They're making an Elric movie, yay!

Malergion

Complex pain
Jul 13, 2004
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Apparently this is very old news, but I just found out. Supposedly Jude Law is going to play Elric of Melniboné. I don't know who'd make a good Elric myself.
 
Do we know which story they are basing it on? The original sextet is far too long to make a good translation to a movie without extensive cuts. The first book would be a good choice, as it is a fairly self-contained story.

Though admittedly, the final scene of Stormbringer with Elric summoning black swords to fight the assembled dukes of chaos on an apocalyptic battlefield would be impressive.
 
They'd be best served by making a wholly new plot, I think. I'm not saying that they need to re-invent Elric, only to include some of the basic information, and make a story arc that is original.
 
there are some others off the second album. MIGHT be one on the newie; unsure.

but some of their songs predate movies by mere years. tommyknockers, LOTR, troy.

The Dark Tower ( Somewhere Far Beyond).

Also, this quote from Moorcock looks promising.
"No, Universal just signed for another 18 months and paid well for the privilege. I think Chris will re-engage with the project after Golden Compass publicity and so forth is done."

Here is the latest hopeful for Elric:
Paul Bettany
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the dark tower? that doesn't predate anything... yet. but carry the blessed home is great, too! makes me all misty eyed. :)
 
there are some others off the second album. MIGHT be one on the newie; unsure.

but some of their songs predate movies by mere years. tommyknockers, LOTR, troy.

They used a piece of the special features/making of footage from Troy in their set when I saw 'em last, the scene with the Arcadian vessels sailing to Troy. I'm saddened that I can't remember which song it played to at this time.

So.... who's this Elric chap?
 
NEW YORK (Variety) -- Universal Pictures has joined in optioning "The Elric Saga," a multi-part, Tolkein-esque fantasy series written by Michael Moorcock, for development as a potential big-screen trilogy.

The literary series began with 1972's "Elric of Melnibone." Universal's option deal with production company Depth of Field covers 11 books -- the original six installments of the series and five subsequent novels that touch on the saga.

The film adaptation, which will be produced but not written or directed by Depth of Field partners Chris and Paul Weitz, is conceived as a potential trilogy whose first installment will be culled from the series' first six volumes. The producers plan to shop the book to writers and directors.

The novels are sensual and atmospheric sword-and-sorcery tales that center on Elric, a brooding albino warrior who presides over an unruly, decadent island nation. The novels follow Elric on a series of adventures, in which he is betrayed by his cousin, sent into exile and attempts to come to terms with his own humanity.

"We have loved this series since we were kids and can appreciate it even more as adults. It's a sophisticated, literate, philosophically dense fantasy -- a sort of 'Matrix' of the sword-and-sorcery genre," Chris Weitz said.

Moorcock oversaw the sci-fi magazine New Worlds and helped usher in the "new wave" sci-fi movement of the 1960s and '70s. He also performed in the British hard rock band Hawkwind and will co-produce the movie project.
 
counterstereotype anti-hero.


Elric presents an excellent example of a counterstereotype, because he was written specifically as the polar opposite of Robert E. Howard's Conan and similar fantasy heroes. Instead of a mighty-thewed barbarian warrior who fights his way from obscurity to achieve fame and power, Elric is a frail, sickly albino, a highly-educated and cultured (often downright decadent) emperor who abandons his throne. Whereas the conventional fantasy hero rescues fair maidens from evil wizards and monsters and defends his country from invaders, Elric (inadvertently) slays his true love, is himself a powerful wizard in league with the Chaos lord Arioch, summons monsters to aid himself in battle, and leads a successful invasion against his homeland of Melniboné.


Elric is the (often unwilling) tool of his evil, sentient sword Stormbringer, which is itself a parody of the normal sword-and-sorcery hero's weapon. In Stormbringer, the sickly Elric finds the energy he needs, but at a terrible price – Stormbringer feeds on the souls of those it slays and gives part of their life force to sustain Elric. Stormbringer is willful, and by no means under Elric's control:

This sword here at my side... Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave.
—Blue Öyster Cult, "Black Blade" (lyrics by Michael Moorcock)