Rawson Marshall Thurber To Spearhead Flagship ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ TV Series For eOne

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: eOne’s ambitious plans for a Dungeons & Dragons TV universe are starting to take shape with an A-list hire.

The indie studio has closed a deal with Red Notice filmmaker Rawson Marshall Thurber to creatively oversee a flagship live-action television series based on Hasbro’s wildly-popular fantasy role-playing game franchise from Wizards of the Coast.

Thurber will write and direct the pilot script as well as executive produce the hourlong project, which has been garnering interest from multiple buyers.Adapting Dungeons & Dragons for television has been “a big focus” for eOne following the company’s acquisition by Hasbro, eOne’s President of Global Television Michael Lombardo told Deadline in November.“We don’t want it to just be one show so we are building out, developing out a multi-pronged approach for television, a number of scripted shows and unscripted, and we hope to be taking this out to the marketplace early next year,” he said back then.The flagship live-action series, shepherded by Thurber, is expected to serve as a cornerstone of the TV universe as it continues to expand.Given Netflix’s existing ties with Thurber via the hit Red Notice movie and with Dungeons & Dragons via the hit TV series Stranger Things, the streamer is likely to pursue the Dungeons & Dragons TV series (and related offshoots), with other networks and streamers also interested, sources said.Thurber is the writer, producer and director of Red Notice, starring Dwayne Johnson, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot, which became Netflix’s most watched film of all time.

He, along with Johnson, Reynolds and Gadot, is expected to return for two sequels, now in the works at Netflix.The D&D TV universe will complement eOne’s film franchise.