Could the Dragonriders of Pern Be Flying Into Cinemas?
July 31, 2014 by dracs
The Hobbit films will be drawing to a close this year and Warner Brothers have been hunting for the next fantasy series to bring to the silver screen. It seems they have found it, as it was announced that the studio has gained the rights for Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern!
The Dragonriders of Pern series mixes elements of both science fiction and fantasy. The stories take place on the planet Pern, which was colonised in a time long forgotten. Now the people live in pre-industrial society, a medieval fantasy world complete with dragons. The dragonriders, Pernese citisens with a telepathic bond with the dragons, defend the world, fighting against the Thread, a spore which routinely falls upon Pern from the Red Star and devours everything it finds.
According to deadline.com, the deal was worked out by Warner Brothers executive Drew Crevello, who had previously worked on the X-Men series for Fox.
If this is going to be Warner Brothers' next big fantasy series then we can certainly expect a lengthy run in the cinemas. There are apparently 22 novels set on Pern, not counting the various short stories that have also been written.
While I have never read the Dragonriders of Pern, I have read Anne McCaffrey's other works. She is a prolific author who has succeeded in creating some fantastic characters and settings, so I am excited to see her most famous works turned into films. That's nothing to the excitement I am sure BoW Justin is feeling as the Dragonriders of Pern is his favourite book series. I can almost hear the happy squeals of joy from here.
Have you read this series of fantasy classics? Do you think they will transfer over to film well?
I first read her books over thirty years ago – I have about a dozen of them, maybe more. The dragons are the good guys in this paradigm. My favourite books are those with the little ones who sing with Menolly and can flame Thread at lower levels and catch anything the big ones miss.
A big screen full of dragons… oh yes, I could watch that 🙂
would have to see master Harper of pern 🙂
this was on of the book series that got me in to reading for my own enjoyment, i really hope this will do well im still collection them and still looking for the missing ones 🙂
I have read some of Anne mccaffreys books very enthralling hopefully they will do the books justice.
Interesting news – thanks Sam for informing us. I also read several of the Dragonriders of Pern books, but I’m not sure if Warner can do them justice. The main antagonist is the Thread, a kind of organic substance destroying matter from outer space, which makes it hard to incorporate in to a movie I suspect. Not technically, but I think it will be hard to explain to the audience who’s never read one of the novels. Besides of that, if they focus on the characters it can work. But we’ll see, maybe I’m to pessimistic. I’d love to see… Read more »
Cautiously optimistic, looking forward to seeing Andy Serkis as a motion captured dragon!
an interesting link to help people.
http://www.empireonline.com/features/dragonriders-of-pern-primer