Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves — BrandWiki

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Overview

editing
alt	Six people in a circle looking down
director	Jonathan Goldstein John Francis Daley
screenplay	Jonathan Goldstein John Francis Daley Michael Gilio
story	Chris McKay Michael Gilio
based on	Dungeons & Dragons by Hasbro
producer	Jeremy Latcham Brian Goldner Nick Meyer
starring	Chris Pine Michelle Rodriguez Regé-Jean Page Justice Smith Sophia Lillis Hugh Grant
cinematography	Barry Peterson

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 fantasy heist comedy film directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio from a story by Chris McKay and Gilio. Based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, it is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and has no connections to the previous film trilogy released between 2000 and 2012. Starring Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant, the film follows bard Edgin Darvis (Pine) and barbarian Holga Kilgore (Rodriguez), who enlist a team of unlikely heroes to steal an ancient and powerful relic but come into conflict with evil forces.

Production went through various phases in development since 2013, beginning with Warner Bros. Pictures after beating Hasbro and Universal Pictures in a lawsuit over the film rights to the tabletop game, before moving to Paramount Pictures, each with various writers and directors. Goldstein and Daley were the final writers/directors, using elements from the previous attempt by director Chris McKay and screenwriter Michael Gilio.

music	Lorne Balfe‡R3R‡

studio	Paramount Pictures‡R4R‡ Hasbro Entertainment One‡R4R‡

distributor	Paramount Pictures (select territories) Entertainment One (United Kingdom) Sam Film (Iceland)

runtime	134 minutes‡R5R‡

country	United States‡R6R‡‡R7R‡ Canada‡R7R‡ United Kingdom‡R7R‡ Iceland‡R7R‡ Australia‡R7R‡

language	English

budget	$150 million

gross	$208.2 million‡R8R‡‡R9R‡

Plot

Prior to being imprisoned for grand larceny, bard Edgin "Ed" Darvis served in the Harpers, an order of peacekeepers, until his wife was killed by disciples of a Red Wizard he arrested. Accompanied by barbarian Holga Kilgore, Ed attempted to make a new life for himself and his daughter Kira by turning to theft, teaming with amateur sorcerer Simon Aumar, rogue con artist Forge Fitzwilliam, and Forge's mysterious acquaintance Sofina. While raiding a Harper stronghold, Ed attempted to steal a "Tablet of Reawakening" to resurrect his wife, but he and Holga were captured, though their accomplices escaped.

After two years' imprisonment in frozen Revel's End, Ed and Holga escape to Neverwinter and learn Forge has become Lord there after its prior Lord was mysteriously incapacitated. He has been taking care of Kira, convincing her that Ed's greed led to his arrest. It is revealed that Sofina is a Red Wizard and together they orchestrated Ed and Holga's capture.

Sofina orders Ed and Holga's execution, but they escape and decide to rob Forge's vault and bring Kira home during the upcoming High Sun Games, needing the tablet to prove their innocence to Kira and resurrect Ed's wife. Ed and Holga track down Simon to help. With his help, the group also recruits Doric, a druid whose forest community is fighting forced logging ordered by Forge.

After shapeshifting into a fly, Doric infiltrates Forge's castle and finds the vault has magical defenses from Mordenkainen, which Simon cannot disable. He believes a magic relic, "The Helm of Disjunction," could help, and the group travels to a graveyard to ask Holga's ancestors where to find it. Simon resurrects the dead with a talisman long enough for them to answer the group's questions. The corpses reveal they gave the Helm to Xenk Yendar, a paladin who fled Thay, his country, when Red Wizard Szass Tam turned Thayans into an undead army.

After forcing Ed to swear to distribute any gained bounty to the people, Xenk guides the group through the Underdark to retrieve the Helm. With the help of a teleportation staff obtained from Holga's halfling ex-husband, they find the relic but are attacked by Thayan assassins sent by Sofina. Xenk fights them off and helps the group escape from the obese red dragon Themberchaud before departing.

Simon has trouble mastering the Helm's power, so they decide to use the staff to enter the vault during the games. After finally attuning to the helm by overcoming his self-esteem issues, Simon dispels the magical seal on the vault. He and Holga enter the vault, but find the room empty except for a magical trap. Sofina, disguised as Kira, subdues Ed. The group is captured and forced to participate in the games, but escapes the stadium. Doric discovers Forge has loaded the treasure onto a boat and is preparing to flee. The group steals the boat for themselves and rescues Kira from Forge.

As they escape, the group realize Sofina organized the games to draw a massive crowd and turn them into an undead army using the curse that destroyed Thay. The group returns, transporting Forge's stolen riches out of the boat with the teleportation staff and spreading them across the city by hot-air balloon, drawing people out of the stadium before Sofina's spell takes effect.

Enraged at her failure, Sofina attacks the group. Simon nullifies her time-stop spell, allowing Kira to use the invisibility pendant Ed and Holga gave her as a child to place an anti-magic bracelet on Sofina. Although the group manages to incapacitate Sofina, Holga is fatally injured. Ed uses the tablet to bring her back to life, realizing he wanted to bring back his wife only for his own sake, while Holga had become a true part of their family. Doric expresses being open to a relationship with Simon.

Restored, the old Lord of Neverwinter declares the team heroes of the realm. Xenk sends Forge to Revel's End, where he fails to escape as Ed and Holga did when his pardon is denied.

Production

Development and casting

In May 2013, Warner Bros. Pictures and Courtney Solomon's Sweetpea Entertainment announced a film based on Dungeons & Dragons with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick writing the script and Roy Lee, Alan Zeman, and Solomon producing.[27] Two days later, Hasbro issued a lawsuit saying that they were co-producing a Dungeons & Dragons film at Universal Pictures with Chris Morgan writing and directing.[28][29][30][31][32] In August 2015, after U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee urged Sweetpea Entertainment and Hasbro to settle the film rights case, the Warner Bros. film was set for pre-production with Hasbro.[33] In March 2016, Rob Letterman was in negotiations to direct Johnson-McGoldrick's script,[34] with his role confirmed in May 2016.[35] In April 2017, actor Joe Manganiello, an avid fan of Dungeons & Dragons, revealed that he had written a script with John Cassel for the project and was "talking to all the right parties" to make the film happen.[36] Upon completing the script, Manganiello worked in collaboration with Brad Peyton and Dwayne Johnson, who were both in negotiations to develop the film.[37]

In December 2017, after varying degrees of progression, the film was moved by Hasbro to Paramount Pictures and was scheduled for a release date of July 23, 2021.[38] In February 2018, Paramount was in talks with both Chris McKay and Michael Gilio to direct and write the film, respectively.[39] In March 2019, it was revealed that Gilio had completed a first draft and studio executives expressed excitement for the film. The studio began negotiations with various talent, as the casting process began.[40] In July 2019, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley were in talks to direct.[41] Goldstein and Daley began meeting with Paramount following Daley talking about his career with a literary agent at a sports bar in Sherman Oaks during a game between the Chicago Cubs, which Daley is a fan of, and the Los Angeles Dodgers. After saying to the agent that he and Goldstein had left directing duties on The Flash, the agent asked if they were looking for work. The agent tipped off Paramount, who presented Goldstein and Daley with the script for Dungeons & Dragons.

In June 2016, Ansel Elgort was in talks to star in Letterman's iteration of the film.[43] In December 2020, Chris Pine was cast to star in the film.[44] Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Regé-Jean Page were added in February 2021.[45][46] Hugh Grant and Sophia Lillis would join the next month, with Grant cast as the antagonist.[47] In April, Chloe Coleman joined the ensemble cast.[48] In May, Jason Wong and Daisy Head joined the cast.[49]

Writing

By January 2020, Goldstein and Daley announced that they had co-written a new draft of the script.[52][53] Ultimately, Daley, Goldstein, and Gilio received screenplay credit, while McKay and Gilio received story credit.[54] The film is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons.[55][2] Goldstein stated that "ours is a movie that doesn't take itself with great seriousness, but it's never a spoof. It honors the world of D&D and celebrates it but, hopefully, it gives the audience an engaging and fun ride".[56] Daley commented that the film's influences include The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lord of the Rings, and

Filming and visual effects

Filming began in early April 2021, with a crew of 60–70 people in Iceland.[60] Principal photography commenced in Belfast, Northern Ireland later that month.[61][62] Goldstein stated that when the cast arrived in Northern Ireland they "played a several-hours-long game of D&D" with the actors role-playing as their film characters which "gave those who were not familiar with [D&D] a quick taste of what the game is like and how you interact".[56] This game "also informed the directors' takes on the characters" with Goldstein commenting that "I think we incorporated some of the things we learned from that game into the film".[56] On August 19, 2021, Daley announced that filming had completed.[63]

Reception

Box office

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves grossed $93.3million in the United States and Canada, and $114.9million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $208.2 million.[8][9]

After the premiere at South by Southwest, A.A. Dowd at Chron noted that "the reaction at the Paramount Theatre last night suggests that this could be a bigger hit than plenty have predicted, if word of its canny exploitation of the Marvel model travels fast and far."[110] In the United States and Canada, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was released alongside A Thousand and One and His Only Son, and was projected to $30–40 million from 3,850 theaters in its opening weekend.[111][112] The film made $15.2 million on its first day, which included $5.6 million in advance screenings in the week leading up to its release, with $4.1 million coming from Thursday previews.[113] It went on to debut to $37.2 million, topping the box office; 61% of the opening weekend audience was male and 63% was between 18 and 34 years old.[114] The film made $13.9 million in its second weekend (a drop of 62%), finishing in third.[115] In its third weekend, the film grossed $7.5 million, a decline of 46% from the previous weekend.[116] Kayleena Pierce-Bohen of Screen Rant called the film a "box office bomb" and said that the film's disappointing profits were due to poor marketing of the film, tough competition with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and the fans boycotting the companies Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro.[117]

Outside of the US and Canada, the film grossed $33 million from 60 markets in its first weekend.[118] In its second weekend, Honor Among Thieves grossed $15.5 million, for a drop of 45%.[119] The film earned another $13.8 million from 64 markets in its third weekend.[120]

Critical response

[121] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 90% positive score, with 77% saying they would definitely recommend it.[114]

Nicholas Barber, for BBC, stated that "fantasy adventures might be getting ever more gloomy and portentous on television, but the producers of Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves have followed the Marvel Studios tactic of hiring comedy directors to make a blockbuster [...]. The film they've made is a feelgood, family-friendly caper, which is not a description you can apply to HBO's House of the Dragon or Amazon's The Rings of Power". Barber commented that Goldstein and Daley went for "a bright, snappy heist movie" instead of "an epic odyssey". Christian Holub, for Entertainment Weekly, highlighted that adapting the Dungeons & Dragons game is different from adapting "novels by J.R.R. Tolkien or George R.R. Martin" as "the goal is to capture an experience rather than a specific story—and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves delightfully nails the fun of role-playing as fantasy characters with your friends". Rafael Motamayor, for Polygon, commented that the film feels like the "latest session" in a years-long Dungeons & Dragons campaign and that Honor Among Thieves "does a great job of capturing the different tones players might experience in their own campaigns, from horror to campy fun, and from epic high fantasy to a thrilling heist".

Accolades

Future

Possible sequel

In an interview with Polygon in April 2023 on the potential for a film sequel, Daley stated that "it was never our intention when we came on board this film to make a franchise".[142] Goldstein commented that they would continue with the characters established in Honor Among Thieves if they returned to the D&D world—"the audience knows them, and you can jump into the plot more quickly. And obviously, we have great affection for both the actors and these roles that they play. But we'd want to introduce some new figures along the way".[142]

In July 2023, Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins stated in an interview with Variety that a sequel could still happen, on the condition that it be produced on a smaller budget due to the disappointing box-office reception of the film.[143]

Spin-off television series

In February 2022, a spin-off television series was announced to be in development. A part of a "multi-pronged approach" for television projects, the show is described as the "flagship" and "cornerstone" live-action series of the multiple projects in development; while the series is to "complement" the film side of the franchise. Drew Crevello was set to serve as executive producer and showrunner for the series, while Rawson Marshall Thurber wrote and was set to direct the pilot episode.[144] Various networks and streaming companies bid on distribution rights.[145] In January 2023, it was announced that Paramount+ gave the show a straight-to-series order that consists of eight episodes, with Entertainment One (eOne) and Paramount Pictures serving as the production companies.[146] However, in May 2024, Paramount+ announced that they were no longer moving forward with the series.[147][148] Deadline reported that the series will now be overseen "by Hasbro's in-house division Hasbro Entertainment following eOne's December 2023 sale to Lionsgate" with a new creative team and "will undergo a creative update before being taken out to other potential buyers".[147]

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Plot

Cast

Production

Development and casting

Writing

Filming and visual effects

Music

Release

Theatrical

Home media

Marketing

Promotion

Tie-in literature and merchandise

Reception

Box office

Critical response

Accolades

Future

Possible sequel

Spin-off television series

Bibliography

External links

References