Dragonriders of Pern movie in development

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

From Deadline Hollywood:

Dragonriders of Pern, one of the biggest-selling science fiction novel series, is being turned into a live-action feature. David Hayter has been set to write the script for Dragonlight, the first novel in a series that includes 22 novels generated by Anne McCaffrey. Steve Hoban's Copperheart Entertainment has teamed with Hayter and Benedict Carver's Dark Hero Studios and Angry Films partners Don Murphy and Susan Montford on the project. Entertainment One is also a partner and has gotten the project off the ground by acquiring distribution in Canada, with talks ongoing to acquire numerous other territories that will include the UK and Australia.

The first book was published in 1968. It focuses on an elite group of warriors who take to the skies on the backs of giant, fire-breathing dragons with telepathic powers, as they to save the exotic planet of Pern from a terrifying airborne menace.

Hoban said he first tried to acquire McCaffrey's series 14 years ago when he was an executive at IMAX. Several years later, it built steam but was postponed by another flying dragon project, Eragon, which didn't breathe much fire. The series kept going though, and now spans 22 books. It came together with the current players. Hayter's sci-fi/fantasy script credits include X-Men and Watchmen, while Murphy and Montford's work includes Transformers, At the Mountains of Madness and the upcoming Shawn Levy-directed Hugh Jackman starrer Real Steel. It was Hayter and Carver who brought in Entertainment One's Patrice Theroux. Hoban said that the conceptual art has been generated and Hayter should have a script later this year. The plan is to get the flying dragons off the ground by next year. McCaffrey continues to write her dragon series, at age 85. The books span several thousands of years and generations of characters, but Hoban said there is plenty to launch a franchise.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Love the PERN saga.

Now all they need is Sean Connery to play Masterharper Robinton!

Lets hope this gets further than the Ron Moore version that was supposedly "in development" before he did BSG.

 

[Peak]

Again?...

Hope that this one will be more faithful than the proposed TV-adaption (which apparently was changed so much by WB that Ronald D. Moore jumped ship). Difficult to do something entirely faithful, due to the fact that the different books overlap each other quite often.

 

[Mr Light]

It focuses on an elite group of warriors who take to the skies on the backs of giant, fire-breathing dragons with telepathic powers, as they to save the exotic planet of Pern from a terrifying airborne menace.

*rolls eyes*

That is a total rip off of Eragon.

 

[Christopher]

From Deadline Hollywood:

Dragonriders of Pern, one of the biggest-selling science fiction novel series, is being turned into a live-action feature. David Hayter has been set to write the script for Dragonlight, the first novel in a series that includes 22 novels generated by Anne McCaffrey.

That should say Dragonflight.

Now all they need is Sean Connery to play Masterharper Robinton!

I always imagined him as Jeremy Brett, though that wouldn't be possible now, obviously. And really, I don't think Connery has a melodious enough voice to play a bard. Can he even sing?

 

[JanewayRulz!]

It focuses on an elite group of warriors who take to the skies on the backs of giant, fire-breathing dragons with telepathic powers, as they to save the exotic planet of Pern from a terrifying airborne menace.

*rolls eyes*

That is a total rip off of Eragon.

Don't know Eragon, but since Mccaffrey started her saga in 1968, I doubt she ripped "it" off.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Don't know Eragon, but since Mccaffrey started her saga in 1968, I doubt she ripped "it" off.

Mr Light was joking - Eragon has been criticized for being too derivative of other (better) works that preceded it.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

Don't know Eragon, but since Mccaffrey started her saga in 1968, I doubt she ripped "it" off.

Mr Light was joking - Eragon has been criticized for being too derivative of other (better) works that preceded it.

Ahhhh.

See, like I said, I "don't" know it.

So sorry.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I expect people who have never heard of the books are also going to say that it's a ripoff of Avatar or even How to Train your Dragon.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

I expect people who have never heard of the books are also going to say that it's a ripoff of Avatar or even How to Train your Dragon.

That's true. If the movie gets made they should incorporate some taglines into the marketing to try to minimize that - things like "the classic book series beloved by readers for over four decades is now a motion picture", etc.

 

[propita]

I would love to see even a semi-decent rendition

 

[JanewayRulz!]

One wonders how much they will sanitize it.

As written, the first three books aren't really for the "How to Tame your Dragon" crowd.

 

[Brolan]

I wonder how they will sex this up because the thread described in the books will not be enough of a menace for a modern movie.

 

[Nerys Myk]

From Deadline Hollywood:

Dragonriders of Pern, one of the biggest-selling science fiction novel series, is being turned into a live-action feature. David Hayter has been set to write the script for Dragonlight, the first novel in a series that includes 22 novels generated by Anne McCaffrey.

That should say Dragonflight.

Now all they need is Sean Connery to play Masterharper Robinton!

I always imagined him as Jeremy Brett, though that wouldn't be possible now, obviously. And really, I don't think Connery has a melodious enough voice to play a bard. Can he even sing?

Judge for yourself.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NUpOovSItA[/yt]

 

[timothy]

does anyone have a chronological reading order for the series ? allways wanted to read her just never new where to start . now is she in the same catagory as :
Terry Brooks's : shanarra series

 

[Nerys Myk]

does anyone have a chronological reading order for the series ? allways wanted to read her just never new where to start . now is she in the same catagory as :
Terry Brooks's : shanarra series

I more or less read them in chronological order up to a point. (The point that I caught up with the latest release)

Here's the wiki list.

 

[Skywalker]

Hopefully they put out a good adaptation. I read several Pern books back in the late '90s, though never the original two (Dragonsflight and Dragonquest), oddly enough. I should go back and read those two, along with any others I missed since then (including what's been published since).