Joe Manganiello is an actor who mixes it up in a lot of genres, from comedies like Magic Mike to dramas like One Tree Hill. His more fantastical projects over the years have included playing Alcide Herveaux in True Blood and Flash Thompson in Spider-Man, and he's also set to portray Deathstroke in the upcoming Batman movie. However, Manganiello is also a big fan of the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, and one of his current goals is to take this fantasy heavy hitter and adapt it into a cinematic tale. In fact, just last year he started his mission to make the Dungeons & Dragon movie a reality. As he put it:
Last year with a playwright I went to Carnegie Mellon with, I actually made a draft of a film, and now we're talking to all the right parties. I had a two-day creative summit with the Wizards of the Coast...we had like a two-day summit about where the movie could go or TV series, products, synergy, the whole deal.
Joe Manganiello recently stopped by MTV's Happy Sad Confused podcast, and when asked about if there have been franchises he's made extra effort to see if he could be involved, the actor mentioned wanting to make a Dungeons & Dragons movie. But the actor went several steps further by penning a script with someone and meeting with the company that's owned the game for two decades. If Manganiello's Dungeons & Dragons movie were to move forward, he would want to contribute both as an actor and working behind the scenes. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but he also gave some advice on what it will take to make a great Dungeons & Dragon movie regardless of who is overseeing it. From his perspective:
Obviously there's a spectacle. There's dragons, breathing fire and lightning. That's the biggest draw in Game of Thrones...[but] what makes a great fantasy or superhero movie is the human aspect. It's gotta be about something. We root for those characters in Game of Thrones. Fellowship of the Ring was about friendship and this undying love for your friends and doing anything for your friends, and I think that's something people can identify with...So I think when a movie is about something human and real emotionally, people are wanna go see it. And then if you get some dragons and breathing fire, I mean, hey, I'm in.
It's worth noting that as of last year, there was a different Dungeons & Dragons movie in development, with Goosebumps director Rob Letterman helming and The Fault in Our Stars' Ansel Elgort starring. Assuming this particular project is still in the works, Joe Manganiello's chances of spearheading his own take on Dungeons & Dragons will be extremely difficult. Though that's not to say he couldn't still participate in the Letterman/Elgort version strictly as an actor. Surely that would at least scratch his itch with this franchise.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend on more updates on how Dungeons & Dragons' journey to the big screen is progressing, whatever version that may be.
