If you’ve got PTSD from pumping quarters into Rick Dyer’s Dragon’s Lair arcade game, look away! This article could cause traumatic memories to resurface as we remember the pain of dying repeatedly and kissing your hard-earned couch change goodbye. According to Jeff Sneider, multiple sources say The Muppets director James Bobin is in negotiations to direct Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the beloved ’80s video game Dragon’s Lair, with Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort lined up to produce.
Discussions about adapting the quarter-killing video game were announced in 2020. Ryan Reynolds would play Dirk the Daring, the game’s main protagonist, a knight tasked with rescuing Princess Daphne from Mordroc and Singe. Reynolds’s Maximum Effort would produce the feature alongside George Dewey and Patrick Gooing. Sneider says Vertigo’s Roy Lee and Underground’s Trevor Engelson will also produce with Gary Goldman, Jon Pomeroy, and Don Bluth, who co-created the original game with Rick Dyer.
Initially, writers Dan and Kevin Hageman (The Lego Movie) developed Dragon’s Lair as a 400-page choose-your-own-adventure presentation similar to Bandersnatch. While the direction certainly was ambitious, Netflix scrapped the idea in favor of something more streamlined.
Cinematronics released the first Dragon’s Lair video game in arcades in 1983. The game boasts a Don Bluth-style look, seamless animation, quirky characters, and think-fast gameplay. Dragon’s Lair is a series of interactive films in which the player controls Dirk the Daring in a quest to save Princess Daphne. As players hope to survive each scene, the game instructs players to move and swing Dirk’s sword through flashing prompts. If you’re not quick, you’ll die. Plain and simple. If you’re not careful or skilled enough, a game of Dragon’s Lair could last seconds. It’s kind of a nightmare. If you make it to the end of the game with no deaths, the experience lasts 12 minutes. Combined with all the possible outcomes, Dragon’s Lair contains 22 minutes of gameplay or 50,000 frames of animated footage. Money well spent!
James Bobin directed 2011’s The Muppets and its 2014 sequel Muppets Most Wanted, with his most recent film being the Dora the Explorer movie, Dora and the City of Lost Gold.
Who should play Dirk the Daring and Princess Daphne? How much money do you think you’ve lost on playing Dragon’s Lair back in the day? Let us know in the comments section below.
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