Hope you like dragons, because Warner Bros. may be filling movie screens with them. The studio just reached an agreement with the estate of the late novelist Anne McCaffrey to adapt her Dragonriders of Pern books for film. For those not in the know, the Dragonrider books – the first of which was published back in 1968 – follows a group of telepathic dragons and the warriors that ride them. McCaffrey was the first woman to win the Nebula and Hugo awards for the wildly popular first entry.
I have to imagine for true fans of the novels, this is great news given how often the property has flirted with a big-budget adaptation. In fact, this is only the latest time that Warner Bros. has gone after the license, previously attempting to develop the books as a TV series at SyFy under Battlestar and Helix showrunner Ron D. Moore. Around 2011, writer David Hayter took a stab at the script with a planned 2012 start for production. That never happened.
Deadline didn’t have any details on the creative team being assembled for the film, but presumably some of the hurdles keeping Dragonriders out of theaters – budget, wariness about fans’ response to fantasy, dracophobia – seem to have been tackled. Here’s hoping this time, the dragons will take flight.
[Source: Deadline]
The idea of the movie appeals to me as I have read the books. I hope they do the story justice and not another Hollywood glitz movie. Remember Dune…..
I’m scared. Remember WB tried to do the series once before but were foiled by the powers that be who wouldn’t allow their Xena-like interpretation. This time those people seem to be absent.
If they screw this up, there will never be another chance because Hollywood cannot see past the numbers and admit they’re to blame.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I sorta hope they go with total unknowns for the movie. I like books to movies better if I don’t recognize the actors involved.
Just to correct the author of the article… It’s actually science fiction. You’d hafta read the books to find the twist.
I’m bouncing in my seat, so hoping this will happen!
AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I’m so excited! But which one will they start out with? There’s so many books within the Pern Universe?
I would hope they’d use Dragonsdawn. It’s the easiest for most people to understand. That’s the one I use to introduce everyone to the series.
I’ll only be happy with it if they include the same-sex scenes during the mating season as the blue and green dragons mate, so do their riders. It’s a minor aspect of the story, but to ignore because of homophobia would be a real shame.
Well, Anne didn’t go into much detail on that. Of course, she didn’t really go into a lot of detail on the opposite sex ones, either. I think they’ll want to keep it PG-13, so they’ll probably skip most of that.
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!! PLEASE do this, Please? Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on top? Pretty please with sugar on top and a cherry?
Yes, what she said! Word for word!
I WOULD ROB A BANK TO SEE THIS HAPPEN
I’m “between” grabbing at “Threads” of hope for this and “Benden” over backwards is excitement. I wish I knew “when in time” it was going to be!
I’m “impressed” at how you “Hold” you excitement, I know I want to be “Weyr” this will be shown.
Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease