Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Third D&D Movie: Book of Vile Darkness


Stop me if you've heard this before... There is a D&D movie in the works.  This movie, the third attempt, is called The Book of Vile Darkness. Though I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere I can only assume this movie, like the second one, will be a made for TV SciFi channel movie. 

I'll be honest, I don't have a whole lot of hope for this movie.  The first one was a train wreck, the second one was a low budget film that did its best but mostly fell short.  They seem to have a new director and a bunch of inexperienced B film actors.  Like I said, don't get your hopes up.  That having been said, it should still be light years better than the first one.


 For their part, Wizards of the Coast is supporting the film by having a contest where people can submit their characters for a part in the movie.  Head over and read the contest rules and enter if you dare.   

For those who are too lazy for that, here is the deal...



***
Do you think your Dungeons & Dragons character has the "it" factor? Are you
ready for your close up? Now's your chance to turn those daydreams into a
reality!

Dungeons & Dragons and Silver Pictures are joining together for the ultimate
casting call in search of the most menacing, flavorful NPC as created by you.
The winning character will be brought to life on the big screen – played by YOU.

That's right, you'll be packing your bags for Louisiana where the upcoming
original movie, Book of Vile Darkness, will finish shooting after weeks of
production in Eastern Europe. There, with a little help from the talented hair
and make-up department, you'll be transformed into the winning character your
created and then whisked off to the set to portray that character in an epic
battle scene in the movie.

To enter, create a heroic tier (1st – 10th level) character using the D&D
Character Builder tool, currently available through Dungeons & Dragons Insider.

Your character should lend itself to:

* Evil or mercenary behavior
* Magic and spell casting

And be one of the following races:

* Bladeling
* Changeling
* Deva
* Drow
* Duergar
* Dwarf
* Eladrin
* Elf
* Genasi
* Githyanki
* Githzerai
* Goblin
* Half-Elf
* Half-Orc
* Hobgoblin
* Kalashtar
* Kenku
* Longtooth Shifter
* Mul
* Orc
* Razorclaw Shifter
* Revenant
* Tiefling
* Wilden

Add no more than 100 words of flavor to the submissions box along with your
complete name, address, e-mail address, date of birth, and daytime and evening
phone numbers.

Save your character as a PDF (instructions below) and attach it to your
submission form.

Contest ends January 1st.

See you on the big screen!

How to Save Your Character as a PDF

On a PC:
To save your character, first you'll need a PDF printer driver.

Common PDF printer drivers are

* CutePDF
* PDF Creator
* Adobe Acrobat (the full version, not the free Reader).

Once one of these drivers is installed, just go to the character sheet page in
the D&D Character Builder and click Print. The print window will come up, select
the PDF printer from the list of available printers and click print. The Save As
window will come up, enter your last name for the output file and click save.
Make sure to attach the PDF to the entry form.

On a Mac:
To save your character, go to Print, click PDF, then save as PDF. Enter your
last name for the output file and click save. Make sure to attach the PDF to the
entry form.

***

Best of luck to all those who decide to enter.  Remember that the deadline is January 1st to don't waste time getting your submissions in. 

As for the movie, we'll just have to wait and see.  Maybe this is the one that will beat the odds and be a really cool film despite budget constraints.  I have a feeling that Dead Gentlmen's The Gamers and The Gamers: Dorkness Rising are going to continue to be the real D&D movies. 

Though the budget for the new D&D movie is no doubt meager it makes the budget for Dorkness Rising look like pocket change.  Just imagine what Dead Gentlemen could put out with resources like that.  I think someone should find out. 

3 comments:

Unknown said...

"Heroic Tier..."? Wait, is this a fourth edition movie?

Philo Pharynx said...

It will likely be a fourth edition movie, not that that will affect the movie that much. After all, nobody relies on the rules in fiction or movies. Just from the title I'm disappointed. It sounds very generic, which is what we've gotten from the last two movies. Movies designed in committee. With all of the great novels they have, why not adapt one of them? Once again I think some of the Eberron novels would make great movies. Something that doesn't look like your father's fantasy.

Christian Lindke said...

You might want to check out Fantasy Flight Games' film "Midnight Chronicles." As far as I'm concerned, it's the best rpg movie to date.