Honor Among Thieves

Dungeons & Dragons (working title Chainmail) is a live-action movie based on the Dungeons & Dragons franchise and set in the Forgotten Realms. It is currently in production by Paramount Pictures. It is written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley and stars Hugh Grant, Chris Pine, and Michelle Rodriguez, as well as Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, Regé-Jean Page, Chloe Coleman, Jason Wong, Daisy Head, and Dexter Fletcher. Filming is currently underway in Northern Ireland and Iceland, and it is due for release in 2023.

Warner Bros.
The story began as a screenplay called Chainmail, first written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (Wrath of the Titans) in 2011/2012. It was named for and apparently based on the Chainmail miniature wargame developed by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren that was a precursor to Dungeons & Dragons. Warner Bros. executive Jon Berg had asked Johnson to develop a screenplay based on D&D, despite Warner Bros. not then having the rights. John Middleton of Vertigo was attached as producer. Described as an action-adventure fantasy film, Johnson's script was well received at Warner Bros. in August 2012.

So well received that Warner Bros. then acquired rights to make a new Dungeons & Dragons live-action movie, to be produced by Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment (The Lego Movie, How to Train Your Dragon) and Courtney Solomon (known for the original Dungeons & Dragons movie in 2000), and executive produced by Allan Zeman of Sweetpea Entertainment (the rights holders since acquiring them from TSR, Inc. in the early 90s), as first reported on May 7, 2013. The Chainmail script was adopted and appropriately enough retrofitted to suit Dungeons & Dragons just as its namesake game had been. However, only a day later, it was reported Hasbro, owners of Wizards of the Coast and therefore D&D, were arguing the rights were theirs and furthermore they were planning a movie with Universal Studios, directed by Chris Morgan (writer of the Fast & Furious franchise and 47 Ronin). There was much complicated legal wrangling beyond the scope of a D&D wiki, but they did depend on whether The Book of Vile Darkness was a sequel to the previous Dungeons & Dragons and Wrath of the Dragon God movies.

They, and D&D fandom, will never know the answer to that question as, following a six-day trial in September 2014, Hasbro, Warner Bros., and Sweetpea settled out of court on the rights to a D&D movie. On August 3, 2015, they announced plans to make the D&D movie together, continuing the Warner Bros. project with the involvement of Hasbro's chief executive Brian Goldner and chief content officer Stephen Davis. Still using Johnson's Chainmail script, it was to be set in the popular and long-running Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It was to be produced at Warner Bros. studios, behind such fantasy works as Clash of the Titans and Wrath of the Titans, the Harry Potter series, The Hobbit trilogy, and 300: Rise of an Empire. According to Greg Silverman, president of creative development and worldwide production at Warner Bros., "We are so excited about bringing the world of Dungeons & Dragons to life on the big screen. This is far and away the most well-known brand in fantasy, which is the genre that drives the most passionate film followings. D&D has endless creative possibilities, giving our filmmakers immense opportunities to delight and thrill both fans and moviegoers new to the property."

John Middleton of Vertigo and Allan Zeman were later reported to be executive producers. According to The Tracking Board on March 31 and Variety on May 13, 2016, Rob Letterman (Gulliver's Travels, Goosebumps) was confirmed to direct the D&D movie after a successful presentation to executives.

Producers were rumored to be looking for an actor like Vin Diesel, a well-known D&D fan. On June 27, 2016, Ansel Elgort (The Divergent Series, Baby Driver) was reported to be in early talks to star. Dwayne Johnson was also in discussions to star at some point.

Paramount
However, a year and a half later, on December 18, 2017, Warner Bros. confirmed it was no longer developing a Dungeons & Dragons movie, while Paramount Pictures suddenly announced their own, to be released on July 23, 2021. This was alongside other movies based on other Hasbro properties, as part of a shared universe with Hasbro's Allspark Pictures.

On February 20, 2018, Chris McKay (director of The Lego Batman Movie) was reported to be in negotiations to direct the Dungeons & Dragons movie. Furthermore, it would be produced by Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis of Hasbro, and Michael Gillio was apparently rewriting Johnson's script. On March 8, 2018, Paramount was reportedly considering filming in the United Kingdom. It was reported on November 2, 2018, that principal photography would begin in summer of 2019. Furthermore, Shari Hanson (a visual effects producer for many Paramount movies) was added as a producer.

On March 12, 2019, it was reported that Gillio had submitted a new script and Paramount was so satisfied that, while final revisions were being made, they would begin looking for a new lead male actor from a shortlist of A-listers, naming Dave Bautista, Josh Brolin, Johnny Depp, Vin Diesel, Joel Edgerton, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Chris Pratt, Jeremy Renner and Will Smith.

However, Chris McKay moved on to another movie and by July 30, 2019, was replaced as director by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (directors of Game Night and co-writers of Spider-Man: Homecoming). Two days later, a source told wegotthiscovered.com that Goldstein and Daley were trying to get Zac Efron to play an important character named Malanthius, a big but not leading role.

Eventually, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic causing studio closures, filming delays, and difficulties, on April 24, 2020, the movie was delayed from November 19, 2021, to May 27, 2022, putting it in the middle of blockbuster movie season. By now, Goldstein and Daley had taken over scriptwriting. By May 7, 2020, Jeremy Latcham, a producer of several movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, had signed on with Hasbro's Entertainment One (eOne) studio and would work on the Dungeons & Dragons movie. On May 28, 2020, The Hollywood Reporter published an interview with Goldstein and Daley, in which they discussed how the pandemic lockdown affected their plans for the D&D movie, among other things. Their plans to scout locations in the United Kingdom in March were curtailed by the shutdown of travel, and they wrote the second draft while in isolation, while large crowd scenes were being reconsidered. Goldstein said "We want it to be fun. It's not an out-and-out comedy, but it is an action-fantasy movie with a lot of comedic elements and characters we hope people will really get into and enjoy watching their adventures." while Daley said "D&D is such a unique look at the fantasy genre where it is contemporary in terms of the people playing it and the way they speak to each other. So we never wanted to spoof the genre of fantasy or take the piss out of it. But we did want to find another way into it that we hadn't necessarily seen before. Just the format of Dungeons & Dragons is so interesting and fun and all about critical thinking and thinking on your feet and figuring out ways to make things work after they fall flat. There's a lot of the spirit of that that we're trying to inject into the movie itself."

Cinematographer Barry Peterson announced on Instagram on August 23, 2020 "D&D coming soon." and confirmed filming in Ireland, while sharing an image of what seems to be a dragon's eye. This is a recolored and cropped version of a widely available desktop wallpaper image, suggesting it is a mock-up if nothing else.

On April 4, 2021, Paramount announced delays for ten of its movies, including the D&D movie, which was pushed back from May 27, 2022, to March 3, 2023.

Casting
Chris Pine (Star Trek, Wonder Woman) was reported on December 14 to be in negotiations to star. The next week, the site Illuminerdi claimed an exclusive report, giving details about Chris Pine's character, called Edgin.

By February 8, 2021, Michelle Rodriguez (Fast & Furious and Resident Evil franchises among others) and Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), had closed deals to star in the movie, while Chris Pine was confirmed. Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton, Mortal Engines) was added a week later. In an interview with Variety in May, 2021, Page explained he wasn't a D&D player but said "I've listened to a couple of Dungeons and Dragons podcasts in my time. I played a ton of JRPGs and basically everything that's come out of it. I played a ton of Diablo as a teenager, so I'm used to the fact that I play a paladin—that's just what I do, and I know what that means, to a degree. I watched my friends play Baldur's Gate, so I’m like a second-generation 'Dungeons and Dragoner'." He recruited friends to teach him about D&D, adding "There is nowhere better or bigger to learn new worlds from than D&D." He said he was attracted by the Dungeons & Dragons movie script, observing it had stepped up and raised the bar for fantasy movies and would be a "huge sigh of relief for Dungeons & Dragons fans everywhere." Goldstein mentioned Page's role "allows him to show a full spectrum of his talent" and "He naturally exudes a sense of dignity and heroism that is fitting for the fantasy genre, and is perfect for the role we cast him in."

Hugh Grant, star of countless films, and Sophia Lillis (It, I Am Not Okay With This) were later reported to have joined by March 2. Grant was stated to be playing a villainous role. Various news sites added the rumor that Grant's character would be named "Forge Fletcher" and Lillis's "Doric", but the basis for this is unknown.

Chloe Coleman (My Spy, Avatar 2) was added to the cast by April 21. Jason Wong (The Gentlemen) was reported on May 13 to be playing a character called Drallas or Dralas. A week later, Daisy Head (Shadow and Bone) was reported to have joined the cast.

Dexter Fletcher (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Rocketman) revealed in an interview with Alex Zane of the Just the Facts podcast, released June 2, that he had a small role in the Dungeons & Dragons movie, "done as a favour for a mate" and had just done a single scene. He gave details of his character, "Marlaman" or "Marlamun".

Production
Filming was planned to begin in the first quarter of 2021, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at Titanic Studios, where Game of Thrones was filmed. However, the first filming took place in South Iceland, supervised by Truenorth Productions, as reported on April 7. Some 60–70 people were involved, using Icelandic stand-ins for the main cast who couldn't attend due to pandemic restrictions, and 15 visitors from overseas.

With the main cast, filming proper began in Belfast on April 29, with Goldstein posting a picture of the movie clapperboard for the first scene on Twitter on May 1, announcing "The campaign begins. #DnD", and Barry Peterson posting the same on Instagram with "Our adventure begins." Photographs of Titanic Studios taken around May 15–17 showed parts of the old King's Landing sets for Game of Thrones were rebuilt and others retained, with a new dark stone structure, artificial snow, and a blue screen added, seemingly for Dungeons & Dragons, though there may be some overlap with the GoT prequel House of the Dragon.

Filming began in the village of Ballintoy, Northern Ireland, on May 14; it had also been a location for Game of Thrones. Images of location filming being set up on the coast nearby appeared thereafter.

Filming was scheduled to take place around Wells Cathedral and Wells, Somerset, in England on June 2–5 and 8–12. Filming proper started on June 10, with images showing Chloe Coleman and other actors in costume.

Rumors also had filming scheduled to occur at Alnwick Castle (a location used for several movies) in Alnwick, Northumberland, with preparations going back to May 26th and the castle closed for a "private event" over June 7–12. Photos on June 4 showed the castle being embellished with fake lion-topped plinths and garden features, tracks being erased, tents outside and a market inside for the Dungeons & Dragons movie. The first images of filming at and around Alnwick Castle appeared on June 7 and 8, discussed below.

Story
Images of filming at Alnwick Castle from June 7 onward showed the castle hung with banners, some displaying the blue three-snowflakes symbol of Neverwinter, confirming at least some of the movie is set there, and the same symbol in yellow and orange within a sun, possibly similar to the holy symbol of Amaunator. Later images showed these sun banners removed. Other images showed warriors in armor and head tattoos, a boat on a river, artificial smoke or mist, a collection of tents outside and a small market inside, knights and peasants, and a large group of extras in medieval costume walking into the castle (see Gallery, below).

Meanwhile, images of filming at Wells Cathedral from June 10 showed Chloe Coleman in costume, and similar knights and characters in medieval dress.

In an interview with Collider at DICE 2016, Roy Lee suggested the Warner Bros. movie would be an ensemble picture, with a group of main characters, and have an adventurous feel, commenting "This new Dungeons & Dragons will be a Guardians of the Galaxy–tone movie in a Tolkien-like universe. Because when you think of all the Hobbit movies and The Lord of the Rings, they have an earnestness to them, and to see something fun, a Raiders romp inside that world, I feel is something the audience has not seen before." Of Warner Bros., he said "I believe they see Dungeons & Dragons as something that could be cultivated as a multi-universe movie where there will be spinoffs from the first movie being in Forgotten Realms and subsequent movies being in different worlds." He also promised it would go deep into the source material and that the writer and others were all long-term D&D fans: "everyone who's involved with it now, especially the writer of the first draft is a fan from the very beginning starting with Chainmail, which turned into Dungeons & Dragons, so you'll see things that are very faithful to the source material as well as new elements are being incorporated with help from Wizards of the Coast, who are giving a lot of input on the script." He revealed the movie would be entirely set within the Forgotten Realms, with the Yawning Portal Inn being a prominent feature and set piece of the movie.

A Wizards of the Coast press release on May 21, 2021, confirmed the Paramount movie is set in the Forgotten Realms and that it's not focused on Drizzt Do'Urden.

As to the story itself, various versions have been reported or rumored thus far. A preregistered copyright filed with the United States Copyright Office on May 12, 2021, gave a brief précis of the plot: "An ex-Harper turned thief escapes from prison with his partner, a female barbarian, and reunites with a no-talent wizard and a druid new to their team in an effort to rob the cheating conman who stole all their loot from the heist that landed them behind bars, and used it to install himself as the Lord of Neverwinter. Only the traitor is allied with a powerful Red Wizard who has something far more sinister in store."

This was subsequently reported to be "not accurate", according to unnamed sources and confirmations, perhaps because of a contradiction with earlier reported stories. Darryl Mott of Enworld offered more cogent reasons for this: as a placeholder description for copyright preregistration, it does not need to be official and may be an earlier or falsified version to prevent spoilers. Nevertheless, it is not necessarily incorrect as the extent of this inaccuracy is unclear, and it also does not necessarily conflict with the following accounts. It is retained here as a matter of interest.

Meanwhile, the description reported in industry publication Production Weekly as early as March 2016 and as late as April 2021 reads: "The action-adventure tale centers on Edgin (Pine) a warrior and his band of mystical creatures – including a half-dragon and a cunning gnome – as they embark on a dangerous journey to find a mythical treasure."

This aligns more closely with the following rumors and reports, though they may of course be based on the same Production Weekly description.

On June 27, 2016, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News claimed to have seen David Leslie Johnson's first draft of the script. Apparently named Dungeons & Dragons: The Hand of Chaos, it is an "Object Quest style D&D story", described as more like Indiana Jones than Warcraft, with "competitors and traitors and all manners of magic and monsters and Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson inspired awesomery throughout." Characters include Raven Hightower, played by Ansel Elgort; a gnome cutpurse, a bald warlock, and a half-dragon, possibly fighting a gnoll at some point. (Incidentally, The Hand of Chaos shares a name with a non-D&D fantasy novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, noted writers of the Dragonlance D&D setting.) It is unclear what remains of Johnson's Chainmail script; Johnson's name is no longer attached, only Gillio's, but the Chainmail working title is retained and the Production Weekly description and these rumors remain aligned.

On November 27, 2019, Christian Hoffer of Comicbook.com claimed an exclusive report from a source on the Paramount movie's plot elements, giving character names and details that tallied with the earlier reports pertaining to the Warner Bros. project. This focuses on "a group of adventurers looking for the Eye of Vecna" and includes the dragon Palarandusk (to be voiced by a male actor) as "an ancient leader of a group of Triadic Knights". As well Raven Hightower, it mentioned Hack Karroway, Olivan Trickfoot, Alyssa Steelsong as heroes, as well as Razer Horlbar, Damala, and the Beast, detailed below.

Characters
Confirmed characters in the movie are:
 * Marlamun or Marlaman (spelling unknown), played by Dexter Fletcher. Bearded and diminutive, he lives in a small house, and is thus likely to be a dwarf, gnome, or halfling. He is the ex-husband of Michelle Rodriguez's character.

Reported or rumored characters are:
 * Edgin, played by Chris Pine, a warrior.  In his 30s to late 40s, Edgin is said to be "down on his luck and not the classic hero, but still lovable" and "Edgin is comedic, but with demons." This character is described as similar to Peter Quill/Starlord of Guardians of the Galaxy. (He apparently replaces Raven Hightower.)
 * A paladin, played by Regé-Jean Page. (It's unclear if Page is referring to the movie or his Diablo character.)
 * Forge Fletcher, played by Hugh Grant
 * Doric, played by Sophia Lillis
 * Drallas or Dralas, played by James Wong
 * Raven Hightower, a warrior with a flaming sword, long hair, beard, and dark sunken eyes. He and his sister were once slaves of Razer Horlbar, and he is haunted by his sister's death. (Possibly replaced by Edgin.)
 * Olivan Trickfoot, a cunning gnome thief.
 * Hack Karroway, a half-dragon.
 * Alyssa Steelsong, a masked warrior set to take Palarandusk's place after his death.
 * Palarandusk, a dragon and leader of a group of Triadic Knights. (Palarandusk is a gold dragon known to be a protector of Neverwinter.)
 * Razer Horlbar, a male drow who once enslaved Raven and his sister. (Presumably he is a member of House Horlbar.)
 * Damala, a female tiefling.
 * The Beast, a brutish warrior.
 * Malanthius, a mage and potential ally of the main characters; an important but not leading role. (This character has a very similar name and occupation as the Magister Malanthus Stormstaern.)
 * An ex-Harper turned thief.
 * A female barbarian.
 * A no-talent wizard.
 * A druid.
 * A conman turned Lord of Neverwinter.
 * A Red Wizard.

Gallery

 * Alnwick Castle location shooting