I wish there was a Tolkien-esque Fantasy Cinematic Universe for something.

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Game of Thrones is almost finished, and the Warcraft movie failed to launch one so no Lich King movie and no Warcraft Paladins on the big screen :(


I have always been a Fantasy guy and wish for a Cinematic Universe for it I long for the days when Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, and Harry Potter were regular thing in cinema, I am getting tired of Superhero movies (and since DCEU is changing to appeal to the mainstream's taste and firing Zack Snyder, its dead to me)

But what can be adapted to the big screen?
 

Thaluikhain

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The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks? Ok, yeah, bit of an odd choice, but still.

Oh, WHFB, before AoS.
 

PsychedelicDiamond

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I'm kinda sad that Warcraft didn't take off. It wasn't particulary good but it presented a compelling world that was just different enough from Tolkien's to be interesting in its own right.

Now, I'm not much of a Pen and Paper guy but couldn't you do something with the "Dungeons and Dragons" brand?
 

Thaluikhain

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PsychedelicDiamond said:
Now, I'm not much of a Pen and Paper guy but couldn't you do something with the "Dungeons and Dragons" brand?
There have been attempts, in part to retain the rights. Nothing terribly memorable.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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PsychedelicDiamond said:
I'm kinda sad that Warcraft didn't take off. It wasn't particulary good but it presented a compelling world that was just different enough from Tolkien's to be interesting in its own right.

Now, I'm not much of a Pen and Paper guy but couldn't you do something with the "Dungeons and Dragons" brand?
Watch Nobbel87's videos for all things Warcraft:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV3Yvqnl3FYcsI4px2GaIxUQ8io4kuZ2s

Here is his playlist where everything is in chronological order (and note that some videos were made before recent lore developments and changes and retcons happened)

Or read World of Warcraft Chronicles Trilogy. Though it goes up to a certain point in the lore and the games since went beyond where Chronicles ends. I.E. The latter 4 expansions of World of Warcraft.
 

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PsychedelicDiamond said:
Now, I'm not much of a Pen and Paper guy but couldn't you do something with the "Dungeons and Dragons" brand?
There were a few films. I saw the first one from 2000.

All I remember from it was:
-Jeremy Irons being a giant Ham(probably the best part of the film).
-Liberally cribbing from Star Wars.
-Liberally cribbing from Indiana Jones.
-Killing the annoying comic relief character.
-Bring the annoying comic relief character back to life just before the end of the film, both ruining any pathos gained from killing him and again subjecting us to his annoying comic relief stick(so a double whammy).

So you didn't really miss anything.

Apparently there was another one, which might have been marginally better.
 

twistedmic

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I'd like to see an on-screen (film or television) representation of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series but I don't know how likely that is.
 

Hawki

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Why would you want a fantasy cinematic universe?

Fantasy sells itself on worldbuilding, and if you do it well, making your world feel unique. So, for instance, why would I want Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter to exist in the same universe? Their worlds are different, their stories are different, their characters are different, their themes are different, perhaps most importantly in this scenario, their tones are VERY different. Throwing them all together is only going to dilute them.

If you want fantasy to come back to the big screen, hate to break it to you, but fantasy has usually struggled on the silver screen. Yes, we got Lord of the Rings and Hobbit, along with Harry Potter, but how many times did films try to adapt fantasy works and fail? Warcraft? Eragon? Chronicles of Narnia (they managed to get three films, but that's still 3/7). Seventh Son? Dungeons and Dragons? Dungeon Siege? It doesn't help that fantasy is a fringe genre, and a very expensive one to put to film.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Hawki said:
Why would you want a fantasy cinematic universe?

Fantasy sells itself on worldbuilding, and if you do it well, making your world feel unique. So, for instance, why would I want Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Harry Potter to exist in the same universe? Their worlds are different, their stories are different, their characters are different, their themes are different, perhaps most importantly in this scenario, their tones are VERY different. Throwing them all together is only going to dilute them.

If you want fantasy to come back to the big screen, hate to break it to you, but fantasy has usually struggled on the silver screen. Yes, we got Lord of the Rings and Hobbit, along with Harry Potter, but how many times did films try to adapt fantasy works and fail? Warcraft? Eragon? Chronicles of Narnia (they managed to get three films, but that's still 3/7). Seventh Son? Dungeons and Dragons? Dungeon Siege? It doesn't help that fantasy is a fringe genre, and a very expensive one to put to film.
Superheroes and Sci Fi were fringe at one point. Why is fantasy still a fringe genre?

Also why did Chronicles of Narnia fail? They had 2 fairly successful movies especially the first one. Third one everyone agreed wasn't that spectacular.
 

Saelune

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They should make DnD movies about Drizzt. The reason DnD movies usually fail is because they are generic fantasy. They never set them in established DnD settings. People like Drizzt, people like the Forgotten Realms. I think they would do great.
 

Samtemdo8_v1legacy

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Saelune said:
They should make DnD movies about Drizzt. The reason DnD movies usually fail is because they are generic fantasy. They never set them in established DnD settings. People like Drizzt, people like the Forgotten Realms. I think they would do great.
They should do Warhammer movies about Gotrek and Felix:

http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Gotrek_and_Felix
 

sXeth

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There's not really much (any?) fantasy that's written in that style. With multiple characters that have their own distinct protagonist tales and also crossover cases. The main one I can think of offhand was the Dragonlance D&D novels, and they did try and get that off the ground and its never worked.

Creating something new is an option, but pulling that level of investment in with an unproven IP seems unlikely.
 

Hawki

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Samtemdo8 said:
Superheroes and Sci Fi were fringe at one point. Why is fantasy still a fringe genre?
Sci-fi is still fringe, but that aside, I can give the following suggestions:

-Superheroes are mostly set in our own world, so it's easier for the average person to get invested. A lot of fantasy takes place in its own world, so from the outset, there's a higher barrier to entry.

-Fantasy tends to be dense once you reach the adult level. As in, the books are long, and there's a helluva lot of books in a series. Superheroes don't have to deal with that. While comics are a niche medium, you can easily read a comic/graphic novel in but a fraction of the time of a 1000+ page book. And even your average superhero film will be compressed into a reasonable running time. To cite a personal example, working in a library (going by statistics released in one of the networks I work at, adult fantasy books are the second least borrowed, being only more popular than horror), in junior fiction or young adult, fantasy books tend to be reasonably popular - the Harry Potters and Percy Jacksons of the world. Once you get to adult however, interest in fantasy plummets.

-Superhero material tends to deal with simplistic themes via simplistic characters. That may be a generalization, but your average superhero flick is "good guy fights bad guy, good guy wins," usually in the scope of 32 comic pages. Fantasy can (and often does) boil down to good vs. evil scenarios, but they're scenarios that tend to be much more fleshed out. Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia bother have binary worlds for instance, but there's plenty of themes packaged in both works. In contrast, if Spider-Man beats the Green Goblin (again), what is there to take in other than "yay, Peter won?"

-Fantasy has a stigma attached to it that it's all ultimately derivative of Tolkien. And while there's some truth to that, it's a simplified truth. Superheroes have stigma as well, but through stuff like the MCU (bleh), they seem to have overcome that.

Also why did Chronicles of Narnia fail? They had 2 fairly successful movies especially the first one. Third one everyone agreed wasn't that spectacular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia:_The_Voyage_of_the_Dawn_Treader#Commercial_analysis

That might give you an idea, but TBH...I don't know.

Of the recent film series (not talking about the BBC ones), I quite liked LWW. Yes, it sacrificed some thematic depth from the book, but replaced it by being a pretty fun fantasy adventure. And despite what the article above says, I don't buy the idea that Narnia can only appeal to Christian audiences. Not a Christian myself, but I loved these books as a kid. As an adult, and being able to better appreciate the themes/allusions, I still quite like them (well, not The Last Battle, but hey, 6/7 is still good). Maybe I'm the outlier, but there's stillf "Christian films" I like as someone who's irreligious.

But apparently The Silver Chair is being made (good) that was apparently meant to be a reboot (how do you start any Narnia series with Silver Chair?), so, um, yay?
 

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Most of the Fantasy stuff is made for TV movies and series and honestly has not been done well for the most part, not really for the big screen. They turn out Mythology, Historical fantasy every now and then, and I personally think there is enough of an audience for that it could do well in a "Universe" as long as it does not get too silly. I would like to see some D&D expanded as well. It seems like every few years another Hercules or Conan movie comes out for TV, and we have Historical mixes such as Vikings, Last kingdom going on all the time, but I too would like to see something more done in Fantasy as well. I think there is probably a larger audience for this than might be realized.

I do think it is more likely to work in a made for TV/ Netflix format though than the silver screen as that has become a difficult area for many genres not just Fantasy in recent years. It would have to " work it's way up to" silver screen rather than start there I think.
 

Blood Brain Barrier

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Haven't seen Game of Thrones but I thought the recent Shannara TV series was quite good and could have worked on the big screen. Of course, it would have probably been more action-oriented which would not be to my liking.
 

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Blood Brain Barrier said:
Haven't seen Game of Thrones but I thought the recent Shannara TV series was quite good and could have worked on the big screen. Of course, it would have probably been more action-oriented which would not be to my liking.
I hadn't seen that! I am going to have to check it out now that I know it exists. Thanks for bringing it up :)
 
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Saelune said:
They should make DnD movies about Drizzt. The reason DnD movies usually fail is because they are generic fantasy. They never set them in established DnD settings. People like Drizzt, people like the Forgotten Realms. I think they would do great.
See now I'm just imagining a movie that seems like a regular fantasy movie...until a mid-credits scene where Drizzt shows up and tells the main character he wants to talk to them about the Forgotten Realms Initiative
 

Saelune

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Palindromemordnilap said:
Saelune said:
They should make DnD movies about Drizzt. The reason DnD movies usually fail is because they are generic fantasy. They never set them in established DnD settings. People like Drizzt, people like the Forgotten Realms. I think they would do great.
See now I'm just imagining a movie that seems like a regular fantasy movie...until a mid-credits scene where Drizzt shows up and tells the main character he wants to talk to them about the Forgotten Realms Initiative
I mean, Drizzt has quite a band of allies, so if there ever were to be a 'fantasy super hero team', it would be Drizzt and his buddies. I would imagine that Elminster would be the Nick Fury of that though.
 

sXeth

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Saelune said:
Palindromemordnilap said:
Saelune said:
They should make DnD movies about Drizzt. The reason DnD movies usually fail is because they are generic fantasy. They never set them in established DnD settings. People like Drizzt, people like the Forgotten Realms. I think they would do great.
See now I'm just imagining a movie that seems like a regular fantasy movie...until a mid-credits scene where Drizzt shows up and tells the main character he wants to talk to them about the Forgotten Realms Initiative
I mean, Drizzt has quite a band of allies, so if there ever were to be a 'fantasy super hero team', it would be Drizzt and his buddies. I would imagine that Elminster would be the Nick Fury of that though.
The thing with Drizzt (and why I used the Heroes of the Lance instead), is that most of his side characters are side characters. They get their own side adventures in rare proportion. Like you'd need 2 or 3 Drizzt Do'Urden movies just to push forward to the point where others start being introduced.

Adding components of a broader cast around a single person can work, but Drizzt might be a bit of a tougher sell then Captain America or Superman (the respective characters in the comic movies that they've sort of had as central pillars).