Login | Register

Warner Bros options Dragonriders of Pern movie…again…

30 July 2014 | No comments | Tagged: , ,

…and it’s like déjà vu all over again… Didn’t we just report more mutterings about a Dragonriders of Pern movie like…no more than two or three years ago? (Here in fact.) And there’s been no further news on that…a bit like the lack of further news on Dragonchoice 3, but I digress…

So the Eye of Hollywood has fallen once again on our beloved Pern, and this time it’s Warner Bros who have it in their sights. Well, I say ‘this time’ – they already took a crack at it back around the turn of the millennium. That ended up in the great Ron Moore Says Nooo! debacle, when the then-TV network The WB demanded their weekly Pern TV show should be done in the style of Xena and Hercules, and the whole project got canned at the last minute. So were were spared Lessa and F’lar running around in leather bikinis (I wouldn’t have minded seeing F’lar in a leather bikini), but no screen-Pern for us.

Here we go again

And we’ve been around this block so many times over the years (Copperheart? David Hayter? Remember them?) that it’s easy to get cynical about the prospects, not only of Pern actually making it to the big screen after all these abortive attempts, but how close to the source material it would be if it gets there. Given how passionately certain debates have raged in the Pern fandom over the years (Metres vs Feet! Misunderstood Kylara! Tentpegs!), it’s hard to see a situation where we’ll all meekly sit down and accept changes to our beloved 45-year-old canon. And those of us who are also ASOIAF fans know full well how Game of Thrones has caused near civil war between Book Readers and Show Watchers.

As Ron Moore would acknowledge, all of this has happened before, and all of this will (probably) happen again, and Pern being optioned isn’t the same as Pern The Movie being a reality. But it’s nice to think that it could come off this time. Sci fi and fantasy book-to-screen adaptations (Outlander, The Expanse, The Strain) are springing up all over the place at the moment, fuelled, no doubt by GOT’s success. So maybe the time for a successful Pern movie HAS finally come around. Here’s hoping…

Follow the latest

I’ve thrown up a Twitter account, @PernMovieFans, to track the progress of this latest attempt. You know what to do!

Continue to

Leave a reply

Comments, questions, reviews? Leave them here.