After adapting two of the most beloved properties of the Twentieth Century – remaking The Great Muppet Caper as Meet the Feebles and adapting As I Lay Dying into Dead Alive – Peter Jackson is turning his attention to a much lesser known property, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series of fantasy novels. The books reimagine the Napoleonic Wars to include dragons, which it turns out is the only reason Peter Jackson has been going to the movies for the last forty years. To see dragons fight Napoleon. Seriously, he said it himself: " 'Temeraire' is a terrific meld of two genres that I particularly love -- fantasy and historical epic," Jackson says. "I can't wait to see Napoleonic battles fought with a squadron of dragons. That's what I go to the movies for."
The series began in 2004 with His Majesty’s Dragon, which “centers on British naval Capt. Will Laurence, who captures a French ship, where he discovers an unhatched dragon egg in the hold -- a gift from the Emperor of China intended for Napoleon. When the egg hatches, he is forced to give up his naval career to become captain of the dragon he names Temeraire.â€
Jackson expands “You know, it's not just about the dragons and the battles, it's the other stuff in the detailed world she created. I love even just the concept of how the flying corp are looked down upon by the traditional navy. It's all about the English Class system, that's what makes it really interesting. And there are parallels to Tolkien in the sense that it is complex. It's going to be a lot of fun, actually.â€
Jackson will be turning to Temeraire after he adapts Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones next year. He’s considering doing something extra with Temeraire that might involve interactive hooey, but we’ll see where that goes. Of course this doesn’t bode well for MGM’s recently announced The Hobbit, which Jackson said he’d love to do but about which no one has approached him.
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Sounds fun, and this sounds right up Jackson's alley. There's no way he'll do The Hobbit, though, at least not on MGM's timetable.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:01 am Posts: 19477 Location: Brooklyn NY
Sounds terrible. Napolean and dragons? Nerd city.
Jackson should make some more horror films.
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Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 2:51 pm Posts: 9961 Location: Sailing For Singapore
glorified_version wrote:
Sounds terrible. Napolean and dragons? Nerd city.
Jackson should make some more horror films.
Hear, hear!
Though I doubt that would be as good now. He's been poisoned by Hollywood. He could never go back. Once he made The Frighteners, you just knew Jackson would never make a classic like Dead-Alive again.
Though I doubt that would be as good now. He's been poisoned by Hollywood. He could never go back. Once he made The Frighteners, you just knew Jackson would never make a classic like Dead-Alive again.
Instead he made classics like Lord of the Rings. Don't get me wrong, Dead Alive is one of my favorite pieces of entertainment, ever. But a creative filmmaker as wide-eyed and enthusiastic as Jackson, dreams of making big budget spectacle like this. He's a big believer in movies delivering grand entertainment.
And this subject matter isn't any different than something like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which fused historical English fiction with magic, making for one of the best novels in recent memory. It's all in the execution, and Jackson has proved more times than not that he can execute.
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:18 am Posts: 3920 Location: Philadelphia
diaglo wrote:
LoathedVermin72 wrote:
glorified_version wrote:
Sounds terrible. Napolean and dragons? Nerd city.
Jackson should make some more horror films.
Hear, hear!
Though I doubt that would be as good now. He's been poisoned by Hollywood. He could never go back. Once he made The Frighteners, you just knew Jackson would never make a classic like Dead-Alive again.
Instead he made classics like Lord of the Rings. Don't get me wrong, Dead Alive is one of my favorite pieces of entertainment, ever. But a creative filmmaker as wide-eyed and enthusiastic as Jackson, dreams of making big budget spectacle like this. He's a big believer in movies delivering grand entertainment.
And this subject matter isn't any different than something like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which fused historical English fiction with magic, making for one of the best novels in recent memory. It's all in the execution, and Jackson has proved more times than not that he can execute.
I'm with you. I am looking forward to this. The LOTR Trilogy is amongst my fav. movies ever and can't wait to see what he does next.
I'm sort of surprised at the reactions in this thread. Oh well.
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Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 2:51 pm Posts: 9961 Location: Sailing For Singapore
diaglo wrote:
LoathedVermin72 wrote:
glorified_version wrote:
Sounds terrible. Napolean and dragons? Nerd city.
Jackson should make some more horror films.
Hear, hear!
Though I doubt that would be as good now. He's been poisoned by Hollywood. He could never go back. Once he made The Frighteners, you just knew Jackson would never make a classic like Dead-Alive again.
Instead he made classics like Lord of the Rings. Don't get me wrong, Dead Alive is one of my favorite pieces of entertainment, ever. But a creative filmmaker as wide-eyed and enthusiastic as Jackson, dreams of making big budget spectacle like this. He's a big believer in movies delivering grand entertainment.
And this subject matter isn't any different than something like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which fused historical English fiction with magic, making for one of the best novels in recent memory. It's all in the execution, and Jackson has proved more times than not that he can execute.
I do think he did a fantastic job on King Kong. I really don't care for LOTR at all, though.
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