Chris Pine Has Been Cast In The Dungeons & Dragons Film

Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman, This Is War) is finalizing contractual details to join the Dungeons & Dragons Hollywood film. This news comes from Variety. The popular fantasy tabletop role-playing game was first published in 1974 and has gone on to become a behemoth in worldwide sales and over 40 million active players in 2019.

The game has attracted fans to its imaginative and acclaimed gameplay which saw viewers watching over 43 billion minutes in 2019 via Twitch alone. With a release date set for May 2022, the Paramount Pictures release is being helmed by Johnathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley who directed Game Night.

Chris Pine is perhaps not the first name that comes to mind when you think about a movie version of Dungeons & Dragons. Vin Diesel is notably infamous for his admiration of the series. He’s regularly quoted in media interviews for his love of playing Dungeons & Dragons. Alas, his name isn’t attached to this project.

Another person attached to the series is Joe Manganiello (True Blood, Spider-Man). Collider reported in January of this year that his script could ‘save’ the movie. Apparently, Manganiello had co-written a draft treatment for the rumoured film and also met with creators Wizards Of The Coast to talk about its development.

His vision for the film included a focus on the human aspect, as he explained in his interview with Collider: “Obviously there’s a spectacle. There’s dragons breathing and lightning. But what makes a great superhero or fantasy movie is the human aspect”

This project has long remained in development hell with Warner Bros. Pictures originally beginning development in 2015. In 2000 a film version of the series was released by New Line Cinema starring Marlon Wayans & Thora Birch, which was widely panned by critics.

Yet, in 2005 it received a sequel via Television, Wrath of The Dragon Gold and a direct to DVD release called The Book of Vile Darkness in 2011. With high expectations, the studios will be hoping that they are able to emulate some of the minor success that the Warcraft film received in 2016.

Could the Dungeons & Dragons movie starring Chris Pine be a Box Office Bomb?

Credit: Paramount Pictures

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While the film became the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time, Warcraft was unable to break even with a worldwide box office of $439m. The film vastly bombed in the US domestic market taking only $47.4m, with the rest of its £391.7m coming from worldwide audiences.

Along with an under performance domestically, the film suffered poor reviews from critics and a previously expected sequel failed to materialize.

What do you make of this news? Are you looking forward to seeing Chris Pine in a Dungeons & Dragons movie? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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