Hear ye, hear ye: Dragon's Lair movie producer Roy Lee has confirmed work is still underway on the Netflix video game adaptation, but it's currently "reconfiguring" the format.
Lee provided a long-awaited update on the live-action feature adaptation of the legendary 80s arcade game Dragon's Lair while speaking with Collider at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 for the Producers on Producing panel. He admitted the project had gone through several changes, but is working to get it back on track.
"The status has changed a lot," Lee said, candidly. "Originally, it was gonna be one of the movies that was gonna be like a choose your own adventure. Like that Black Mirror episode where you could decide the fate of the characters, and that's the way we had originally developed it. We had a 400-page script because you could go different directions and go different ways, and Ryan Reynolds was gonna play Dirk the Daring, but they pulled the plug on that format. Now we're reconfiguring it as a straight, linear movie."
Netflix first announced the Dragon's Lair movie in March 2020, with Ryan Reynolds in talks to produce and star in the feature as Dirk the Daring, the hero knight charged with rescuing Princess Daphne from a vicious dragon. The actor shared his enthusiasm for the project with Collider in 2022, confirming he was still on board.
"How we're approaching it and attacking it and what we're doing with it, I think will be pretty surprising to a lot of people. In its scope I mean," he teased. "I don't think anyone's ever tried it before quite like this. So I'm curious to see how it'll go. It really intersects in a unique way with technology that I've never been privy to in the entertainment industry. So they're taking some kind of pretty innovative stabs at this particular IP in a way that I'm blown away with. And I'm excited that they're as along for the ride as we are."
Created by Don Bluth and Rick Dyer, Dragon's Lair first debuted in video arcades in 1983 and was notable for taking advantage of Laserdisc technology and featuring more detailed sprite graphics than most games of the time. It has since been ported to numerous home consoles (with varying degrees of success).
The movie version was reportedly lining Reynolds up as a producer alongside Vertigo Entertainment's Roy Lee and Underground Films' Trevor Engelson, plus Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and Jon Pomeroy. Bluth and Goldman were also tapped to direct, with Goldman also joining Dan and Kevin Hageman to write the script.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter here.
