Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twighlight ~ the animated film.

[Tyler-The-Wizard]

Apparently, they are making an animated film based on the first Dragonlance book. It's animated, not live action. It's scheduled for a 2007 Autumn (har har) release. Lucy lawless, better known as Xena is doing the voice of Goldmoon and since she mentioned it on her website Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis revealed they had been under a non-disclosure agreement.

Keifer Sutherland is Raistlin.

Jason Marsden as Tasslehoff Burrofoot.

Michael Rosenbaum as Tanis Half-Elven

links for proof:

http://www.dragonlance-movie.com/movie/

The official site for the movie.

http://media27a.libsyn.com/mXdseJp2aHiXdWh6lXVvo5qmZniX/podcasts/dragonpage/DHP_009_20060713.mp3

Podcast where Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis reveal all this.

http://www.lucylawless.info/movies/dragonlance/index.php

Lucy Lawless official site description.

[Fifthfiend]

Jason Marsden as Tasslehoff Burrofoot.

Maybe they'll write in where there's a girl-Kender who's Tas's girlfriend, and then a bigger, tuff-lookin' guy kender comes in and takes her away from him and then he pushes Tas out of the movie altogether.

[Leon-the-Dark-Knight]

Cool, I love Dragonlance! If they get to The War of the Souls, I wonder who will play my favorite character, Mina? I will have to think on that.:cool:

[Toastburner B]

I don't know about this. My joy at seeing a Dragonlance movie is somewhat tempered by the fact that...we...with the exception of Lord of the Rings, I can't recall too many successful fantasy novel-to-movie projects.

[gurusloth]

I don't know about this. My joy at seeing a Dragonlance movie is somewhat tempered by the fact that...we...with the exception of Lord of the Rings, I can't recall too many successful fantasy novel-to-movie projects.I think that may have to do with the fact that it's harder to suspend disbelief with live-action movies than it is for animated stuff. Since this is animated, I'm hoping that it'll go over a bit better. Although, since it's animated, I imagine that it'll be done with a younger viewing audience in mind. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be if they end up pandering to that demographic too much.

[Tyler-The-Wizard]

Actually I've heard they are doing this with older audiences in mind. Most of the readers familiar with Dragonlance are adults and the film supposedly is aiming for a PG-13 rating. And honesly you really can get away with a lot of violence in fantasy films as long as its against inhuman creatures. Draconians explode or melt when they get killed so I imagine we'll see Tanis and co. kicking some reptile butt. The part where Goldmoon's barbarian boyfriend or whomever gets half-melted by the black dragon and is still agonizingly alive might get toned down but otherwise I think that's all they would reasonably edit for content from the film unless I'm forgetting something.

[Major Blood]

Note: My fandom of Dragonlance equates to about 1000x more than CJ loves FMA. So i'm going to tone it down to about 1%.

My thoughts:

The only casting issue i have is Michael Rosenbaum as Tanis Half-Elven. As an actor that deals in the modern day type character, i don't see him as being able to translate into a swords & sorcery type character. Viggo Mortenson might have been a better choice(though they might not have the budget to get him) i think he should be played by someone who knows the enviroment more.

The director, i have the same issue with. Look at the type of movies he deals with.
http://imdb.com/name/nm0582798/
Semi-future type films/tv shows. Superheroes with powers, that type of thing. I personally have no suggestions as to who SHOULD direct it, but again, someone who knows the enviroment better would be grand.

[Tyler-The-Wizard]

To be fair Michael Rosenbaum has done a lot of voice work in the past. He's done the voice of The Flash in Justice League for a while and has done work for basically every DC based cartoon. He doesn't seem like the perfect choice for Tanis but he's a good choice on a tight budget. Hopefully he'll work hard and do a good job. Apparently all they wanted Lucy Lawless to for Goldmoon was the Xena voice.

[Major Blood]

Apparently all they wanted Lucy Lawless to for Goldmoon was the Xena voice.
Really? I thought Xena was a warrior woman. I wonder how well it will transfer to a cleric?

[Karanod]

is anyone else afaid of this going the way of the animated 70s version of LOTR?

[Elbodo]

Originally posted by Karanod:
is anyone else afaid of this going the way of the animated 70s version of LOTR?

Well first of all I'll have you know that when I was a kid we thought those 70's animated versions were the bomb!!

Seriously, yes there is that danger. But those early sub-par versions of the Tolkien classics helped pave the way for the recent live-action movies. Seeing those movies is what made me want to read the books when I was a kid and I'm sure the same is true of Peter Jackson and the actors/actresses and others responsible for the new LOTR series. And exposure to the stories is in turn what inspired the work those people did to give us the new movies.

So yeah, we may be in for an abysmal perversion of some excellent books. But then in a decade or two those books will get the quality rendering they deserve. It may take some time, but we the fans are young (I think that's an accurate description of NPF's demographic, anyway - myself included). Time is what we have.

EDIT: Incidentally, for anyone who wonder's why Karanod's signature is nearly identical to one I used until recently, that's my nephew right thar! He was indeed the DM in this campaign (http://forum.nuklearpower.com/showpost.php?p=409056&postcount=4)and I was Aldon Faithshield.