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Ryan Reynolds Circles Live-Action Dragon's Lair Movie Based On 80s Video Game
Ryan Reynolds has entered talks to star in a live-action Dragon's Lair video game movie adaptation for Netflix. Released in 1983, the original Dragon's Lair was a revolutionary arcade fantasy game that used movie-quality 2D animation and laserdisc technology as part of its storytelling. Co-creator Don Bluth would later go on to direct some of the more famous non-Disney animated films of the '80s, which explains why the character and creature designs in the first Dragon's Lair are so highly reminiscent of his work on classics like An American Tail and The Land Before Time.
While the Dragon's Lair franchise now encompasses multiple games across numerous platforms, the original 1983 title has taken on a nostalgic value and was even featured in the first episode of Stranger Things season 2 (it's the arcade game the main kids are playing when Will begins to sense the Mind-Flayer). Bluth and his longtime co-director Gary Goldman actually launched a failed Kickstarter campaign followed by a successful Indiegogo one to develop an animated Dragon's Lair prequel film in 2015. Now, it appears those plans have changed.
According to THR, Netflix has close a deal to make a live-action Dragon's Lair movie adaptation, with Goldman and Bluth producing alongside Reynolds, who is also in discussions to star. It doesn't seem to have a director attached just yet, but Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Trollhunters, and The LEGO Movie-cowriters Dan and Kevin Hageman are already set to handle the script.
Story-wise, the Dragon's Lair series follows a knight named Dirk the Daring as he sets out to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe and the wizard Mordoc. Dirk and Daphne are pretty archetypical characters (regressively so, in the case of the overly sexualized Daphne) in the original game, but Bluth and Goldman were already planning to better flesh them out for their animated prequel, and it stands to reason the live-action movie will follow suit. With Reynolds presumably playing Dirk, the character will surely have a lot more in common with the actor's wise-cracking "heroes" like Deadpool than the poe-faced warriors in similar fantasy fare.
Interestingly, Dragon's Lair would mark the latest Netflix project for Reynolds after Six Underground and the upcoming Red Notice (which is currently on-hold), as well as his second video game-inspired adventure after this year's Free Guy (where he plays an NPC who realizes he exists in an open world game). A live-action adaptation would more or less be in keeping with the streaming service's trend of developing Original movies based on semi-cult properties with built-in nostalgia value, as part of their ongoing efforts to compete with other studios in the tentpole game. That being said, Dragon's Lair has enough going for it already to suggest it could amount to more than just additional content fuel for the fire that is Netflix.
