Do you remember Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern novels? Of course you do, nerds. Who could forget the majesty of discovering a new planet filled with telepathic dragons that wanted to be your friends? Producer Steve Hoban couldn’t, and has apparently been trying to adapt the series for years. He’s one step closer to this goal after hiring David Hayter, screenwriter of both X-Men and Watchmen and voice of Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid series. While the latter may not help him adapt a fantasy series about dragons, it does make the writing process seem a lot more whimsical.
The first book, Dragonflight, is all about the discovery of the planet Pern. A deadly material called Thread occasionally rains from the skies, eating all organic matter in its path. Luckily, Pern is also inhabited by fire-breathing dragons that can kill the Thread. By developing a telepathic relationship with the dragons and breeding them, the humans find a way to fight back against the Thread and sustain their way of life. Of course, when the Thread stops falling very often, they forget about the dragons and how important they are to the ecosystem, and the world is in danger again.
I remember the colonization of the planet pretty vividly for having read the series in middle school, but the meat of the first book is in retraining the dragons years later and trying to fight back. I’d like to think that there will be a dedication to the section I loved most, but given Hayter’s previous projects, it’s more likely that the focus will be on mid-air dragon fights. Sigh.
[via /Film]
