The Dungeons and Dragons movie is one step closer to becoming a reality. Per Variety, Warner Bros. has set Rob Letterman to direct the adaptation of the board game franchise, which is news that was first reported by The Tracking Board last month. Letterman is coming off the success of the pleasantly surprising Goosebumps last year and also helmed 2009’s Monsters vs. Aliens and 2010’s Gulliver’s Travels, but with Dungeons and Dragons it sounds like he’s ready to tackle something a bit more adult in terms of targeted audience.

Producer Roy Lee exclusively revealed to us in February that they’re not shying away from the high fantasy of the source material:

“This new Dungeons and Dragons will be a Guardians of the Galaxy-tone movie in a Tolkien-like universe. Because when you think of all the Hobbit movies and The Lord of the Rings, they have an earnestness to them, and to see something fun, a Raiders romp inside that world, I feel is something the audience has not seen before.”


That’s certainly a very specific tone to strike, but Variety adds that Letterman’s presentation to Warner Bros. about his vision for the franchise wowed execs, so he must have a strong handle on how to approach the material. You may remember there was a 2001 adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons that crashed and burned at the box office, and it’ll be interesting to see if the success or failure of this summer’s Warcraft impacts Dungeons and Dragons at all. Following Lord of the Rings there was a boon for fantasy films, but few managed to even come close to the success of the Tolkien adaptations. As a fan of Letterman’s work on Goosebumps, however, I’m curious to see what he has in store for Dungeons and Dragons.

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Image via Sony Pictures