Lord of the Rings' success has spawned a lot of fantasy knockoff pretenders, but it seems like that first crap wave has passed and now we're getting into some legitimately interesting stuff. For instance there's Peter Jackson's alternate universe movie which thrusts dragons into the middle of the Napoleonic wars.
Now there's another unique little fantasy project to add to the list. According to The Hollywood Reporter Warner Brothers has just picked up the rights to a soon to be released children's novel by James A. Owen called "Here, There Be Dragons". Are there actual dragons in it? Maybe. The book tells the story of three strangers in London during World War I, entrusted with an atlas detailing the locations of all of literature's great mythical lands. The three men, Jack, John, and Charles set out to find them, and end up fighting strange and dark forces threatening the real and mythical worlds.
What's really cool about the concept though, is that the three men in the story are real life friends and fantasy authors J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. I'm not sure how it'll work as a movie, but that's enough to get me interested in picking up a copy of the book when it hits shelves next week. The book will be the first in a series detailing the three author's fictional adventure together.
As for the movie, the WB is holding on to it as a project for Harry Potter producer David Heyman and Batman Begins screenwriter David Goyer to produce.
