Darth Caesar did the legwork, Darth Caesar gets the t-shirt. Here’s the transcript of proceedings:
>In ODCM there’s an ad for this Total Movie mag and since it’s put out by Imagine I was hoping you could help me. On the cover it say’s the Lord of the Rings trailer is on the dvd but this PR dude from New Line said this: “Just a heads up. I am one of the PR folk at New Line and I can say without a doubt that there will be no trailer for LOTR on any DVD released by Total Movie. This is nothing more than a bogus scam to get subscriptions.” So is it or isn’t it?
The reply to this, from Chris Bushnell, showbiz editor of the Daily Radar:
“Just got off the phone with Total Movie Editor-in-chief Gary Whitta. [he says]The magazine you saw in ODCM (Dreamcast Magazine?-T) was a mockup, a dummy issue they made up prior to the magazine’s launch to sample what it might look like. So there will not be a LOTR trailer on the DVD, but Gary assures me that there is plenty of other kick-ass stuff on the DVD of the actual first issue…which hits magazine stands in a few weeks.”
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(Los Angeles, August X, 2000) — New Line Cinema has acquired domestic distribution rights to Dungeons and Dragons: The Movie, it was jointly announced today by acquisitions chief Mark Ordesky, President of Fine Line Features, as well as producer/director Courtney Solomon of Sweetpea Entertainment. [More]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Steve Elzer
New Line Cinema/LA
(310) 967-6654
NEW LINE CINEMA
SET TO MAKE BOX OFFICE MAGIC
WITH ACQUISITION OF
“DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS: THE MOVIE”
(Los Angeles, August X, 2000) — New Line Cinema has acquired domestic distribution rights to Dungeons and Dragons: The Movie, it was jointly announced today by acquisitions chief Mark Ordesky, President of Fine Line Features, as well as producer/director Courtney Solomon of Sweetpea Entertainment.
Based on the classic role-playing fantasy-adventure game, the film, which is budgeted at $36 million, is executive produced by Joel Silver (The Matrix), and currently in post-production. New Line will release the project by the end of the year.
Dungeons and Dragons is one of the best-known fantasy titles in existence.
The game has generated more than a billion dollars in sales worldwide, including the publication of more than 400 novels. D & D products have been translated into 18 different languages and are still a fast-selling commodity. Leading toy maker Hasboro is in the process of launching a 25th Anniversary line of products.
“For millions of people worldwide, Dungeons and Dragons has been the penultimate fantasy game for more than 25 years, and this film will deliver for die-hard fans as well as those who have never been exposed to this epic world of magic, sorcery and adventure,” Ordesky said. “Courtney has done a phenomenal job translating Dungeons and Dragons on film and we look forward to working with him and Joel Silver as we release this feature into the marketplace.”
Nearly three generations of consumers have grown up on the game, totaling more than 25 million aficionados worldwide. “Beyond the new fans who are entertained by the game today, there is an incredible nostalgia factor to this title and we hope to capture and rekindle their imagination with this acquisition,” Ordesky added.
According to web traffic data, a legion of fans are eager for news about the film. The unofficial website promoting the project, DNDMOVIE.COM, has received more than 1.5 million hits since launching last November, and the site continues to generate unusual levels of press and consumer interest.
In addition, members of the cast are already supporting the film as they appear this weekend in Milwaukee at Gen Con, the country’s largest convention of D & D devotees. At the convention, it is expected that 50,000 fans will have the opportunity to get a first-look at teaser promotional footage from the film.
New Line will begin developing a marketing, distribution and publicity campaign immediately to support a year-end launch. “With New Line’s great track record releasing genre films, and their experience with The Lord of the Rings, I think they are the perfect match for Dungeons and Dragons,” said producer/director Courtney Solomon.
Added Rolf Mittweg, Co-Chairman of Worldwide Marketing: “Like Mortal Kombat and other fantasy/adventure franchises, this is the kind of programming that New Line has traditionally excelled with.”
In the film, which stars Jeremy Irons, Thora Birch (American Beauty), Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie) Justin Whalin (“The New Adventures of Lois and Clark”) and Richard O’Brien (Rocky Horror Picture Show) among others, a rag tag group of adventurers seek to foil the plans of an evil wizard.
In addition to landing domestic distribution rights, New Line has secured an option to make a potential prequel and sequel, as well as other ancillary platforms including cable, pay and network television.
Along with Ordesky, New Line’s Vice President of Acquisitions Arianna Bocco was responsible for landing the rights to the project. New Line’s Senior Vice President of Business Affairs Suzanne Rosencrans negotiated the agreement on behalf of the studio. Solomon is represented by attorney Sheri Jeffrey as well as Joe Gatta and David Gersh at the Gersh Agency. At Silver Pictures, the project was brought in and overseen by Steve Richards.
Solomon is a first-time filmmaker who began developing the concept for Dungeons and Dragons: The Movie while still in high school. A native of Toronto, Canada, he optioned the film rights to the project from TSR, Inc. when he was 21 years-old. Thereafter he secured the interest of Hong Kong-based financier Allan Zeman, who funded the project.
Solomon currently has several other projects in development, including a film adaptation of the best-selling comic book “Gen 13” as well as The Bell Witch, The Herald, and Puppetland, a computer generated live-action feature.
Joel Silver is one of the most successful producers in the motion picture industry, with the combined gross of his films tallying more than $3 billion.
With the success of The Matrix, 14 of Silver’s films have earned worldwide box-office totals over $100 million. The others are the Lethal Weapon series I-IV, Die Hard and Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Predator, Commando, 48 Hours, The Last Boy Scout, Demolition Man, Conspiracy Theory, and Executive Decision.
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According to AICN, New Line Cinema has picked up Dungeons and Dragons for domestic release (North America), no word yet on a possible release date. This bodes well, however, for a possible LOTR trailer to be released as well, stay tuned!
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Radio New Zealand’s Kim Hill (cheers and whistles, please) interviewed Tolkien’s biographer and Kimi sent us this report
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Kimi was lucky enough to hear this interview, and she was good enough to send us a report:
“Last Friday morning (11 August) Kim Hill of Radio New Zealand interviewed Humphrey Carpenter, the biographer of J.R.R. Tolkien. The interview was on the subject of Humphrey Carpenter’s latest work, a biography of playwright Dennis Potter, but towards the end of the interview Ms Hill asked Carpenter what he thought Tolkien’s reaction would have been to “The Lord of the Rings” being filmed.
Carpenter’s response was interesting. He said that he had known JRRT fairly briefly (unlike Potter, whom he never met), and that he (Carpenter) had staged a production of “The Hobbit”. JRRT’s reaction to this production was that he considered his works to be unstageable; he simply didn’t feel that they could be successfully translated to a dramatic form. Although he had sold the film rights long before this took place, he had no real expectation that “The Lord of the Rings” could be successfully filmed.
Carpenter himself made the rather startling remark that he thinks that “The Lord of the Rings” is unfilmable. He certainly startled Kim Hill, who laughed and said as if reading a headline, “Humprey Carpenter says ‘Lord of the Rings’ unfilmable!”. He said that, while Volumes I and II are very good, he feels that Volume III is rather wordy and has language that is almost biblical. One got the impression that, while Humphrey Carpenter considers “The Lord of the Rings” a very good book, he doesn’t necessarily consider it one of the great works of the 20th century. This is, however, only my impression of a rather brief and “off-topic” portion of the interview. And he did say that he intends to go to the films.”
Thanks for that, Kimi!
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