Michael Moorcock’s Elric Saga
A movie based on the Elric Saga is in production by Paul and Chris Weitz (via Universal). Holy. Crap? Michael Moorcock may very well be my favorite fantasy author of all time. At the very least, he’s right up there in the running for first with about 5 other authors (Feist, Martin, Salvatore, Stephenson, Zelazny). Whatever the case may be, this has me more excited and worried than any other movie in production by a long shot. This could be so ridiculously awesome that my brain hurts just thinking about it. Oh yeah, here’s the link for more information. Note: The Eternal Champion really drove me to want to write. It’s one of my favorite book series ever.
Huge fan here. Should be interesting to see how this goes!
“Blood and souls. Blood and souls for my lord Arioch!”
Anyone else think Paul Bettany would be perfect to play Elric?
Hawkmoon! Hawkmoon! Hawkmoon!
Let’s not forget Martin and his HBO series.
Now, if only we can convince some people to put Drizzt up on the big screen …
Very nice! Thankfully you posted this otherwise I would have been left in the dark!
There are a few characters that are perfectly formed in my imagination – Drizzt, Elric, Corwin, and Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. The fact that they are so firmly rooted in my imagination is a sign of a truly great author, and a truly wonderful character.
Doing ANY of them in a movie can only spell disaster, as the literature + imagination will Always be superior to a flat, 2 dimensional portayal.
These are vibrant characters. Full of life, fire, anger, joy…
They are superb warriors. Yet they are also scholars, magicians, and philosophers.
Do we have any script writers who can adequately give them the depth they deserve? Directors who can get that depth out of shallow action star actors? Producers who are intent on keeping them ‘Alive’ and true to their roots?
In a simpler time, Conan the Barbarian was portayed in a VERY shallow way. Luckily for me, I hadn’t read the stories beforehand, so they were enjoyable as movies. These days, I’m a bit pickier.
I seriously hope that this movie tanks before production – just so that it doesn’t go down as a black scar across my brain, where my previously cherished memories of Elric currently reside.
Wow thats awesome, hope it turns out to be pretty damn good.
Conan movies enjoyable? Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them, but I still recall my thinking at the time of the first one that the director had continued his remarkable talent of turning gold into straw… and had actually managed to make a SEX scene boring! Now, *that* takes talent….
The second one was better, I thought, but he was only the executive producer of that one, so had less opportunity to apply his ‘skill’.
whaddya want? I was 11 at the time. And it was a great movie, then!
Elric kills his sister to start, lives a hedonistic lifestyle filled with casual sex, requires constant exotic drugs to keep strong, kills everyone else he knows, and is the most powerful force for chaos and evil in the world.
But he feels really, REALLY bad about it.
I dunno, call me a cynic, but I can’t see this movie ending up anything like the book.
The comic worked. The song worked (yes, if you’re a real Elric fan you know about Blue Oyster Cult’s song “Black Blade”, written by Moorcock himself). Movie? Aside from Lord of the Rings, I can’t think of another good fantasy movie.
Aside from Princess Bride, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Dragon Slayer, the third Harry Potter movie… well the point being, they are few and far between.
SciFi/Fantasy movies I would like to see:
Roger Zelazny’s Creatures of Light and Darkness
The story of the god Set, lost without his memory or powers after Anubis tossed him out of the Underworld, in a universe where a hundred Immortals (who all came by immortality in different ways) play, fight, and cultivate intrigue. Home is the Hangman would be a nice detective movie in the way of Bladerunner. Call Me Conrad and For A Breath I Tarry would be cool in their own ways…
Ursula K LeGuin’s The Word for World is Forest
Being subsumed into an alien society as a metaphor for growing up. Actually, this probably would be a crappy movie.
Samuel Delaney’s Dhalgren
A cataclysm befalls a nameless city. Does anything outside exist? Do they? Are they still on Earth? Is anyone sane? I’d like to see a movie of this because, frankly, I never could finish the book.
Gene Wolfe’s Shadow of the Torturer
A light-hearted, fun fantasy like Harry Potter except the school is for torturers instead of wizardry and the students learn how to torment people. How topical! Actually, there is far more to this story of a humble apprentice torturer who becomes the Autarch, the absolute ruler of the known galaxy, and the man fated to bring new life to Urth’s dying sun. Wolfe’s Free Live Free or There Are Doors… would make decent movies. The Death of Doctor Island And Other Stories (yes, this is the title of a story — it was collected in The Death of Doctor Island and Other Stories and Other Stories) would be fun, just so the title could be The Movie of The Death of Doctor Island And Other Stories.
Anyway. Elric? If they are going for avatars of the Eternal Champion, wouldn’t Jerry Cornelius be better?
Nah…Elric is THE Eternal Champion to me….always will be…Paul Bettany would be good…what about Jonathan Rhy-Meyers? he’s pretty talented too…got the thin face for it…..God I hope they don’t screw it up; there is SO much potential for a killer movie with the current state of CGAnimation..Come to think of it..how about P.Bettany as Yrkoon? He played a pretty good evil whacko in The DaVinci code and he even looks like JRM..they COULD be cousins….
Talking about oldies but goodies; I’d also like to see the old Lensman series done well
We just have to bombard the directors with mail to make sure that they know we will be pityless on them if they screw up a great book. After the great job they did on LOTR i have high hopes for a great movie of Elric, but if I hear it’s bad I wont go to see it ever.