From Tracy Carrithers
order of business number 2! I thought up a half-decent trailer thing... of course, we won't be able to make it. It will require shots from the movie to work right... anyway, here goes.
(some sort of narrator, unseen of course) "Rumors of war seep from town to town." (this is over a shot of a dragon highlord putting on his helm, seen from the back). "Evil slowly spreads its influence." (over a shot of draconians, dressed as clerics, walking down a road). "Darkness threatens to engulf the world." (shot of Raistlin and the undead in Darken Wood). "And seven unlikely heroes are chosen to save it." (shot of the companions in the Inn of the Last Home. Once the monologue part here is done, we hear Tanis say 'we'll have to escape through the kitchen'). (Fade to black, then a closeup of Raist's face as he says, "Within 2 days time, life on Krynn as we know it will come to an end. This is the portent of the fallen stars.") Then, a close-up of a black dragon's eye opening - just close enough that its hard to see that its a dragon - then fade to black. The DL logo appears, coming soon, etc.)
Is that ok? I'm aware there's no way we can produce that without clips from the movie, which obviously we dont have... oh well. it'll be good for later ;~)
order of business 3. I saw Reign of Fire yesterday (i assume you've heard of it). The dragons were spectacular (other than the fact that they didnt have hind legs), and I thought that we might want to base the DL dragons on these, possibly even get the special effects people from RoF to do effects for a DL movie. If you haven't seen Reign of Fire yet, go see it, you'll see what I mean.
Vic's Comment
Hi Tracy, You are now officially our no.1 fan!
Thanks for the letter. I like the narration and I'll put it into the melting
pot with mine and Rino's ideas. I haven't seen ROF yet as it hasn't been realesed
in the UK yet :( but I downloaded the trailer and the dragons do actually look
the business (even with my disslike of CG!)
From The Kobra
I stumbled across this website by accident - and am I ever impressed. You've all obviously put a lot of work into this and as a fan of the 'classic era' (Pre-Chaos War) Dragonlance (The first fantasy novels I ever read, before the Hobbit or LOTR) I've always been fascinated by the idea of a movie version. I'm a Uni student taking classes in film and screenwriting, and I hope to break into the business with my own fantasy epic when the time comes. I'm a budding screenwriter and I'm able to do character designs - you can see my Elfwood site http://elfwood.lysator.liu.se/loth/c/f/cfallon/ for details. The question of whether the success of LOTR will interfere with a Dragonlance movie is somewhat of a moot point, in my view. You've got to keep in mind how much time is involved. Even if you started right now, your script would need to be finished, drafted and redrafted, the rights obtained from WoTC, the pitch given to production companies, the director, producer, and crew selected, the actors signed on - the locations chosen, the sets and costumes designed, the budget decided - and all of this, before you even begin filming. Let's not even go near the length of the shoot and post-production. As with any quality, big-budget motion picture, you're looking at years in the making. LOTR will be old news by then, which is good news for you - I feel its brilliance will leave a favorable taste for fantasy in moviegoers' mouths, especially once the entire trilogy are released and audiences realise there won't be any more LOTR. They'll want more.
The problem of whether DL would be considered a ripoff of LOTR lingers, though. What you have to look at is the similarities - we may not see them so clearly, but audiences might. They'll equate Tasselhoff with Merry and Pippin, Tanis with Aragorn - a tragic love between a ranger and an elf princess? Thanks to Peter Jackson's enlargement of its importance in LOTR, they'll already have seen that. Sturm? A less-shifty Boromir. Flint? An older, more taciturn Gimli. Even the story progresses similarly to the Fellowship - the heroes travel from Safehouse 1 (Solace/Shire) through a dangerous road to Safehouse 2 (Darken Wood/Rivendell) before plunging into an ominous dungeon (Xak Tsaroth/Moria) and facing a mighty enemy (Khisanth/Balrog) which they overcome before travelling onward to Safehouse 3 (Qualinost/Lothlorien]. Only then does Autumn Twilight depart from the familiar road, leading the party to Pax Tharkas and a showdown with Verminaard instead of the battle with the Uruk-Hai at Amon Hen and the breaking of the Fellowship. Again, we DL fans know and appreciate the details, the characterisations, the twists that make it so very different - but a large-scale movie is always pitched to the wider audience, who love to jump to conclusions.
The only answer is to make Dragonlance -feel- significantly
different to LOTR. It's not as hard as it sounds. Simply expand on the roles
of what makes DL unique and not just another standard fantasy. The eponymous
and overwhelming presence of the Dragons is one thing. After all, the Dragonlance
setting was introduced specifically to be a D&D campaign world where the
power of Dragons was emphasised. DL's Dragons are not the seemingly-mindless
beasts of the D&D movie, nor the cuddly Draco of Dragonheart. DRAGONLANCE
ADVENTURES describes them as "The power of the earth incarnate - and they
know it." To our heroes and their world, Dragons are something legendary,
mythical, as distant in the past as they are to us. When they appear in the
flesh, it is a sign of the Apocalypse.
Keep in mind, that the only dragons appearing in Autumn Twilight are EVIL! Khisanth,
Ember and Flamestrike should be emphasised as terrifying living weapons of destruction
- winged, super-intelligent incarnations of nature's wrath against which the
medieval populace of Ansalon is defenseless. The attack of the dragons on Solace
should have the feel of a WWII bombing raid - the confusion, the terror, and
the utter helplessness of those on the ground against the rain of death from
above.
Imagining their awesome wrath displayed - houses crumbling like matchsticks,
blasts of fire scorching the earth - to an epic, operatic score makes me tingle
head to toe.
As a wannabe-screenwriter, I'll say that Autumn Twilight has an appropriate structure for filming. It isn't as vast as, say, Fellowship as the Rings, its action proceeds in a somewhat linear, episodic manner building toward a satisfying climax - a good way to keep your players, readers, and viewers interested - and its characters are varied and interesting. However, while I really like the script-beginnings on your page (nicely-written) a couple of things jumped out at me, the biggest of which being that by shifting the Goblin attack from the start of the film to the end of the tavern scene, your movie would begin with over 25 minutes (!!!) of warm, friendly reunions and cozy tavern scenes. A sentence of death for an adventure movie. You want to grab your audience's attention -right away- and tantalise them with the promise of more. Think of the epic prologue to LOTR, the openings to any of the Indiana Jones movies, et cetera. By interrupting Tanis, Tas and Flint with the appearance of the villainous Toede and his monsters, Weis and Hickman immediately disrupted the utopia of Solace and by the time the heroes entered the Inn of the Last Home, both they and we wanted to know: what's happened to our hometown? By the same token, don't be afraid to improvise. Is the prologue with Fizban's first arrival necessary? Would it be more effective if it was cut? Or would the audience better identify the 'weird old storyteller' as an important character if he was introduced earlier? Be careful with exposition. (esp. characters explaining the plot directly) It's often necessary in these kinds of films, but it's best used sparingly - to most screenwriters it's a no-no. "Show, don't tell" is an oft-quoted rule.
You don't have to draft the dialogue word-for-word from the book - a lot of it is irrelevant but colourful details, which are comfortably absorbed in a novel, but in the two-and-a-half hours of a movie only add clutter and confusion.
I don't agree with suggestions of cutting or adding characters. There are other ways. For example, if you feel Tanis and Laurana as the main love story comes in too late in the tale, add a short flashback or daydream earlier on, in which Tanis reminisces about the lovely elven maiden. Your audience will want to know who she is and what she means to him, and will anticipate her appearance rather than thinking "Who the hell is that?" when she shows up. Even a flashback with Kitiara (who never appears in the flesh in DOAT) will help audiences identify who she is. Otherwise, it'd be better to cut out all references to her completely. One of the worst mistakes would be to frequently refer in dialogue to a character who doesn't appear in the movie and won't be important until the sequels.But I've rambled entirely too much - I'm not a professional and you're more than welcome to take my advice with a grain of salt or ignore it altogether. But these are a few of the things you'll have to deal with if you're serious about this project (and I think you are).
One final note - This is just a rumour, but I've heard that TSR was long tossing around ideas for a Dragonlance movie and may have been working on it when WOTC took them over. Apparently, not liking the direction the film was taking, WOTC yanked the rights and forced the script to be rewritten completely and the production redesigned - which turned the film into <drum roll> The D&D movie. Would explain why it took ten years to make and was still awful in the end. The rumour has it that WOTC is still interested in a Dragonlance movie, though, but they want it done properly....This could be your big chance ;)
Till next time,
The Kobra.
DLMP's Comments
Thanks Kobra. Some brilliant comments in that letter. I won't go on too much as I'll put people to sleep but I will say that I share the same thoughts that 'joe' public will look at it as an LOTR rip off. If they can think that Jet Li's The One is a rip off of The Matrix based on the special effects techniques...
For everyone else, the mere fact that dragons are a major part of the film should make people enjoy it more than enough (and religion - LOTR has none!)
From Brian Becker
I liked it a lot, but its definatly missing somethinhg in the
begining. If you have seen the LoTR movie, you should remember the beginging
like, five
minutes showed a history about the ring etc...
There should be something like this in the DL movie. Start off
about the Catalysm (sp? I never could spell that anyway) and about the calamities,
with naration from someone of course. Then, just do like a however many years
afterwards DoAT is. Giving a short history will help people who have not read
the books understand about the history of Krynn, and will certainly make the
story more interesting.
DLMP's Comment
It will more than likely happen that way. We just want to get the 'meat' of the work done first and then we will start to spruce it up.
From Dodger
On your site, you said:
>I have had a few people get in contact with film companies
and WOTC. This is a bad thing to do. It is worth bearing
>in mind that we do not own the rights to DL and we WILL get closed down
if the wrong people see this. Also at this
>early stage, there is nothing to stop a film company saying ‘yeah great
idea, we’ll see Wizards if the Coast. Bye’.
>That means the film will get made without our ideas.
But I dont' really see the difference, from this perspective.
I don't agree with the 'make it look like Elmore' approach because Elmore did
a generally and overall bad job. If I wanted a DL movie to look like an Elmore
painting, I'd be pushing for a cartoon. One with garish colours, at that. Parkinson
and Stawicki are worthy goals to attempt to match. Elmore is not. I used to
like his work, but then I learned to paint.
I don't agree with the 'Target it for PG' approach, either. No one makes a good
movie whilst keeping in mind the intended MPAA rating. People make good movies
whilst trying to make good movies. The trimming down to get it below the R comes
later. This very approach indicates to me that your organisation doesn't have
a clue as to how a movie is made. Let it be noted that the projected LoTR special
DVD will contain the full, uncut and R-rated Fellowship fo the Ring when it
comes out.
While I generally like Marcussen's work on the soundtrack, I do think it's missing
something. It sort of lacks a 'hook' -- all good scores have a hook. How many
notes would it take you to recognise Star Wars, Superman, Star Trek, or Battlestar
Galactica? Now think about Babylon 5. Think of its score. It's not easy. Great
show, but the score bit. Second on this topic, you have indicated that you specifically
do NOT want to use any of the music that has already been written for the saga,
even though a licence would come with such rights. You (someone who responded
to an email before) have stated to me that this is to the extent that you do
not even wish to incorporate melodies into existing main score. This is not
only stupid -- a lot of people who've visited Sci-Fi con filk rooms can recognise
'The Grasslands are Endless' in a few notes -- it's also insulting to the original
developers of the world of Krynn, to decide to throw out some of their ideas
on a whim or the arrogance that anything you do is better. Exactly the kind
of arrogance add ignorance that would also ruin this movie if it underwent the
standard Hollywood translation.
If it were possible, I'd like to see a combination of directors work together
on this project. I realise it isn't, but it would be wonderful to see a team
effort of the recently proven Peter Jackson (overall) combined with George Lucas
(fight scenes), Tim Burton (the dragonarmies), Jean-Claude Jeunet (city design
and cinemetography) and Terry Gilliam (anything to do with kender, gully dwarves
and particularly gnomes). That of course is a 'Dream-Team' idea that will not
likely come to pass. I find it most likely that Lucas Arts would gain rights
to Dragonlance, and that woud not really be a bad thing. This is because Lucas
Arts owns a 30% interest in Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast. That's
why Star Wars (the RPG) is d20.
I'm afraid that after careful consideration, I have to state a stance of actively
opposing your movement. I don't want to see Dragonlance ruined in motion picture
form. The last time I can think of a small group of non-filmmakers or inexperienced
filmmakers putting together a screenplay and getting the rights to a big fantasy
name, we got the Dungeons and Dragons movie. That was atrocious, and I can't
stand to see Dragonlance go down the same dark path.
Vic's Comment Rino's Comment (Dodgers letter is repeated in Yellow)
I don't agree with the 'make it look like Elmore' approach because Elmore did a generally and overall bad job. If I wanted a DL movie to look like an Elmore painting, I'd be pushing for a cartoon. One with garish colours, at that. Parkinson and Stawicki are worthy goals to attempt to match. Elmore is not. I used to like his work, but then I learned to paint.
I studied Art & Design and Graphical Communication for 3 years, so I don’t really need to be educated in the quality of various works of art. Elmore’s work is on the site the three reasons:
1 – You haven’t been supplied with anything better yet.
2 – Elmore took all the visual details he could get out of the book to use in the paintings. This is helpful to us.
3 – His painting’s are proportionately very lifelike (unlike a lot of abstract fantasy works,) this gives us the chance to use his ideas for armour, weapons and the GENERAL look of the characters.
No one ever said we would be taking his art and using verbatim (including the garish colours.) I think you need to be able to better visualise a real actor based on an artist’s CONCEPT.
Just my little comment: It should be fairly
obvious to anyone with any knowledge of how movies are made that you want a
somewhat realistic interpretation of the characters. Take "X-Men"
for example. Comic fans were up in arms because Wolverine wasn't wearing that
yellow and blue spandex suit he used to wear in the comics. But the movie-makers
were aware that the yellow and blue spandex would look silly in a realistic
portrayal, so they ditched it for the black leather jump suits. You dislike
Elmore's work, that's fine. It's not there because anyone is saying, "This
is what we want the characters to look like." It's there as a general outline.
I mean Raistlin has to wear his red robes, but other than that you can interpret
the other character's costumes in a hundred different ways. They're just pictures.
I don't agree with the 'Target it for PG' approach, either. No one makes a good movie whilst keeping in mind the intended MPAA rating. People make good movies whilst trying to make good movies. The trimming down to get it below the R comes later. This very approach indicates to me that your organisation doesn't have a clue as to how a movie is made. Let it be noted that the projected LoTR special DVD will contain the full, uncut and R-rated Fellowship fo the Ring when it comes out.
You have just admitted that LOTR was cut to make the general release a PG and then accuse me of not having a clue how a movie is made, when I suggest the same thing!!
1 – Who say’s we wouldn’t have an uncut DVD.
2 – We do not need gore for gore’s sake. We can get away with an awful lot in a PG rating, (arms and heads cut off, people burning.)
3 – The only thing I can think of that would push it over to an R rating would be the Riverwind ‘acid’ scene. We’ll put that back in the DVD for you, and at least then, the thousands of children that read the book can still see it in the cinema.
As now you are entering my area of the "organization"
as you put it, I should comment here. The novels are written as novels, descriptive,
emotional, action packed, and moving. The movie is being written the same way.
The novels have been enjoyed by millions of people, young and old, over the
years. And many of them would love to see those characters and that story on
the big screen. I am writing the movie to appeal to that audience. Whether it
becomes a PG movie or an R one by the time the screenplay is done is irrelevant
at this point. If in the novel there is a scene which has (for example) charred
blackened bodies of Plainsmen strewn about what is left of Que-Shu, which could
be a little grisly for young children to see, we'll deal with it when we get
to that point. However, I, as someone who works somewhat efficiently, do keep
in mind that I want this film to be enjoyed by people young and old, so I make
a mental note of scenes that could be edited out in case the movie doesn't make
a PG rating. This film is not going to be "Blade 2" which was a good
popcorn movie, but I would never take my nephews to see it because it was really
gory. But it's not going to be "Puff The Magic Dragon" either.
While I generally like Marcussen's work on the soundtrack, I do think it's missing something. It sort of lacks a 'hook' -- all good scores have a hook. How many notes would it take you to recognise Star Wars, Superman, Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica? Now think about Babylon 5. Think of its score. It's not easy. Great show, but the score bit. Second on this topic, you have indicated that you specifically do NOT want to use any of the music that has already been written for the saga, even though a licence would come with such rights. You (someone who responded to an email before) have stated to me that this is to the extent that you do not even wish to incorporate melodies into existing main score. This is not only stupid -- a lot of people who've visited Sci-Fi con filk rooms can recognise 'The Grasslands are Endless' in a few notes -- it's also insulting to the original developers of the world of Krynn, to decide to throw out some of their ideas on a whim or the arrogance that anything you do is better. Exactly the kind of arrogance add ignorance that would also ruin this movie if it underwent the standard Hollywood translation.
I said that Marcussen’s work is better suited for a movie. I NEVER said that we wouldn’t use any ‘Leaves’ influence (I was actually waiting for you to finish your conversion of Goldmoons song.)
We are making a film based on a great story from two talented people’s imagination (Weis and Hickman) - that’s it. NOT Dragonlance the corporation. The Dragonlance Trade Mark doe’s not automatically give something precedence over what a dedicated fan has done. Marcussen’s work would obviously change if the go ahead was given. Please don’t accuse his work of not having a hook (rightfully or not) when there is no ‘hook’ in the Leaves songs either. Again when something better comes along it will change (that’s the whole point of this site,) but until then I (and others) think Christians work is the best for the movie.
If it were possible, I'd like to see a combination of directors work together on this project. I realise it isn't, but it would be wonderful to see a team effort of the recently proven Peter Jackson (overall) combined with George Lucas (fight scenes), Tim Burton (the dragonarmies), Jean-Claude Jeunet (city design and cinemetography) and Terry Gilliam (anything to do with kender, gully dwarves and particularly gnomes). That of course is a 'Dream-Team' idea that will not likely come to pass. I find it most likely that Lucas Arts would gain rights to Dragonlance, and that woud not really be a bad thing. This is because Lucas Arts owns a 30% interest in Hasbro, which owns Wizards of the Coast. That's why Star Wars (the RPG) is d20.
I'm afraid that after careful consideration, I have to state a stance of actively opposing your movement. I don't want to see Dragonlance ruined in motion picture form. The last time I can think of a small group of non-filmmakers or inexperienced filmmakers putting together a screenplay and getting the rights to a big fantasy name, we got the Dungeons and Dragons movie. That was atrocious, and I can't stand to see Dragonlance go down the same dark path.
I am always open for comments and criticism but I think your usage of the words ‘Ignorant’, ‘Arrogant’, ‘Stupid’ and ‘Not having a clue’ are both rude and personal. If you think that with a story as great as DOAT and with all the fans helping to mould the idea through this site, that we would end up with a Dungeons & Dragons movie then I feel it is you that ‘doesn’t have a clue.’
I am afraid that after
careful consideration, I have to state that you are someone who obviously believes
that if something isn't done the way *they* think it should be done, then it
is wrong. I can assure you that I, as the screenwriter, have no intention of
"ruining" Dragonlance in motion picture form. Go ahead and tell me
what, in the screenplay so far, is going to "ruin" the movie. What?
You can't find anything? That's right, because I'm staying very close to the
source material. Imagine that. Other than removing things for time, what's going
to be presented in the film will be as close to the novels as I can get it.
All I can really say to you is that I don't plan on ruining the story or the
characters as they are in the novels, and to me, that's the most important thing.