Dungeons & Dragons is shaping up to be exactly the kind of movie Dungeons & Dragons players will hate. Following in the footsteps of teened-up, YA-oriented fantasy like MTV’s The Shannara Chronicles, the team behind the new Dungeons & Dragons movie is busy negotiating for its first cast member: young adult heartthrob Ansel Elgort.
Best known as a guy in the Divergent series and the romantic lead of The Fault in Our Stars (he also appears in the more recent John Green adaptation, Paper Towns), Deadline describes Elgort as “in early negotiations” to star.
Warner Bros. has picked up Rob Letterman (Goosebumps, Gulliver’s Travels) to direct from a script by David Johnson. With two great horror movies (The Conjuring 2 and Orphan) and one terrible fantasy movie (Wrath of the Titans) under his belt, Johnson is the most interesting hub in the formation of this presumptive fantasy mega-franchise.
Little else is yet known about Dungeons & Dragons, though the director and potential first cast member give us a good sense of what’s in store. Combine a star with teen appeal with a director of a horror-comedy for kids and we’re looking at a Dungeons & Dragons built for a younger generation, rather than the type of people profiled in festival documentary The Dwarvenaut .
