Chris Pine has been joined by Michelle Rodriguez, and Justice Smith in the Paramount and eOne’s big-budget Dungeons & Dragons feature adaptation. The duo behind New Line’s sleeper hit Game Night - Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley - are set to direct the feature based on the popular fantasy role-playing game. They’ve also written the latest version of the script.
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. It was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. It has been published by Wizards of the Coast, which is now a subsidiary of Hasbro, since 1997. The game was derived from miniature wargames, with a variation of the 1971 game Chainmail serving as the initial rule system. The game departs from traditional wargaming by allowing each player to create their own character to play instead of a military formation. Characters can go on treasure hunts, reversals of fortune, all in a fantasy setting that combines humans, elves, orcs, and hundreds of other creatures, not including the one players make up as they work their way through quests. The game uses multi-sided dice that are recognizable even by those who have never played the game.
Justice Smith’s star has been on the rise the last few years. He recently starred in Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Netflix’s All the Bright Places alongside Elle Fanning. He also recently wrapped shooting Jurassic World: Dominion for Universal, in which he reprises his character from 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Michelle Rodriguez, best known for her work in the Fast & Furious movies, has another Fast movie on the way this year. F9 is currently slated for a release date for May 28, 2021, although the film has been moved several times, and it could happen again. Rodriguez recently appeared in Steve McQueen’s Widows.
