Red Notice filmmaker will oversee Dungeons & Dragons TV series
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson casting as of yet unconfirmed.
Rawson Marshall Thurber, the writer, director and producer of Netflix film Red Notice, has joined the production of the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons television series as its creative overseer.
The filmmaker – who is also responsible for creating Central Intelligence (2016) and Skyscraper (2018), two additional films that Thurber collaborated with actor Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson on – will take the reins of the TV series based on the popular roleplaying game, writing and directing the hour-long pilot episode, as well as being its executive producer. (Thanks Deadline.)
Thurber is best known for Red Notice, a film released on the streaming platform Netflix last year, after a limited theatrical release in the week prior. The action and comedy film stars Dwayne Johnson as an FBI agent who teams up with an art thief – played by Ryan Reynolds – to catch a rival thief portrayed by Gal Gadot. The film became the most watched movie on Netflix over its opening weekend and is set to receive two sequels, filmed back-to-back, also starring Johnson, Reynolds and Gadot.
The live-action television series produced by Hasbro – a tabletop company that owns several notable studios including D&D 5E publisher Wizards of the Coast – owned TV and film studio eOne, which is also set to make a television show based on the classic family board game Cluedo/Clue, was previously slated to have Derek Kolstad, the writer for John Wick and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Marvel series, in charge of writing and developing a pitch. It is unconfirmed whether Kolstad will work alongside Thurber or if the writer is still attached to the project.
In November last year, the president of global television for eOne, Michael Lombardo, revealed that the Dungeons & Dragons series would serve as a jumping off point for “a number of scripted and unscripted shows” based on the fantasy RPG. “We don’t want it to just be one show, so we are building out,” said Lombardo, “[we’re] developing out a multipronged approach for television.”
Update: This article previously stated that the release date for the Dungeons and Dragons film was May 27th 2022. After feedback from eOne, this has since been corrected to March 3rd 2023.
As well as an upcoming TV series, Dungeons & Dragons is set to be adapted into a feature film from Paramount, with Game Night directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley in the directing chair and Jeremy Latcham – a producer for films such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man: Homecoming – in charge of production. So far, the cast of the D&D film consists of Wonder Woman actor Chris Pine in the lead role and Hugh Grant as the villain, with Michelle Rodriguez – who is best known for the Fast & Furious film franchise – Detective Pikachu actor Justice Smith and Rege-Jean Page (Bridgerton) in supporting roles. The D&D film is set to be released on March 3rd 2023.
The Dungeons & Dragons TV series is yet to receive a release date or a confirmed cast.