Since The Lord of the Rings’ success, there have been many fantasy films released to try to cash in on the success. I think it’s a breath of fresh air, as far as movies are concerned. After all, movies are mostly fantasy anyway, depending on how you look at them. Recently, Peter Jackson has optioned a series called Temeraire.
Adding to that list, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Brothers has picked up the rights to a soon to be released children’s novel by James A. Owen called “Here, There Be Dragons.”
Says The Hollywood Reporter: The book brings together three strangers — John, Jack and Charles — in London during World War I, where they become entrusted with the Imaginarium Geographica, an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. They end up traveling to the Archipelago of Dreams, fighting the dark forces that threaten two worlds. It is later revealed that the three are future fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams, who met in real life at Oxford and enjoyed a competitive friendship.
“It’s the ultimate story behind the story,” screenwriter David Goyer said of the project’s fictional treatment of the famed authors. “Very few people really know what they were like. They had really colorful lives, enough so you could tell straight biographies on them. By doing it this way, you get to have your cake and eat it too.”
“What sets it apart is that there’s a real quid pro quo between our world and their world and how events in the other world shape events our world,” he said. “Also, we get to cherry-pick the best public domain legends that exist, from the Homeric myths to tales like ‘The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.’ In this world, each island is a different fantasy world — it’s the mother lode of all that fantasy. And we get to have fun to see how Tolkien and Lewis got their inspiration. It just seemed like a no-brainer.”
Said Harry Potter producer: David Heyman: “The odd thing is, I’m not a fantasy fan. What drew me was that these characters are appealing and relatable and that the adventure takes place in a wholly conceived world. This is the place where all our stories come from, and the death of imagination equates to bad things happening to our world, which is such a beautiful idea.”
Heyman said he wants to fast-track “Dragons” even as he sees himself working on wrapping up the “Potter” movies for the next three or four years.
As far as the movie is concerned: WB is holding on to it as a project for Harry Potter producer David Heyman and Batman Begins screenwriter David Goyer to produce.
