Kiefer Sutherland Headlines Dragonlance Movie 158
Pre-production on the animated Dragonlance film is continuing apace, and the voice casting for the Companions has been completed. Kiefer Sutherland will be headlining as the voice of Raistlin Majere. Other case members will include Michael Rosenbaum (Justice League's Flash) as Tanis Half-Elven, Lucy Lawless as Goldmoon, Michelle Trachtenberg at Tika Waylan, and Jason Marsden as Tasslehoff Burrfoot. From the site: "The film is based on the first book in the Chronicles series, "Dragons of Autumn Twilight". The director is comics and TV animation veteran, Will Meugniot, and the screenplay has been adapted by George Strayton with plenty of involvement from Margaret and Tracy."
Oh great (Score:5, Funny)
No diggity (Score:2)
Justice League's Flash? (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Justice League's Flash? (Score:2)
Sutherland as Raistlan? I'm not so sure... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Sutherland as Raistlan? I'm not so sure... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sutherland as Raistlan? I'm not so sure... (Score:1)
Re:Sutherland as Raistlan? I'm not so sure... (Score:2)
Thanks to cigarettes.... (Score:2)
But nonetheless this movie would be a billion times better with real people.
Re:Thanks to cigarettes.... (Score:1)
Drop your weapon! (Score:2)
Re:Sutherland as Raistlan? I'm not so sure... (Score:2)
The good thing is that the whole War of the Lance will now be over in 24 hours.
The bad thing is that Raistlin will have more kills than anyone... wait, I think that's how it worked out last time.
Re:Sutherland as Raistlan? I'm not so sure... (Score:2)
-Rick
This article is a clumsy fake (Score:3, Funny)
I read that in High School (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I read that in High School (Score:4, Interesting)
Personally I found the main arc of the series to be really good (the Dragons of * books, didn't really care for any of the others.) I think I may have enjoyed it only for the characters.
As far as game related books, I do believe the Battletech book series was spawned by the table top RPG, and I find for the most part they were excellent.
I think the one thing that makes a successful fantasy/sci-fi book is the authors. I know that Micheal A Stackpole authored many of the Star Wars novels, as well as most of the battletech books I enjoyed.
now onto another topic, wasn't there already a Dragonlance cartoon in the 80's, and didn't it suck hard (removed violence to make it a kids show or something)? Hopefully this will be more oriented towards a mature audience.
Re:I read that in High School (Score:1)
Re:I read that in High School (Score:1)
You may be thinking of the Dungeons and Dragons [zaksrealm.net] cartoon which aired Saturday Morning from '83 to '85 on CBS.
Re:I read that in High School (Score:2)
There was a Dungeons and Dragons cartoon for Saturday mornings. You can see it from time to time on the Toon Disney Saturday and Sunday at 7PM. In fact, I watched it last night. It was not Dragonlance based as the latter came after the cartoons.
Close-ish (Score:3, Informative)
Bupu, the gully dwarf, also was spawned from their sessions.
To claim it was a transcript, however, is a bit of a reach. The ideas came from the sessions, and the basic outline of the plot was based on the modules, but most of it was their own.
And the Legends series, AFAIK, was completely independent of the modules. I consider that series to be fantastic, much better than Chronicles. But both were fantastic. Fizban rules.
Re:I read that in High School (Score:2)
However, the first and second trilogy is a great read IMO. Also, "Dragons of Summer Flame" (the uber-long 4th book of the original "trilogy" which came out YEARS after the orginal trilogy and by the original authors) is not too bad either.
always been a fan (Score:3, Interesting)
Also what happened to Aron Eisenberg playing Tasslehoff? He volunteered to play it years ago and hes being pushed off? WTF? (BTW Aron is Nog on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for those of you who don't know.)
I am going to take this with a gain of salt for now I suppose. It has potential... but I don't like the idea of animated movies from a book. I didn't even like the animated version of LOTR. Can't connect with it as much. Ah well.
Re:always been a fan (Score:2, Insightful)
I imagine it also makes it easier to draw the characters in ridiculous proportions (think of an over-muscled Caramon, or a Sturm with layer after layer of armor) without having to come up with the costumes or makeup that would accomplish the same effect.
I'd watch whatever version came out, just to see how that
Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:3, Insightful)
Raistlin is a subtle, quiet-spoken, calm, cold and calculating character. Kiefer could not be more different. Based on his antics in 24 and other roles, he does everything over-the-top. His gestures and voice are always exaggerated and phoney. As silly as it may seem, Sir Ian McKellen, speaking softly might do it (I honestly do not mean to type-cast him, but the man is could be perfectly suited for this). (And damn, there is another actor I am thinking of who would be just as good, but I cannot remember the name at the moment.)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:1)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:1)
Could the name you be thinking of be: Christopher Walken http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000686/ [imdb.com]
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2)
Now hand me my staff. It's the one that says 'magic muther fucker' on it.
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:1)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2)
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2)
Or Flatliners, or The Lost Boys. I haven't read any Dragonlance books since I was a kid, but I think this could turn out pretty well.
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2)
It's a voice part. Sutherland can do soft-spoken too. But personally, I'd cast James Spader.
But really, this movie is going to suck as bad as the D&D animated series. This movie is probably going to suck worse than the Dungeons and Dragons movie. Not that anything could do the books justice except maybe a chipper -- those were seriously bad books (I'll admit to liking them when I first read them, but I also liked Velveeta
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2)
You mean, like Keifer as the vampire David in "The Lost Boys"? Yeah, he could never pull that off. <rolls eyes at kids these days>
Re:Kiefer is a horrible choice. (Score:2)
It's going to be crap (Score:4, Insightful)
Who's written the script for the film?
The script for the film has been adapted from "Dragons of Autumn Twilight" by George Strayton. Strayon has penned several episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and was a key staff writer on Xena: Warrior Princess.
What will be the running time for the film?
The movie is an animated feature film and will have a running time of approximately 90-100 minutes.
So it's written by a guy whose best work is absolute tripe. The dialogue of Xena and Hercules is one of the worst parts of those shows. And 90-100 minutes is not "feature length" for a book adaptation like this. 120 minutes would be a bare minimum, and 150 would make me feel a lot more comfortable. I would love to think this movie is going to be decent, but right now it looks like a disaster.
Re:It's going to be crap (Score:5, Insightful)
Weis and Hickman haven't lost complete control (yet), so let's reserve judgement untill we start seeing more material. They'll have a say on the script, and I don't think they are willing so mess this chance by jumping the shark on their fans.
I do think, however, that 90-100 minutes will be way too short. I'm actually more worried that the movie is animated! :-( If it looks like a Don Bluth film, I'm gonna cringe.
It's *NOT* going to be crap (Score:2)
Joe H.
Re:It's going to be crap (Score:1)
Why would you say that exactly? Not that I am disagreeing with you, but "The Land Before Time" was showing at a diner I grabbed lunch at yesterday and I ended up in a conversation about animation styles. I would like to hear your take on the Don Bluth stuff and see if it meshes with my own.
It is obviously well behind the times, but there were interesting features that marked it as Don Bluth for me. I'm not quite sure if they were actually flaws, or '
Re:It's going to be crap (Score:2)
Ok, how's this? Lucy Lawless thinks Goldmoon is a Native American [cinescape.com]. Oh and she's doing Xena's voice for Goldmoon. Thanks for turning my wet dreams into nightmares, Hollywood. Why don't you see if you can fark up Woodstock next oh wait nvrmnd
Re:It's going to be crap (Score:2)
W&H have, however, clearly lost something, judging by the later Dragonlance books. Not that it's entirely their fault, but the various authors retconning each others works back and forth got out of hand at some point.
"Takhisis, Paladine and Gilean created the world!" "No, it was actually Chaos who created it!" "No, Chaos was just delusional!" "Takhisis suffered some kind of stroke
Re:It's going to be crap (Score:2)
I'd wait and see what he does with it, and what the director does with it.
Though, keep in mind that those books weren't exactly Lord of the Rings. I'm expecting a movie that's going to
Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:4, Interesting)
What all these have in common is that they would be based on original novels, rather than, say, spinoff novels based on a particular campaign setting based on a particular Role Playing Game based loosely on The Lord of the Rings. Really, do we need a movie based on Dragonlance anymore than we need, say, a novelization of the video game Doom? (You've got to hand it to Linaweaver and ab Hugh for written four books based on a game who's actual description would be "He ran. He ran. He shot the monster. He ran. He shot the monster. He flipped a switch. He shot the monster. He got a bigger gun. He shot the monster...")
How about making a movie based on the best speculative fiction has to offer? Sure, 9 times out of 10 Hollywood is going to screw it up. But that's true of anything Hollywood touches. Why not at least reach for greatness?
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:1)
-A
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:2)
Some are, but Diamond Age would be a brilliant movie. It would take some work, but it could be Metropolitan with special effects. There's an interesting moral angle to explore and plenty of opportunities for stunning visuals.
Biggest problem is it would require considerable rework to pare down the number of characters.
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:2)
Perhaps a treatment using a few vignettes, a la Sin City or Mystery Train could work, though.
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:2)
A Fire Upon the Deep would be *really* tricky to pull off, although not as much as A Deepness in the Sky.
Neuromancer and The Diamond Age could both be filmed relatively easily... if they were simplified to the point of losing the things that make them really cool.
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:2)
The game already exists and its sales will be boosted. There may also be more value in boosting sales of the comparatively little read Dragonlance novels that the more successful books you mention.
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:2)
Bonus: The Twins is very doable in live action (in the post-Peter Jackson LotR era).
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:1)
However, I have heard about this for at least 2 years now, and screenplays do sit on shelves for years in some cases.
http://www.dansimmons.com/news/movies.htm [dansimmons.com]
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:2)
That would absolutely suck.
Re:Ten Novels I'd Rather See Made Into Movies (Score:2)
I'd also enjoy movies based on Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksenarrion, which is another D&D-based trilogy...
Not a movie but... (Score:2)
i for one, welcome our draconian overlords (Score:2)
i'm curious as to why they chose to do it in CG... perhaps they're going for a younger demographic? that would be unfortunate, as the Chronicles had a sinister tone to them. (closer to the LotR
Re:i for one, welcome our draconian overlords (Score:2, Informative)
I don't believe it is in CG. Unless I missed something on the site, the director's entire body of work is Saturday-morning style children's cheap TV animation. On the bright side, Larry Elmore, who did the book covers, is listed as Lead Artist on the project.
You know what I like about Slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)
Raistlin = Conner McLeod (Score:2)
Re:Raistlin = Conner McLeod (Score:1)
Re:Raistlin = Conner McLeod (Score:2)
Why use "actors"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Billy West is right... this is a strange trend of animating characters around who you want to do the voice rather than the other way round.
Re:Why use "actors"? (Score:2)
He's not new to voice acting, so I don't see why his work in non-voice roles should disqualify him.
Re:Why use "actors"? (Score:2)
I don't think that his non-voice acting should disqualify him simply because he does it. It should disqualify him because he does it poorly, IMO. There are people who are better qualified and will create a better quality product. Gettin
Re:Why use "actors"? (Score:2)
But he was also really good in Dark City, where he essentially played a sickly, morally-ambivalent Peter Lorre character, complete with accent and vo
Re:Why use "actors"? (Score:2)
This isn't Japan, where voice acting is considered a career unto itself and there are celebrities known for nothing but their voice acting. Sadly.
Still, there are actors in the States who can voice act well enough, and I think
they don't want you to think of Stimpy either... (Score:2)
Pixar doesn't use the actors names on their posters, but they also want certain kinds of voices. As versatile as Billy West, Tom Kenny or Elizabeth Daily might be, they end up either sounding boring or like cartoon voices. Neither is something the movie companies are looking for.
Billy West is right. And usually the reviewers and attendance respond positively to these techniques. I agree there are downsides to i
I'll tell you what... (Score:2)
I don't see any reason the star actors of live action should be in the opening credits of televison shows.
In a way, I'm like Mr. Pink in his famous tipping speech. You say this person deserves a credit and this one doesn't? I don't see why any of them get a credit. If you're interested in who's on a show, we have the internet now. If you're not, let's just blast through to the actual show.
And I certainly don't need to know who the casting director (often an opening credit) is or the cr
Re:Why use "actors"? (Score:2)
Re:Why use "actors"? (Score:2)
Re:Why use "actors"? (Score:2)
Wait...no...he's normal size. And he often plays a fighter. Not this kind of character at all.
Could it be that he's actually a good voice actor as well as being a good actor?
I don't think you know what to listen for. Like his father (only to a greater degree), he has a great voice, and he brings it to bear when he acts. He speaks in a low, raspy voice when being secretive. He yells in a high pitched v
I wonder (Score:2, Funny)
Or whether the 'good' priest will disappear for a while just like in the books, where even the authors found him so dull that they forgot to include him for several chapters.
Priorities (Score:2, Interesting)
I haven't even read Dragonlance for over a decade, but I'm stoked. Even if the movie is terrible, its like tasting some forgotten candy you haven't had since you were a kid, even if you found the candy in the couch.
Re:Priorities (Score:4, Insightful)
I have, and I'm scared :(.
The Chronicles were good, as were the Legends, but after that quality went down faster than a dragon that's been turned to stone mid-flight, and the ending of "War of Souls" had to set some kind of record in sheer stupidity. Constant retcons didn't help either. Or maybe it was because Dragonlance gods were turned into glorified janitors a la Forgotten Realms that it got a bit difficult to take the whole thing seriously. Takhisis, especially, became truly pathetic, in more ways than one... Oh well, another cash cow milked to death and beyond.
So, this movie might be good, but more likely it's a thinly veiled commercial that sucks harder than the whirpool of the Blood Sea.
Re:Priorities (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Keifer Sutherland? Great... (Score:3, Funny)
1) Dammit!
2) We are running out of time!
3) Dammit, we are running out of time!
4) DAMMIT!
Re:Keifer Sutherland? Great... (Score:2)
I'd be worried if it is like the books (Score:2, Funny)
It drove me nuts in Margaret Weiss' books. Every friggen place blows up the instant the heroes leave. Even if they win it blows up. "Yahoo, we just defeated the 'more baddest creature yet', for good measure, lets set it on fire, taking out everything in a 30 mile radius as well. Also, I peed in the well. Before we go, lets stab this guy trying to build a road."
TSR/WoTC movies (Score:1)
Re:TSR/WoTC movies (Score:2)
Riftwar Saga anyone? (Score:1)
Re:Riftwar Saga anyone? (Score:1)
Re:Riftwar Saga anyone? (Score:2)
For something a bit deeper, I'd love to see the first trilogy of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever done in film. It would have to be R-ra
Somewhat off-topic - Dragonlance video games (Score:1)
Re:Somewhat off-topic - Dragonlance video games (Score:2)
Champions of Krynn
Death Knights of Krynn
The Dark Queen of Krynn
Heroes of the Lance was poor attempt at an Action/Arcade game
He's not new to animation... (Score:2)
Keifer. That'll do. (Score:1)
Oh boy. (Score:2)
I tried reading the next one in the series, but I just sort of stopped caring about half way through. "The writers actually recorded their own play sessions? Really? No, seriously. --They write these books from their game notes? Really? You're joking, right?"
I just couldn't get past this aspect, and I don't know if my response was entir
I Can See It Now (Score:2)
Raistlin: Caramon, you and Sturm get the sword protocols! I will open a socket to the magic protocols while Tanis handles the arrow protocols!
Totally unbelievable (Score:2)
Conan: Red Nails (Score:2)
On a related and, to my mind, more interesting note, this [conanrednails.com] animated film is supposed to be coming out later this year, based on one of R.E. Howard's final Conan stories, with Ron Perlman (as Conan) and Mark Hamill providing voices-- both of whom have actually done extensive voice work, for that matter.
More here [imdb.com].
I only remember DragonLance... (Score:2)
But to be fair, I hadn't read Dune yet.
Re:Ding! (Score:1)
Re:A more sinister voice... (Score:2)
That would be Michael Wincott, who also played the bad guy in The Crow. Do you really want to think "Aw, this is already boring the shit out of me. Kill him!" every time a bad guy starts making grand pronouncements?
Come to think of it, that wouldn't be a bad idea. One way to get the running time below 100 minutes.
Re:I for one... (Score:2)
Besides - didn't they already make this into a movie - it had Devito and Schwarzenegger - "Shirt of the Twins" or something...
Make a proper movie or not at all. Where's Peter Jackson when you need him?