The instant you post news about a movie based on a fantasy novel everyone says “Oh look, another movie hoping to cash in on the Lord of the Rings genre” I couldnt disagree more.
SUre, Lord of the Rings made it chic to be into fantasy genres again, but I dont think the genre truly died. Its just making you notice them again. It wasnt long ago that if you went to a movie about Magic or Medieval Fantasy you had to justify yourself and convince your peers that you didnt play Dungeons and Dragons. Now its just “in”. (The movies are “in” I mean, us roleplayers are still geeks)
Warner Brothers has just picked up the rights to a soon to be released children’s novel by James A. Owen called “Here, There Be Dragons”. Are there actual dragons in it? Maybe. The book tells the story of three strangers in London during World War I, entrusted with an atlas detailing the locations of all of literature’s great mythical lands. The three men, Jack, John, and Charles set out to find them, and end up fighting strange and dark forces threatening the real and mythical worlds.
So this has a bit of a “magical world hidden in our own world” mysticism like the Harry Potter books, but people are still stuck on calling anything with a Dragon a Lord of the Rings knockoff. There will be obvious comparisons since the main characters in the book are portrayed as real life buddies of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
The idea sounds rather interesting, and the WB is holding on to it so that David Heyman (Harry Potter producer) and David Goyer (Batman Begins screenwriter) can do it.
Lets just enjoy Medieval Fantasy movies without disregarding them because of the genre masterpeice that is the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
There is an interview with James A. Owen, the author of Here, There Be Dragons, at http://www.pinkraygun.com. The direct link for the interview is http://www.pinkraygun.com/2007/02/18/pink-raygun-interview-8-james-a-owen/