From the Palantir! (A Fantasy News Round-Up)

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Posted on 29 July 2009 by Brent Hartinger, Editor

A writer asks, “Will Daniel Radcliffe have a career after Harry Potter?” then proceeds to try to answer the question based on whether Radcliffe is talented enough. I hate to be cynical, but I don’t think “talent” has much, if anything, to do with it. If his post-Potter projects are hits, he’ll have a career. If he’s unlucky enough to do three flops in a row, his career may well be over, at least in major movies.

9, the new animated movie coming in September, is about sentient rag doll-like robots after an apocalypse. It looks truly different, and it’s based on a well-received short. On the other hand, the co-screenwriter is Pamela Pettler, who also wrote Corpse Bride, which I hated.

NarniaFans.com takes on an interesting controversy: is it a flaw in the Narnia books that at the end of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe a grown-up Queen Lucy does not recognize the lamppost where she first came into Narnia, but in The Horse and His Boy, the same Queen Lucy tells a group the story of how she and her siblings came into the land?

G-Force takes down Harry Potter at the box office. (Harry Potter is still doing well, and will greatly out-perform G-Force overall, but I confess I’m surprised by the latter’s strong performance, especially since the movie is so thoroughly mediocre.)

Universal is making a big-screen animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, because of it’s “timely green theme.” You gotta love how much these multi-national corporations care about the planet (*cough, cough*).

Waaaaaaaaaaaait a minute! A remake of the The Secret of NIMH (or, more accurately, another adaptation of the 1972 novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH)? The 1982 animated movie is Don Bluth’s best film, and this definitely violates my No Unnecessary Sequels or Remakes Rule.

So there’s talk on a CGI/performance capture movie prequel to King King, based on the 2004 book Kong: King of Skull Island that tells how the island came to be, and how Kong came to rule it. This doesn’t violate my No Unnecessary Sequels or Remakes Rule, but only because I think movie dinosaurs are really, really cool. Plus, special effects master Ray Harryhausen was originally involved, which gives it some cred. (For the record, Peter Jackson’s King Kong sadly violates my No Bad Movies rule.)

Speaking of King Kong and Peter Jackson, the director is working with Universal Studios to update their King Kong attraction (the rubber Kong was recently destroyed in a fire). I’ve seen the attraction twice, once after it opened, when it was mildly amusing, and once a few years ago, when it was dated and incredibly cheesy. In short, while Kong may have kinda sucked as a movie, Jackson’s input can only help the attraction. (But seriously, how much will Jackson actually do? Isn’t this probably just an excuse so Universal Studios can unveil the “new” ride with a big fan-fare and a new name, Peter Jackson’s King Kong?)

Everyone mocked the name-change, but the same month they introduced it, The SyFy Channel had its best month ever. This may be true, but I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me what the hell “Imagine Greater” means.