Filming for the new Dungeon & Dragons movie is officially underway. Co-director Jonathan Goldstein officially announced that Paramount and eOne’s Dungeons & Dragons movie has started filming via Twitter earlier today by posting a photo of one of the first clappers for the film. Goldstein is co-directing the movie with his frequent partner John Francis Daley. The pair previously wrote the script for Spider-Man: Homecoming and also directed the movies Game Night and Vacation. Goldstein and Daley also wrote the script for the Dungeons & Dragons movie, as well.
The campaign begins. #DnD pic.twitter.com/0BVulsLuVH
— Jonathan Goldstein (@JM_Goldstein) May 1, 2021
The beginning of production marks the culmination in a long and winding road for the new Dungeons & Dragons movie. News broke that Paramount was planning to make a D&D movie back in 2017, but it took several years and multiple script revisions until plans seemed to pick up speed. Reports broke that Goldstein and Daley were attached to direct the film back in 2019, and COVID-19 forced Paramount to move the movie’s release date twice – initially until Memorial Day weekend 2022 and then to its current date of March 3, 2023. It was only late last year that casting officially got underway, with plans announced to film the movie in Ireland in the spring.
Dungeons & Dragons is the latest attempt to transform the popular tabletop roleplaying game into a multimedia television and movie franchise in the vein of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. The game was loosely adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon in the 1980s, and was also the subject of a trilogy of poorly reviewed movies in the early 2000s. This newest attempt has significantly more clout than previous Dungeons & Dragons entertainment projects – the movie’s ensemble cast includes Chris Pine, Bridgerton breakout star Regé-Jean Page, and Hugh Grant as the villain. Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Chloe Coleman will also star in the movie.
There’s still no word on the plot of the new Dungeons & Dragons movie, nor is there any confirmation as to whether the movie is set in one of the many worlds of the game. Hasbro is also developing multiple live-action projects based on Dungeons & Dragons, including a TV series developed by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad.