Dragonriders of Pern to Hit the Big Screen!

Written by on April 13th, 2011

It’s finally happening! Screenwriter David Hayter, who worked on both Watchmen and X2, is currently working to bring Dragonflight, the first book in this beloved series by Anne McCaffrey, to life.

From Deadline.com:

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.

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.

Read the full article here.

I, for one, am extremely excited at the idea of seeing these books on the big screen. With CGI as developed as it is, I know the dragons will be amazing.  We can only hope that they will do it the justice it deserves.

What do you think? Do you think this is a good idea, or is the prospect of ruining a beloved series too strong?

[via Deadline]

  • Anonymous

    David Hayter is actually the guy who voices Solid Snake in the Metal Gear series. I think he did a good job on Watchmen, so this should be in safe hands!

  • Anonymous

    Dragonriders has to be one of my favorite series; I would love to see the first book on the big screen but …

    I hope it will not be like other books made into movies — finding a good screenwriter is the probably the most important part and then a director who loves the books. I also hope Anne and Todd have creative control over the film so it is done right because there are 22 books in the series now. If they do a good job they could continue to make these movies because Pern is a beautiful planet and seeing the dragons flying in the sky would be amazing to see on the big screen.

    I had also read a few years back that they were considering doing a mini-series or a series on TV. I’m not sure what I would like the best; it would be nice to see it on the big screen but they could probably do a better job with a TV series.

  • Bobert

    Have to agree with MasterBrom. I would love to see the books on the big screen, if they do it justice. If they do it right and stick to the story and try their best to get the details correct and the characters accurately portrayed. The Dragonriders of Pern was the first series of books I ever read. Up until then I hated reading. I read the usual stand alone books for school projects. You all know them. The Red Badge of Courage and Where the Red Fern Grows and the like.. I considered books boring, a chore to be done, a project to be completed. Homework. I didn’t know how enjoyable it could be, how much I would like them and how they could capture my imagination. The Dragonriders of Pern completely changed the way I view books.

    That was years ago, and I’ve branched out and honestly, contrary as it sounds, I don’t much like books like Anne McCaffrey writes anymore. Hers are the stories in which everything always works out in the end, the hero almost always gets the girl, and just about everything great and wonderful that the reader wants to happen, happens. I’m now drawn more to authors like Steven Erikson and George R.R. Martin. I almost despise authors whose stories are the typical fantasy where almost every other chapter there’s some detailed description of an insanely beautiful forest or stretch of land, city or palace or some other form of architecture, and women, men, elves or fairies with otherworldly beauty and incredible, almost godlike wisdom. Stories where most everything is so gorgeous and amazing, so wonderful and fantastic it makes you wanna curl up like a baby and cry. Except it makes me wanna curl up and puke.

    That said, I will always love Pern. Eventually, no matter how long it’s been, I will always come back to it, like it was my first love or something. There are so many elements that McCaffrey managed to fit into the series and they all seem to appeal to me on some level. It appeals to the explorer in me, the astronaut, the scientist and the adventurer/wanderer, even the sailor. Those books make me sit alone and just imagine what I would do on a totally new planet, basically unexplored and unsettled. They make me wonder what it would be like to COLONIZE a planet with pristine oceans and rivers, with unknown animal species and regions where no man has ever set foot. If you think it would be wonderful to walk on the moon, imagine what it would be like to walk on a brand spanking new WORLD. Ah. I kinda went crazy with this post. Sorry for the long and rambling read. I’m gonna go make like an ostrich and bury my head in the sand somewhere.

  • Lonedragoman

    I was in need of a book series several years ago when I first picked up Pern. Even though I have not had the distinction of having read all the books, I believe that there are few worlds as original, refined, or distinctly crafted as Pern is. Seeing this, a small part of me hopes that good old hollywood will not turn one of my favorite book series into a debacle and disaster of a movie like so many other book to movie adaptations that hollywood has spawned.

    Overall, if hollywood can suck up their “creative” (though very repetitive) creative ideas and just go with the great material in the pages between the covers of these amazing masterpieces, then I know that I and many other fans will not be disappointed.

  • Emily

    I love these books but if the graphics aren’t up to parr than I can just as easily do without the cheesey movie adaptation. I would much rather have the series be made into a TV series than a single book that is squished into one movie.

  • Elphiebelphie

     Let’s just hope that it doesn’t end up like a previous movie featuring dragon riders (Eragon) because that was a disaster. (I know that they have nothing to do with each other plot wise, they just both have people who ride dragons and that’s where i made my connections)