New 'Dungeons & Dragons' Movie Will Star Chris Pine

Hollywood's latest attempt at a Dungeons & Dragons movie just got some star power: Chris Pine. Pine has closed a deal to appear in the fantasy film from writers-directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night). There are no plot details at the moment, but the film will be based on the fantasy tabletop role-playing game that has captured the hearts and minds of nerds everywhere.

Deadline has the scoop that Chris Pine will star in the Dungeons & Dragons movie from Hasbro, eOne, and Paramount. This won't be the first time the popular roleplaying game has been adapted to the screen – in 2000, there was a notoriously bad film that featured Justin Whalin, Marlon Wayans, Thora Birch, and Jeremy Irons. Despite the enduring legacy of the game, the film only made $33.8 million on a $45 million budget. And yet there were also sequels – a made-for-TV sequel called Wrath of the Dragon God, and the direct-to-video sequel The Book of Vile Darkness.

Studios have been trying to roll the dice on a new Dungeons & Dragons film for a while now. In 2015, a new movie was set up at Warner Bros. Pictures, with Rob Letterman attached to direct. But 2017, the project had moved to Paramount, and actor Joe Manganiello – who is a fan and player of the game – tried to get in on the action. Later, LEGO Batman Movie director Chris McKay entered into negotiations to direct. But by 2019, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, writers of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and directors of Game Night, were being considered to direct. Earlier this year, Goldstein and Daley announced they had also finished a script for the film.

Now, they're officially directing that script, based on an earlier draft by Michael Gilio. When it comes to the Dungeons & Dragons games, "You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more. You can also explore the world of Dungeons & Dragons through any of the novels written by its fantasy authors, as well as engaging board games and immersive video games." There are no plot details for the new movie available at this time, but Deadline adds that the plan is to craft a film that will feature "an ensemble cast and take a subversive approach to the game."

I'm not entirely sure what a "subversive approach to the game" means, but I have a feeling it'll take some sort of Jumanji approach and have people playing the game sucked into the fantasy world, or something along those lines. That's a wild guess on my part, but that seems to be the way Hollywood tends to approach these types of things.