recent developmen...

16/07/2026

Complete spectrum of innovation from British exhibitors a...

33 leading exhibitors are taking part in the GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions and linked locations across IBC2026 (Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September)...

16/07/2026

Hitomi Broadcast to showcase HDR colour verification and...

Hitomi Broadcast will introduce Spectra, a new HDR colour verification solution measured in picture, not using VPID, at IBC2026 (Hall 10, Stand A40). Expanding ...

16/07/2026

SMPTE Kicks Off 110th Anniversary Campaign

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Cox Media Group Taps Waymark for AI Ad Creation Tools

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Parks: Cable Broadband Sub Losses Slow Down

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

CatchLight, Sony Launch Initiative to Help Local Newsrooms

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

XR Launches XR ONE Ad Ops Platform

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

16/07/2026

Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions Partner to Provide...

Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver ...

16/07/2026

Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App

Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App Brie Clayton July 15, 2026 0 Comments Leader in Personal Aviation taps URSA Cin...