…the Ring of the Nibelungs, that is.
Its story is far older than Wagner’s version: it was one of a number of factors which inspired Tolkien’s greatest work. It appears first in the ancient Volsungasaga; then it became a part of the Nibelungenlied, the Song of the Nibelungs, a story which became embedded in German culture.
In 1999 we were at a media convention in Germany and met some people who were involved in the earliest stages of work on a filmed version of the Nibelungenlied. One thing led to another, and they hired us to write the script. Two nights ago, after five years of work, we attended the premiere in Munich, saw the film introduced by the Chancellor of Bavaria, and at the end of it all heard the place go up in a roar of applause that was … something more than satisfying.
These five years have brought us a couple of the best friends anyone could find in the creative arena, Tim Halkin and Rola Bauer at Tandem Communications in Munich — and have thrown us together with some really talented folks in the allied crafts, such as our director Uli Edel, our star the spectacular and delightful Kristanna Loken, and the special effects partnership of Volker Engel and Marc Weigert at Uncharted Territory. It’s been a wild ride… and we’d do it again like a shot.
(Update: The miniseries has since premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel in March 2006 as Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King.)
So, onward to the next thing. But in the meantime…we’re still basking in the afterglow. I’ll find more time to blog about this eventually. Meanwhile, the Flickr “Zeitgeist” badge in the next column has pictures from the premiere and the party afterwards at Munich’s great club “P1”.
[tags]Ring of the Nibelungs, Sword of Xanten, Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King, Peter Morwood, Duane Duane, Tandem Communications, Rola Bauer, Tim Halkin, Uli Edel[/tags]
