The long awaited film adaption of the successful role playing game (RPG) Dungeons & Dragons is back in the headlines. Sources at Deadline confirmed that Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley are in talks to direct the upcoming film for Paramount and Hasbro’s Allspark Pictures.
Goldstein and Daley have already proven their directing talents with last year’s surprisingly good dark comedy Game Night for Warner Bros and New Line Cinema. They’ve also had a creative hand in writing the script for Spider-Man: Homecoming and were originally attached to direct The Flash movie starring Ezra Miller, but eventually left the project for the Dungeons & Dragons vacancy.
Much like the game, a silver screen adaptation of Dungeons & Dragons has proven a steep uphill battle, as the film’s rights have been aired out in court over the past several years. Warner Bros and New Line Cinema attempted to get this film off the ground multiple times, including an adaptation involving Lego Batman contributor Chris McKay. McKay would later back out of the project in favor of the upcoming film Ghost Draft starring Chris Pratt. Likewise, the financial failure of Warcraft did little to help Dungeons & Dragons’ fruition with Legendary and Universal, prompting Paramount to retool the film in order for it to become a blockbuster.
More on the film will be revealed as this develops.