Ryan Reynolds has found his next quest. Reynolds is in talks to star in and produce a live-action feature adaptation of Dragon’s Lair, one of the most iconic arcade video games from the 1980s. After almost a year of negotiations, Netflix has closed a deal to pick up the rights to the game. Roy Lee will produce via his Vertigo Entertainment with Trevor Engelson of Underground Films. Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Jon Pomeroy are also producing. Reynolds will produce via his banner, Maximum Effort, along with the shingle's George Dewey and Patrick Gooing. Dan and Kevin Hageman, who worked on The Lego Movie and most recently Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, will write the script.
Lavalle Lee wrote:The cat is out of the bag! After a year and a half of negotiations and talks, Dragon’s Lair finally found a home, Netflix. I can remember it like it was yesterday. Don Bluth and I had planned to go to California to pitch a different cartoon idea to multiple studios. A week before our scheduled meetings, Roy Lee from Vertigo Entertainment contacted me through social media and wanted to meet while we were in California. It was fate!
Don and I met with Roy at a Korean restaurant and discussed moving forward with him and Dragon’s Lair. Roy had great ideas and a fresh outlook on the Dragon’s Lair franchise. We shook hands and told Roy we were in! From this point, we had to get lawyers and all the owners of the Dragon’s Lair franchise involved. Everyone agreed and now the world is finally going to get a Dragon’s Lair movie! I’m very proud I got to be part of making this happen.
History: In 2015, Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and myself did a Indiegogo campaign to raise money for an animated pitch for the studios. We reached $731,172 dollars from all the contributions. The pitch we created was over 7 minutes long. Basically it became a prequel short. That showed how Dirk became Daring and how Daphne was captured. We generated enough buzz to get Hollywood talking. However, it went nowhere, until Roy Lee came knocking on our doors. We originally wanted the movie to be animated, but nothing says we can’t also do a live-action version. Now we will get a Dragon’s Lair movie made in live-action hopefully staring the hilarious Ryan Reynolds. Couldn’t ask for a better leading man! Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits!
We've been talking about this in the Don Bluth thread. I hadn't read the interview w/ Lavalle Lee (Idk who that even is**), so thanks for posting that- it at least addresses that this was "supposed" to be animated. I'll always lament not having an animated movie of this, because I know that Don and Gary wanted it for SO long, but I trust that this will have the same heart and humor. Can't go wrong with Ryan Reynolds.
**Google says: animator, editor and project manager for Don Bluth.
I think Ryan Reynolds was perfectly cast as Dirk! Also, The Lego Movie and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark were really good, so a screenplay from the person who wrote that signals a really great movie to me!
Didn't Netflix recently have an interactive bunny or cat short? I had forgotten about it. Can't remember which animal it was. But if this movie does that, choose your own adventure by clicking the remote, that is fun and will give the film repeat viewing material for sure.
blackcauldron85 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 7:18 am
Didn't Netflix recently have an interactive bunny or cat short? I had forgotten about it. Can't remember which animal it was.
Are you referring to We Lost Our Human? That interactive special hasn't been released yet. It's supposed to be released sometime in 2023.