Ryan Reynolds isn’t letting the Coronavirus blues keep him down, as he’s in talks to star in and produce a live-action adaptation of the ’80s arcade game Dragon’s Lair for Netflix, Collider has confirmed.
It took Netflix nearly a year to close the rights to the game, which has been featured in the streamer’s hit series Stranger Things — an appearance that sparked renewed interest in the game.
Dan and Kevin Hageman, who wrote Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and earned story credit on The Lego Movie, have been tapped to write the script. Reynolds will play a knight named Dirk the Daring who must rescue Princess Daphne from the clutches of an evil dragon known as Singe and the wizard Mordroc.
I can’t say I’m especially enthused about this one, as the premise sounds pretty generic if you ask me. I’ve had enough of knights and dragons and wizards, but then again, I’m the guy who can’t stand Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, so you’re probably wondering what I’m doing writing for this website in the first place. This kind of movies just isn’t my bag, and while I like Ryan Reynolds, I’m also struggling to erase the festering memory of 6 Underground from my mind. Here’s hoping his next Netflix movie, the international action movie Red Notice with Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot, turns out better once it resumes filming.
Reynolds will produce the Dragon’s Lair movie under his Maximum Effort banner along with Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment and Trevor Engelson of Underground Films. Gary Goldman and Jon Pomeroy are also producing along with Don Bluth, who created the original game with Rick Dyer.
Published in 1983 by Cinematronics, Dragon’s Lair used new-ish LaserDisc technology to push the story forward with cinematic animation. The game was immensely popular out of the gate, but didn’t have the same staying power as other games.
Dragon’s Lair isn’t Reynolds’ only video game-themed movie on the horizon, as he also stars in Free Guy as a man who realizes he’s a background character in a video game. That film is slated to hit theaters in July… if they reopen by then. Reynolds is also familiar with the Hageman siblings, as they wrote the upcoming sequel to the animated hit The Croods, which features his voice. The duo currently serve as the showrunners and executive producers of Nickelodeon’s animated Star Trek series.
Source: Collider, by JEFF SNEIDER