Poor Eragon

by Diane Duane

Jeez, that film got dreadfully spanked in the reviews.

This is something of an issue for me, as one fantasy film’s bad fortune affects all other potential fantasy pitches far more than the previous few films’ good fortune will; and in a household where pitching fantasy film is something that’s more likely to happen pretty soon than not, we both keep an eye on such things.

I get a sense that something’s gone wrong in the process between the book and the screenplay. (I haven’t read the book, and so can’t judge the problem from that side.) I will say this, though: I read the original Eragon screenplay a couple/few weeks ago, and got very concerned. For one thing, the spacing on the screenplay had been badly “cheated” (meaning each page had many more lines on it than it should have). This may not sound like much, but in an industry where the timing of a movie can be definitively judged by the (correct) spacing and pagination of a script, that’s a problem… and possibly indicative of more trouble to come.

And I may have been right about that concern, since it now turns out that there are three additional writers’ names on the movie. This suggests that the producers felt there was either structural trouble, or dialogue trouble, or both, after the first draft. Some of the reviews would seem to come down on the “dialogue trouble” side, though. (I’m not going to link to them individually: reading them gives me the ouchies as it is, however deserved they may be. Hit that link above and you’ll see a lot of reviews using truly scalding language [and terrible puns] to slag the film off.)

…So now — around here, anyway — we’ll be rooting for the next fantasy film out of the chute to do better, and change the mood.

A note in passing: another of the screenplays that came through here in that last batch was by the wonderful Tom Stoppard. And I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that his script was the only one in the batch that did not cheat on the spacing. My feeling after reading it was that, if there are not too many changes between his draft and the shooting script, The Golden Compass is going to work quite well. (Again, I haven’t read the book: so I’m coming to the subject as someone who knows nothing in particular about that universe, and therefore comes to the property as most of the film’s viewers will.)

(sigh) Back to work…

Update: Deadline Hollywood Daily reports:

Also strong [on Friday] was the Harry Potter clone Eragon which took 2nd place with $8.6 mil Friday and may score a $24.5 mil weekend.

That would be a solid enough figure for the one day, if not spectacular. But this film had a fairly large budget (estimates seem to be around $100 million) and will have to do well over the weekend and the next couple/few weeks to make an impression. (Received wisdom has it that a film must make from four to five times its budget to “earn out”.)
[tags]Eragon, fantasy, Paolini, film, movie, script, Pullman, Stoppard, Golden Compass[/tags]

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5 comments

P J Evans December 17, 2006 - 5:03 pm

I haven’t read the book either, but some of its reviews were less than complimentary.

Devon December 17, 2006 - 11:37 pm

On the news it showed an 11 year old boy crying after seeing an advanced screening. He was angry that the movie was so bad and didn’t follow the book.

Sweet Alyssum December 27, 2006 - 9:22 pm

I haven’t seen the movie, but I did read the book. It isn’t terribly good– as a matter of fac, it’s such a cliche-ridden Tolkein rip-off that it’s funny, in a painful kind of way. If you want to read it, it’s definitely a library read.

Really, it was okay until the flawless warrior elf maiden showed up, at which point I set the book down and began giggling for several minutes.

Anna December 30, 2006 - 1:11 am

I have read the book, but I have no intention of seeing the movie. I am still too annoyed by how much the author borrowed from Star Wars, McCaffrey, and Tolkein. From what I’ve read, the movie seems to stay fairly true to the book, so it’s no surprise that it’s getting panned by reviewers. Too bad the producers didn’t pick something more original, or at least less obviously a rip-off of better material.

B. Durbin December 31, 2006 - 1:59 am

I would be deeply surprised if Tom Stoppard did not have a good sense of timing; the man’s capable of writing farce, in which timing is critical.

I will gladly see anything by Stoppard.

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