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Downloads and Dragons: Look what they've done to Fantasy, ma

© Michael Martinez

Science fiction has already staked out its territory among the books. Fantasy hasn't done such a good job of it. After "The Wizard of Oz" Hollywood looked back to mythology and folklore for its fantasy inspiration, until the 1970s. Then Edgar Rice Burroughs and other pulp authors became fashionable for a time. We got "The Land that Time Forgot", which was actually very well done, except some of the models were obviously models. The finale of the movie was very cheap looking, but the movie nonetheless was very faithful to the original story (sadly, the sequel was pure nonsense, and brought "cheap" to a new low even for Hollywood). Then we got "Conan the Barbarian" in 1982. As fantasy movies go this was a very good movie, but it lacked one key ingredient for any Robert E. Howard afficionado: a believable Conan. Howard's Conan was never a slave...but I digress. The movie nonetheless had some great production values. Who can forget the scene at the beginning as Conan's father told him the story of the riddle of steel? Or when Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) lopped off the head of the absolutely gorgeous Nadiuska (Conan's mother). And the fight in Thulsa Doom's temple was just plain cool. So what if there were bad scenes, bad dialogue, and bad delivery. It could have been worse. It could have been "Ironmaster", "Warrior Queen", or "Conan the Destroyer". So, undoubtedly as soon as "The Fellowship of the Ring" makes its debut people will be scouring the bookshelves (if they aren't already) looking for that next great pre-made blockbuster. There aren't that many out there for Fantasy. It's almost literally an open book. And that is why I think that if "Dungeons and Dragons" rakes in the big bucks (and based on what I've seen and heard from people who actually know something, it should do just that) Hollywood will suddenly be inspired to develop its own adventure fantasy movies. These won't be barbarian movies, they'll be gaming brought to life (without the trademark AD&D, Advanded Dungeons and Dragons, material). The special effects will be better than what we were treated to in previous decades, but what will the stories be like? Carroll Cartwright and Topper Lilien at least had the advantage of running their plots by some real AD&D folks (I mean, literally, the TSR people themselves). If nothing else, TSR (the company which originally published Dungeons and Dragons) understood gaming for a long time. As soon as Cartwright and Lilien had Solomon sold on a plot they'd run it by TSR...if it lasted that long. The story of their development of the story might make an interesting movie in itself. It would ideally provide inspiration for every hopeful hack who is about to start typing up a proposal for a new adventure fantasy movie.