From Tracy Carrithers

Just a real quick wish for your "wish list," my biggest pet peeve about book->movie things is when everything, even the dialogue, is different.
Can we stay close enough to what actually happens to make a dragonlance fanatic gal happy? lol, don't mind me. i'm an awfully harsh critic ;)
I think you have a fantastic thing going here, keep it all up! I love the music you've got composed so far, it sounds perfectly "midevil" and just
right for the movie. I'm not much of a composer, mostly performer, lol, but hopefully I'll send something in for you all. I'd be honored to help you
out, if you need anything at all (storyboards, art, whatever else) you're welcome to email me. (course, i dont see how anything I do could surpass all
your work!) Good luck, good luck, and more luck, plus all the encouragement I can offer (and then some)!

DLMP's Comment!

We will certainly need luck, and hard work, which I think we're willing to give.

 

From Jayson

Hello,

My name is Jayson. I have just looked over your www.dragonlancemovie.com site and loved seeing that their are people out there that believe as I do in that this would be an absolutely brilliant movie. But, after reading some of the web site I noticed one opinion in particular that really struck me hard. The comment was that, the movie could only really be based on a short few characters. I have to disagree. Now this is just my opinion of course. I believe that a movie such of this could as epic as say, starwars, or the godfather. It just has to be done right. I truly believe that the drangonlance chronicles was the best book I have ever read. So should the movie or movies be. The chronicles left you hanging at the end of every book, making you feel like you couldn't put it down. Almost at an addictive state. They hook you on an emotional roller coaster that makes you hold the book even more tightly. This is how the movie should work. They should build the world as a wondrous, magical place like the did with willow, and what it looks as if they are doing with lord of the rings. They should take the actors to real locations to make the movies. Not some CG stage screen. Granted they will have to probably use some of that for the dragons and so on, but not all of it. Close ups with computer graphics do not look real to me. Example: using willow, they used a computer animated dragon in the fight scene. It looked really bad. Up close shots should always use puppets. Something that looks as real as the actors themselves. Speaking of the actors though. This shouldn't be a washout like dungeons and dragons was. That movie sucked. Lots of really cool affects, but that's really were it ended. The acting was bad, and they had the wrong types of people acting out the parts. But, in the end that's what they wanted. I just don't think that is what the world wanted. I haven't met anyone that liked the way that movie turned out. Plus I hope that movie hasn't turned the film producers from thinking that movies like that can't be good at the box office. In the end I guess what I'm getting at is that dragonlance the movie will probably have to be at least a three part series. If someone brilliant could produce it as if it was the books, with all the fun, fear, tears and joy that the books give us. Heroes get tired, they get hurt, and yes they do die. The books capitalized on that. Almost all of the heroes unexpectedly die, and that's what grips the readers. The unexpected.

DLMP's Comment!

The whole reason I wanted this to be a movie, was due to reading the book. I just seemed to work i n my mind without changes. I've read lots of great books and thats exactly what they are...books. DragonLance was something more, I could hear the soundtrack, see the dragons, hence the style of movie I have described on the site. So...yes, hopefully, it will be just as you say.

 

From Chris Svitavsky

The greatest movies always have something in common. People we, as real people, can relate to. Dragonlance suceeds by putting us into the roles of the Heros of the Lance; making us feel as though we are living their lives. True the first book focus on Tanis, Goldmoon and Riverwind (in general), but there are still plenty of good moments to go around. Our purpose should be to make people feel like it is possible for them to live in this world, and to make them feel the same feelings the characters are. The Matrix succeeds in a strange world because it sits in our world, and makes us think "what if our world was really fake, and we were just living in a electricty producing pod somewhere?"
Secondly, the artwork that has been created for DL is a splendid advantage. We already know what everything is should look like. We all share some sort of conception of Krynn.
Thirdly, we must press how many books have been sold. 12 million copies, 12 million people seeing the movie at 5 dollars a pop? (or 8 here in the bay area). The true fans seeing it twice? Other people who are curious just seeing it off the street? There is a vast potential for the film. D&D utterly failed, because it had a poor story (the finished film was mushed together from 3 different scripts), and it strayed to far from the subject matter. It didn't please the non-fan (crappy story (even from the trailers) worthless cgi) and it didn't come close to matching the richness of the subject matter. Token beholders and stupid dragons do not a gaming movie make. In short, it pleased no one. Our goal should be to please the ones who would go anyway, and in turn, have them respond strongly.

DLMP's Comment!

Yep! I will endevour to please the fans first everyone else second (although I can't see how everyone else will fail to enjoy it!!). It is my/our mission to make the first book to movie translation that really works!!

 

From Alan Lesko

In regards to a movie, definitely don't go with CG unless its a must. It is too clean cut. Take for
instance the Prequel to Star Wars. There aren't anyshadows or gloom. Even at 26 I am still far more
affected by Doom and gloom of Vader and his buddies and the roughness of the film. Dragonslayer is an
excellent choice of a film that besides Vermithrax being a realistic dragon, the movie took a serious
approach. Too often fanbtasy movies try to be comical. Alos at 40' in length and 90' in wingspan
the dragon was and showed itself to be huge. Too often people get lost in numbers and don't realize
what really is big! We can barely fathom the ' small' dragons of pre Fifth Age era let alone the
monstrosities that Malastyx brings into play. The movie needs more of the Cona the Barbarian and an
Aliens feel to it. We should cringe when the show Lord Soth and any of his buds. A Clive Barker feeling
should be more prevalent than a Jim Henson one. At least if they focus on what draws a crowd they should
go with a seroius epic fantasy and an action/horror secondary feel to draw that crowd. Better results
would come (sales wise which does rule whether the movie gets made) from drawing the fantasy crowd with
the action/horror than drawing the comedy crowd. An example is Event Horizon. I knew alot of people
who went to that after hearing how scary it was, not primary because it was sci-fi. I mean the animated
feature "Watershipdown' by John Adams is alot better and realistic than D&D the Spoofie.

DLMP's Comment!

I think we can find a nice balance with DL between horror and the humor that already exists in the books (gnomes for example.). Characters such as Hoggle from Labyrinth will work fine in conjunction with the darkness of Aliens type creatures. What I dont want is creatures and settings that do not look as if they could actually exist, albeit in a fantasy worlds.

From Bevan Dearness

I strongly aggree with much of the ideas, put forth on the site. But My advice would be to FOLLOW the book to the word.

Forget all these idea's of adding things to fill in the gaps. The story is perfect. Dont fall into the trap so many BS holywood productions seem to
fall in, by modifying the script or play of the story in anyway. ( the millions of true DL fans will seek blood for it).

I feel the character development is unnessesary in the movie as long as it is made as a trilogy. (which natually, it must). The purpose of Dragons of
Autumn twilight's purpose is to introduce the world, and the primary characters that shape it!. the process of filling out the characters will
happen naturally. If the series is followed religiously!A bit of guess work is fine .. audiences are not as stupid as some may
think!.

Who cares if after the first book goldmoon and riverwind basically cease to exist. I guess what im trying to say is that the movie ( like the books) are
principally about the WORLD of Krynn (Heroes come and go, live and die...the world keeps turning.)

Heavy emphasis on fight\action scenes. With high quality martial arts! and special effects.

I envision dragonlance as an epic with the passion and violence of Braveheart in a fantasy setting! remmeber Dragonlance is not a pretty
fairytale! It is more of a Fantasy\horror (with a touch of humour). A TRADGEDY! Market it for mature audiences.

I feel this is a great project and would greatly like to become a part of it!

I cannot remmeber a fantasy movie that has given the genre justice.. lets try to make dragonlance the first!

P.S Star Wars is crap :)

DLMP's Comment!

Bevan, I aggree wholeheartedly with everything you've said. (Except for the Star Wars bit!!)

From Brett Vallenwood

Dear Dragonlancemovie.com webmaster,

I read your site. I'm another one of those guys who, when reading the chronicles, said "this would make a great movie!". I started planning some stuff, just in my head, but never actually considered it seriously. Then I was surfing around, and saw a link to your site. I followed it and I really can't beleive that someone's actually trying to spearhead this operation. Kudos to you my friend.

Anyhow, I see lots of talk of "If we can survive DoAT, then we can get to DoWN easily..." and the like. I don't really understand why we have to limit each book to one movie. My suggestion is this: Have you ever thought of creating ONE movie instead of three? The chronicles are novels without alot of dialouge. It's more description than anything else (that's not a bad thing, don't take me the wrong way), and dialouge is what takes up time in a movie. Pages and pages of description are all displayed in a single frame of CG or two seconds of film. Regardless of the 400-or-so pages that each book has, not much happens - but what does happen is QUALITY. You could even do a deal where all the content is on two VHS's, or more. The 10th kindom movie, for example, is on 6 VHS's! And it's reasonably successful. This eliminates the project being terminated after the failure of the first movie (God forbid).

The only difficult thing that I forsee off the top of my head is the gap between AT and WN where the Hammer of Kharas is found (and lost, so to speak =)). It would be difficult, maybe awkward to bridge this gap. And, in the end, It might not even matter if the Hammer is included at all. The Companions in Pax Tharkas could go right to Tarsis after the Wedding of Goldmoon and Riverwind, and nothing important is lost.

But i'm just rambling about detail now, my point has been stated. Let me know what you think.

DLMP's Comment!

Hi Brett. While it may seem that descriptive text makes up a large portion of the novels, looking at the screenplay reveals a different story (pun intended.) I think that a set of three movies is the way to go. While mini-series' can produce more thorough results, the quality will never be as good as a big budget movie (and yes I do own 10th Kingdom on DVD!). Something I feel DragonLance deserves.

Its funny, and I hate to do this, but there does seem to be a lot of parallels with Star Wars. As far as your question about the gap between DOAT and DOWN is concerned, look at Empire Strikes Back. That started on the Ice planet Hoth, with obvious gaps in story which we do not know about. Sometimes leaving bits to the imagination is best (I'm sure I've heard that before (MW & TH!!)

From Nicholas Hendricks

I'm sorry. I've been on a work project for a while and haven't had access to a computer, so I hadn't seen the site for awhile and I didn't know the
special treatment my letter had been given. Otherwise, I would have sent more of my ideas to you.

Since nobody asked, I thought I'd run my extra character idea by everyone. There's a story from Tales II Volume 2: The Cataclysm called "The Seekers"
by Todd Fahrenstock. The story took place a few years after the cataclysm, maybe as much as 10 A.C. I loved the character and that story, so I
patterned this character a little after him, as a descendant. Removed from his family when he was very young, he was raised by a noble renegade
minotaur and has a minotaur name, maybe even Kaz, but that might be a little obvious. The name I've given him is Archintipilles. He would be a lot like
Sir Darin from the Wayward Knights series.

Raised in seclusion by a quiet minotaur, he knows very little about the world, but he's an excellent fighter, especially with the sword. And when
he meets Sturm on the road back to Solace (he's now 20 or so), Sturm is quite amazed by him because of the honor taught to him by his Minotaur
guardian. Later, as Elistan is introduced, he quickly becomes a believer and desires to become a cleric, but he loves the sword and is torn between
the two. He journeys with the companions throughout. Along with that, I threw in a love affair with Tika's friend Dezra, but that was more for fun,
not really necessary.

The reasons I think a character like this is a good idea are 1) There would be a character in the story to help the audience catch up, not only to the
world, but also the characters and everyone elses story. We'd learn more about magic and magic users (distrusted by minotaurs), alternate species
(distrusted by minotaurs), and the Gods and dragons and their purposes (due to his clerical training). 2) The honor plot would hint towards Sturm and
the high esteem he has for honor which is the major theme in the second book; that and love. And 3) It'll give someone for Tas to tell his stories
to, maybe even someone who believes him.

Now I know this isn't imperative to the story and I know that we want to stay as close as possible to the original, but I feel it would help to make
the movie better and maybe easier and it's only a very small addition to the story that shouldn't really change anything more than a little dialog. Tell
me what you think.

An excellent resource for set and scene design is The Atlas for the Dragon Lance World by Karyn Wynn Fonstad. It has maps and a technical readout for
any building or location that the companions are in during the first six books. Also both Leaves of the Inn of the Last Home books are good research
types of books, however, I'm not sure how much the movie needs most of that.

DLMP's Comment!

Thanks again Nick. Your ideas are certainly controversial, but welcome. I think we should wait until the screenplay has developed (along with some storyboards,) to see if we need additional content. We are already pretty sure we may have to cut some content as it stands without adding new ideas. I know nobody wants to see this, but, if you look at the script we're into 30 minutes film time and the companions have only just left solace!