ERAGON - PREVIEW 

Eragon (2006)

Starring: Ed Speleers, John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Robert Carlyle, Sienna Guillory
Director: Peter Buchman
Rated: Unrated
U.S. Opening Date: 15 December 2006

 

With the huge popularity of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia it should come as no surprise that Hollywood producers are scurrying about like mad to acquire the rights to all kinds of obscure literary fantasy properties to adapt for the big screen.

No, I haven’t heard of Eragon either (sounds suspiciously like one of the characters in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books though), but it is apparently a novel by one Christopher Paolini beloved by fans of the genre.

Why the sudden audience interest in the genre when the 1980s saw most fantasy movies (Willow, Legend, etc.) flop big time at the box office? I don’t know. Maybe fantasy is more popular than sci-fi right now because the future has caught up with us and simply isn’t as appealing as it once was. Or maybe that most sci-fi movies nowadays are actually action movies in disguise and not really that exciting? Who knows?

What I want to know is why anyone hasn’t bothered making a big budget movie version of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld yet? Maybe celluloid fantasy just isn’t quite ready for self mockery right now . . .

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Plot

Based on the Christopher Paolini-penned bestselling fantasy novel about a youth whose discovery of a dragon egg leads him to become a knight and battle an evil king. The medieval-set tale revolves around a farm boy who learns he is the last of a breed of benevolent Dragon Riders, whose magical powers derived from their bond with the beasts.
 

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