Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Trivia | 65 facts about the film

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is a fantasy film based on the famous tabletop role-playing game.

So let’s find out some trivia and facts about the film.

1. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 fantasy heist action comedy film
2. It is directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley
3. The pair co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Gilio
4. It was based on a story by Chris McKay and Gilio
5. The film is based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons
6. It is set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting
7. And has no connections to the film trilogy released between 2000 and 2012
8. The film stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant
9. Production went through various phases in development since 2013
10. Beginning with Warner Bros. Pictures after beating Hasbro and Universal Pictures in a lawsuit over the film rights to the tabletop role-playing game
11. Before moving to Paramount Pictures
12. Each incarnations had various writers and directors
13. Goldstein and Daley were the final writers/directors
14. They used elements from the previous attempt by director Chris McKay and screenwriter Michael Gilio
15. Filming began in April 2021 in Iceland and later Northern Ireland
16. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 10, 2023
17. It was released in the United States on March 31, 2023, by Paramount Pictures
18. The film received positive reviews from critics
19. In May 7, 2013, Warner Bros. Pictures and Courtney Solomon’s Sweetpea Entertainment announced a film based on Dungeons & Dragons with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick writing the script and Roy Lee, Alan Zeman, and Solomon producing
20. Two days later, Hasbro issued a lawsuit saying that they were co-producing a Dungeons & Dragons film at Universal Pictures with Chris Morgan writing and directing
21. On August 3, 2015, after U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee urged Sweetpea Entertainment and Hasbro to settle the film rights case, the Warner Bros. film was set for pre-production with Hasbro
22. On March 31, 2016, Rob Letterman was in negotiations to direct Johnson-McGoldrick’s script, with his role confirmed on May 13, 2016
23. In April 2017, actor Joe Manganiello, an avid fan of Dungeons & Dragons, revealed that he had written a script with John Cassel for the project and was “talking to all the right parties” to make the film happen
24. Upon completing the script, Manganiello worked in collaboration with Brad Peyton and Dwayne Johnson, who were both in negotiations to develop the film
25. In December 2017, after varying degrees of progression, the film was moved by Hasbro to Paramount Pictures and was scheduled for a release date of July 23, 2021
26. In February 2018, Paramount was in talks with both Chris McKay and Michael Gilio to direct and write the film, respectively
27. In March 2019, it was revealed that Gilio had completed a first draft and studio executives expressed excitement for the film
28. The studio began negotiations with various talent, as the casting process began
29. On July 30, 2019, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley were in talks to direct
30. Goldstein and Daley began meeting with Paramount following Daley talking about his career with a literary agent at a sports bar in Sherman Oaks during a game between the Chicago Cubs, which Daley is a fan of, and the Los Angeles Dodgers
31. After saying to the agent that he and Goldstein had left directing duties on The Flash, the agent asked if they were looking for work
32. The agent tipped off Paramount, who presented Goldstein and Daley with the script for Dungeons & Dragons
33. By January 2020, Goldstein and Daley announced that they had co-written a new draft of the script
34. Ultimately, Daley, Goldstein, and Gilio received screenplay credit, while McKay and Gilio received story credit
35. Goldstein stated that “ours is a movie that doesn’t take itself with great seriousness, but it’s never a spoof. It honors the world of D&D and celebrates it but, hopefully, it gives the audience an engaging and fun ride”
36. Daley commented that the film’s influences include The Princess Bride, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Lord of the Rings, and Indiana Jones, with the Indiana Jones structure evoking both a “dungeon crawl” and the heist film genre that they wanted to draw on
37. Daley highlighted that the heist genre is familiar to the audience, which provides the framework for the “uninitiated” so that “they understand what our characters are setting out to do without being overwhelmed by lore or proper nouns”
38. Daley also wanted the film to be accessible for those unfamiliar with the fantasy genre
39. The Austin Chronicle highlighted “since the basis of most tabletop campaigns is a group of strangers coming together to complete a job, the thematic parallels between heist movies and fantasy roleplaying campaigns offer a shared language for newcomers”
40. Goldstein commented that they use the sorcerer character in the film to address why magic can’t “solve all problems” – “it makes storytelling nearly impossible if you can solve any problem with a magical spell”
41. Goldstein stated that when discussing the visual presentation of the film with Daley that they decided they didn’t want “two people standing there with their hands out and rays coming out of their hands”
42. As a result, the film pulls directly from the magic system of Dungeons & Dragons with magic users “combining physical components and verbal spellcasting to show a variety of magical effects onscreen”
43. Justice Smith, who plays the sorcerer, commented that he worked with the choreographer “to create unique gestures for each spell” with many of the spells incorporating actual sign language into the gestures
44. On June 27, 2016, Ansel Elgort was in talks to star in Letterman’s iteration of the film
45. In December 2020, Chris Pine was cast to star in the film
46. Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Regé-Jean Page were added in February 2021
47. Hugh Grant and Sophia Lillis would join the next month, with Grant cast as the antagonist
48. In April, Chloe Coleman joined the ensemble cast
49. In May, Jason Wong and Daisy Head joined the cast
50. During post-production, Bradley Cooper was cast in a cameo role
51. He filmed his part on blue screen and was inserted into preexisting footage shot with Rodriguez
52. Lorne Balfe scored the film
53. The soundtrack album in the film was released on March 31, 2023 by Mercury Classics Soundtrack & Score
54. On March 19, Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez revealed that the track “l’Emprise” appearing on Mylène Farmer’s eponymous album will be the soundtrack in French-speaking countries
55. In the United States and Canada, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was released alongside A Thousand and One and the wide expansion of A Good Person
56. the film is projected to gross to $30 to 40 million from 3,850 theaters in its opening weekend
57. The film made $5.6 million in advance previews in the week leading up to its release
58. Including $4.1 million from Thursday previews
59. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 90% rating
60. Based on 209 critics’ reviews
61. With an average rating of 7.4/10
62. The website’s consensus reads, “An infectiously good-spirited comedy with a solid emotional core, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves offers fun fantasy and adventure even if you don’t know your HP from your OP”
63. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100
64. Based on 47 critics
65. Indicating “generally favorable reviews”