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Mad-Eye
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![[*]](./images/iconic/default_icon.gif) posted on 8-23-2006 at 09:49 PM |
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Eragon--Alagaësia News
No, it's not an announcement of when the next book is coming out, it's just a copy of the newsletter I got today. It's been a loooong time since a
newsletter had been sent out!
| Quote: | Kvetha Fricaya! Greetings Friends!
News! Last month, I traveled to Los Angeles and visited Fox studios, where I met some of the many people involved with the Eragon movie.
I also got to watch clips of the film itself. It was both strange and exciting to see images based on something I wrote! The teaser trailer Fox showed
me contained only brief glimpses of the world and characters, although a dragon is always memorable, no matter how fleeting her appearance. The other
sequences I saw were in various stages of completion—with rough CGI and temporary music—but even so, I got a pretty good idea of how the scenes
will play in the final version of the movie. Based on the footage I saw, Jeremy Irons makes an excellent Brom. He and Ed Speleers (Eragon) seem to
interact very well, with the sort of old-wolf, young-wolf dynamic the story requires.
I learned that the reason Fox made certain changes to the book was to produce a movie that looks and feels as real as possible. For example, in the
novel, I describe Saphira as having sapphire-blue scales. When they applied this color to her on-screen form, however, she looked cartoonish. So after
much testing, they settled on a leathery-blue skin tone, which makes her appear more like a living creature. And I saw how, bit-by-bit, computer
animators are bringing Saphira to life. Fox is pushing the boundaries of current technology. The time needed to create her is so great that work is
now divided between ILM, in California, and WETA, in New Zealand.
As with every book-to-movie adaptation, the filmmakers have their own vision of the story. I learned that hundreds, if not thousands, of people have
been and are working on Eragon. I look forward to seeing more, to get a better idea of how the plot flows and the characters interact. The way I think
about it is that Eragon provided the inspiration for the movie, but that they are separate works with their own unique attributes. I find it
fascinating to see how other people interpret the land of Alagaësia. It’s like seeing my own dreams reflected back to me through a thousand
different prisms.
After my visit to the studio, I went to the offices of Vivendi, the company behind the Eragon video games. To be precise, Vivendi is distributing the
games, while Stormfront Studios (Lord of the Rings games) is the company that actually developed them. The people who work there have some of the best
jobs in the world.
As I count it, four-and-a-half Eragon games are developed. There’s an action adventure game for consoles and PC, a dragon flight combat game for the
PSP, and a different RPG for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance respectively. The half I mentioned comes from the fact that the Xbox 360 version of
the main console/PC game not only has beefed up graphics, but two new levels that further explore the world of the book. One level even has the Kull
in it! To my delight, the game designers made the Kull look almost exactly as I originally imagined them, horns and all. Even though I invented them,
I have to admit that the sheer size of the Kull surprised me. I knew they were big, but to actually see one next to Eragon . . . Wow!
Given that I haven’t played the games from start to finish, what I did see was exciting. Controlling a computer-generated version of an actor
portraying the character of Eragon or Brom or Murtagh in a video game based upon a movie adaptation of a book I wrote . . . is certainly one of the
most surreal and weirdly enjoyable experiences of my life. You can run around and hack-and-slash things, and if you press the right buttons, Eragon
shoots a magic arrow and shouts, “Brisingr!”. Very cool.
I next drove to San Diego to speak and sign books at Comic-Con International: San Diego, one of the largest science fiction and fantasy conventions in
the world. For those of you who have never attended Comic-Con International before, here’s a brief description: Imagine a large, modern, multistory
convention center designed to hold about seventy thousand people. Over a hundred thousand people show up. Some wear clothes you see every day on the
street and in the office. Others dress in black leather and plastic or skin-tight unitards or Stormtrooper armor or large gold wings or strange
contraptions that make avant-garde fashion appear dowdy or, quite often, almost nothing at all. A wall of heat, humidity, sound, and moving bodies
hits you as soon as you set foot on the convention floor. Display booths are everywhere: large, loud, blinking, flashing, moving, crawling. Costumes .
. . movies . . . games . . . comics, cartoons, graphic novels, and manga everywhere. Swords everywhere. And if you love even some of this stuff, your
head feels as if it’s about to explode from the amount of input.
Before my events began, I visited the Vivendi booth and spent some more time playing the PS2 Eragon game. How could I not? At Comic-Con? I’m still
grinning from the memory.
My speaking event was structured as an interview, with renowned author Peter Beagle asking me questions on writing, fantasy, and what it means to be
an author. Peter is a wonderful person: wise, generous, and full of stories. It was an honor to meet him, and I’m glad he agreed to do the event
with me. The highlight of it came when a thirteen-year-old girl stood up, said it was her birthday, and asked if I would sing her Happy Birthday!
Fortunately, everyone else joined in and helped me out.
Peter is an amazing writer, an icon of the fantasy genre. Some of his books include The Last Unicorn, The Inkeeper’s Song, and his most recent, The
Line Between. His plots and prose occupy that magical place between waking life and sleep, between reality and dreams. If you’re interested in
checking out his work go to conlanpress.com (click on Books).
After the interview, I signed copies of my books. I love signings because it’s an opportunity for me to meet my readers face-to-face. Some of the
stories I hear are remarkable. One man told me he had flown from London, just to get his book signed!
As soon as the last person came through the line, I was whisked into a taxi, off to the airport, and onto a plane only minutes before a flight
attendant closed the hatch.
That was my California adventure. It was a hectic trip, but I had a great time. Still, as much as I enjoyed it, the only thing that matters now is
Book III. It looms above me like a giant mountain. Every page is a step forward, and while many steps lie behind me, my journey to the summit is not
yet over.
May your swords stay sharp,
Christopher Paolini
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PadfootReturns
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| posted on 8-23-2006 at 11:47 PM |
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It sounds like he's loving every minute of his fame. I'm happy for him. But his comment about how the movie and book are two separate unique works
worries me. I'm afraid we're going to have another "spirit of the story, PoA" on our hands. And that would make me sad.
Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
When it's all over, it's not who you were but whether you made a difference. -- Bob Dole
May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer
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Mad-Eye
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| posted on 8-24-2006 at 12:51 AM |
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I don't think any book-to-movie can be as bad as PoA was.
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pudel
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| posted on 8-24-2006 at 02:26 AM |
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Basically no movie can capture a book.
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huneybun203
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| posted on 8-24-2006 at 04:50 PM |
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I agree with mad-eye the PoA was horrorable. but I also agree with pudel no movie can capture the books.
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PadfootReturns
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| posted on 8-24-2006 at 10:53 PM |
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I don't deny that the books are always going to be better than the movies. But PoA was especially bad. I don't think they even had the book in hand.
They said they were true to the 'spirit' of the book. But they weren't even that. Curan saw an opportunity to tell the story he wanted not Jo's
story. I'm not saying that parts of it weren't bad. On it's own, it was an OK movie. But as a representation of the book it sucked big time. And
after hearing what Christopher Paolini says about the movie of Eragon it may be the same type of problem. He's just a young man. He's be easy to
push around.
Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
When it's all over, it's not who you were but whether you made a difference. -- Bob Dole
May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer
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Luna_Lovegood
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| posted on 8-25-2006 at 02:42 PM |
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I hope its good you know I hated Eragon when I first read it, I re read it and I like it now!
And I agree but substitute PoA for PoA and PS and CoS.
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Mad-Eye
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| posted on 9-2-2006 at 03:01 AM |
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Christopher Paolini has a great presence though. I remember being shocked when I went to the signing for Eldest that such a young man (he was only 19)
could be so self-possessed and have such great charisma and stage presence.
| Quote: | Eldest Nominated for 2006 Quill Book Award
Eldest has been nominated for a 2006 Quill Book Award in the Young Adult Literature category. The Quills Book Awards are the only book awards chosen
by readers. To vote for Eldest, click here. Online
voting continues through September 30, 2006.
The Quills is the first awards program to honor excellence in publishing and include consumers in the voting process. Readers can cast their ballots
for their favorites among the nominees for each category, and choose from the finalists in all genres for the Book of the Year.
For more information and news about Eragon and Eldest, visit Alagaesia.com.
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Mad-Eye
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| posted on 11-1-2006 at 05:37 PM |
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October Newsletter with trailer links and such:
| Quote: | Kvetha Fricaya! Greetings Friends!
A lot has happened since my last newsletter!
Random House sent me quite a number of foreign editions of Eragon and Eldest, including an Icelandic Eragon and an Italian hardcover Eldest that is
just a bit larger than a mass-market paperback and is covered in shiny pink foil. It's quite striking. The first line of Eldest in Italian is: Il
canto dei morti è il pianto dei vivi.
I learned that a spoof of Eragon written by Joey Luke Bandini is being published in Italy. The title is Aerosol, Il Fratello Furbo Di Eragon, which,
according to the translation Google gave me, means something along the lines of Aerosol, the Clever Brother of Eragon. Assuming my Italian to English
dictionary is accurate, the book follows the adventures of Aerosol as he becomes linked with a beautiful blue Musk Turkey and becomes one of the
mythological Poultry Riders. Just for the record, I had no part in the creation of this book. Still, it seems amusing.
The link, if you're interested is: http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/hqGc0GADHB0B5X0rq60E3
On September 27, Random House released the Limited Edition (LE) of Eldest. I'm very proud of this book, as I put a great deal of work into it and
because the wonderful folks at Knopf and Random House did an extraordinary job with its design and production. The front cover and spine are decorated
with large swaths of gold foil that make the book really stand out on the shelf. It contains a foldout poster of John Jude Palencar's painting of the
dragon Glaedr; two of my drawings: one of Brom's ring, one of Thorn's eye; a complete list of people, places, and things; a concise history of
Alagaësia; and an excerpt from Book Three. In my opinion, the LE is the version of Eldest, and I'm delighted to have such a handsome frame for my
story.
Another piece of big news is that Fox unveiled several trailers for the Eragon movie. You can find the US trailer at: http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/hqGc0GADHB0B5X0rq70E4
And the international trailer at:
http://www.shurtugal.com/content/mandm/media/2006/october/1/eragon_intl_trail...
And here's a high-quality trailer for the Xbox 360 Eragon video game:
http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/hqGc0GADHB0B5X0rrA0EG
And I've been hearing about all sorts of interesting Eragon items, including swords from the movie, clothing branded with the logo, a snowboarding
competition, an Eragon computer mouse, board games, trinkets, and much more.
Last month, I flew out to New York City for an interview and photo shoot with Ed Speleers, the actor who plays the character of Eragon in the movie.
We had spoken over the phone once before and had missed each other by a day at ComicCon, so that was the first time we met in person. It was hardly a
casual encounter, what with agents, publicists, journalists, photographers, makeup artists, wardrobe designers, and movie executives milling around,
but we had a nice chat all the same. He was genuine in his desire to portray Eragon to the best of his abilities. During our discussion, he made a
comment about Saphira that was so close to my own concept of her, I felt as if he had put his finger on the essence of her character. To paraphrase,
he said that when he was acting across from the neon orange tennis ball that represented Saphira on the set, he imagined her being a combination of
his mother and his best friend. What a perfect way to describe her!
No doubt about it, meeting the person who is portraying a character I have spent the better part of a decade thinking about is an odd and exciting
experience. I'm glad I had the opportunity to visit with Ed, and I wish him the best, both personally and professionally. From my own adventures, I
know how it can be when life kicks you into the spotlight.
A few days ago, I flew out to New York City to attend the second annual Quill awards, as I was one of the nominees. Readers from across the country
voted for their favorite book in each category. http://info.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin21/DM/y/hqGc0GADHB0B5X0rrB0EH
The ceremony was a high-profile occasion attended by numerous celebrities, and which NBC filmed and will broadcast on Oct. 28th. This year the Quills
were held in the Natural History Museum in New York City, an awe-inspiring location.
It was the first black-tie event I've ever attended, and the first time I've had to stuff myself into a tuxedo. I never realized getting dressed
could take so long! My suspenders did their best to strangle me, and as for my cufflinks, we are no longer on speaking terms.
To my surprise, when the presenters for the young adult award announced the winner, I heard them say my name. My heart was pounding so hard as I
walked up to the stage, I thought that I might keel over in front of six hundred people. I said then, and I say now, that I am incredibly grateful and
honored to know that you, my readers, voted for me. Having started in this profession by hand-selling books to people who, in many cases, didn't give
a hoot for some kid wearing a medieval costume in a store, it means a great deal to me that people have enjoyed my books enough to show their support.
Now I dive back into Book Three.
May the stars watch over you,
Christopher Paolini
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PadfootReturns
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| posted on 11-2-2006 at 12:32 AM |
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Ah, it sounds like he's having a great time. I think that is wonderful.
Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
When it's all over, it's not who you were but whether you made a difference. -- Bob Dole
May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer
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pudel
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| posted on 11-2-2006 at 02:54 AM |
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Blow the movie, just finish the book already.
That felt good, now I will shut up.
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Mad-Eye
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| posted on 11-2-2006 at 03:55 PM |
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Well it took him two years for Eldest so I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, August 2007 for book three, but I'm not holding my breath.
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PadfootReturns
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| posted on 11-2-2006 at 11:33 PM |
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That would be good. We might have HP7 and E3 in the same year? That would be a VERY good year!
Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
When it's all over, it's not who you were but whether you made a difference. -- Bob Dole
May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer
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Mad-Eye
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| posted on 11-3-2006 at 03:24 AM |
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The 7th book is so not coming out next year.
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PadfootReturns
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| posted on 11-3-2006 at 03:28 AM |
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shhhhhh! I can hope! Or at least within a year of E3.
Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
When it's all over, it's not who you were but whether you made a difference. -- Bob Dole
May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer
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Mad-Eye
Head of the Paranoid Auror Office
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| posted on 11-3-2006 at 03:37 AM |
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Well we know the third dragon is going to be green because he told us at the book signing in Milwaukee, but he didn't say if it would be a girl or a
boy, and he didn't say if it would be a girl or boy rider. So really we know nothing...
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pudel
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| posted on 11-3-2006 at 04:32 AM |
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What else is new, what is it with authors leaving us on tenterhooks.
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Mad-Eye
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| posted on 11-3-2006 at 07:20 AM |
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To be fair, Christopher Paolini does like to let the cat out of the bag, but his publishers aren't letting him. It's their fault he won't tell us
the name of book three.
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pudel
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| posted on 11-3-2006 at 05:34 PM |
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Ok now I will be pissed at the publishers.
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Mad-Eye
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| posted on 11-22-2006 at 11:26 PM |
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November's newsletter:
| Quote: | Kvetha Fricaya. Greetings Friends.
Today is my birthday. Thank you to all who sent me their well-wishes.
And today is also the first day the various Eragon video games are available in stores. Vivendi sent me copies of them a few days ago, and I've been
having fun playing the Xbox 360 version.
I have to admit, having an Eragon game is pretty cool. Over the past day-and-a-half, I ran straight through the game with one of my friends, playing
in co-op mode. We beat every level and found all the hidden dragon eggs, which unlock extra content. One of the things that impressed me is just how
much work the folks at Vivendi and Stormfront studios put into the game, from the orchestra they hired to record the music to the in-depth interviews
they included. I usually played as Eragon, but I also spent time as Brom and Murtagh, both of whom have their own unique strengths in battle.
The Xbox 360 game has two extra levels. One is set in the ruins of the dwarf city Orthaad, and it contains a version of the star rose sapphire,
Isidar Mithrim, and the central chamber of Tronjheim. This is one of the gamemakers' tributes to the book, and it gave me chills when I saw it. The
chamber isn't a mile high, but it's pretty tall nevertheless. Who knows, perhaps the dwarves constructed a practice version of Tronjheim in
Orthaad, their old capital, before moving to Farthen Dur. . . .
I checked The Fortunes of Captain Blood, by Rafael Sabatini, out of the library yesterday. Sabatini also wrote Scaramouche, which was turned into two
different movies of the same name. The first was silent. The second, with sound and color, contains one of the greatest swordfights in film history.
It's right up there with the duel from The Princess Bride.
Here's the opening line from Scaramouche: "He was born with the gift of laughter, and a sense that the world was mad. Wind howled through the night,
. . ."
The high winds that our area is famous for have come back full force. We've had gusts of sixty-eight miles per hour, and the steady freight train of
wind has blown for the past two weeks. Trees, signs, and tractor-trailers blown over, power lines down. Snow blankets the mountains. Winter has
arrived.
All the best. And may your swords stay sharp!
Christopher Paolini
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PadfootReturns
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| posted on 11-23-2006 at 12:00 AM |
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Ah. Happy Birthday, Christopher Paolini. I may have to buy that game.
Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
When it's all over, it's not who you were but whether you made a difference. -- Bob Dole
May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer
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Mad-Eye
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| posted on 12-23-2006 at 12:52 AM |
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Kvetha Fricaya. Greetings Friends.
By the time you read this, the Eragon movie will have been out for almost a week, and many of you, I assume, will have already seen it. I myself have
watched it three times within the past fortnight, and I could easily be convinced to watch it again, for whatever the movie's virtues as an
independent work of art, I find it fascinating how the filmmakers chose to interpret my novel. I have spent nearly every day of the past eight years
thinking about this story, and to see a version, any version, of my world and characters on the silver screen, is both strange and exciting. I hardly
know what to think of it. The attendant publicity has been just as overwhelming. To chance upon a television preview for a movie adaptation of a book
I wrote, or to stand before a giant billboard advertising the same in Times Square, or to hear Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show joking about the
movie (and yours truly, if the truth be told) . . . these are surreal events. When I sold the film rights to Fox, I knew that if a movie were made, it
would receive a vast amount of attention compared to the book, if merely because studios can afford to spend far more on advertising than publishers,
but to witness that process firsthand is an amazing experience.
My sister Angela and I left home on Dec. 6th. Our destination: the Odeon theater in London, where Eragon premiered on the 11th. Along the way, we
stopped in New York City to visit the wonderful folks at Random House. There, I recorded commentary for the Borders website, as well as some other
bits and pieces. While I was busy yammering into a camera, Angela went on a massive search for something to wear to the premiere. It's not every day
that you have to parade in front of a ravening horde of photographers, after all. Fortunately, she succeeded in finding a beautiful red dress and the
required accessories. The ensemble looked stunning on her.
After a day and a half in New York, it was off to London for us. There, we met up with Alex, who runs the Spanish Eragon fansite, eragons.com, which
also happens to be the largest fansite outside of the United States. Thanks for everything, Alex! Accompanying him was another Spanish fan, Nuria, who
gave me a lovely metal bookmark and a copy of the fifth Gon graphic novel, which I enjoyed reading on the flight home. Thanks, Nuria!
The premiere itself was everything I expected it to be: big, loud, and lots of fun. There were countless blue Christmas lights strung up around the
location, several gigantic video screens playing looped footage of Saphira flying and breathing fire, loudspeakers blaring the movie music, thousands
of screaming fans, hundreds of journalists, and several dozen publicists running from place to place. The most impressive thing, however, was the line
of fireballs that exploded from the top of the marquee every thirty seconds or so. They were so big, I could feel the heat a good twenty feet away. As
soon as I got out of the car, I began signing pictures, posters, and other miscellaneous pieces of paper. That continued for about half-an-hour, and
then I moved on to the journalists and one-by-one, worked my way through them. One of the Fox publicists later told me that I did fifty-one interviews
in a row that night.
I had been introduced to several of the actors at a cocktail party before the actual event, all of whom were very gracious and polite, but it was
here, on the red carpet, that I finally got to shake hands with Jeremy Irons. What an extraordinary way to meet the man who played Brom!
When everyone finally managed to get inside the theater, and after yet another round of photos and interviews, Stefen Fangmeier (the director), the
actors, and I trooped onto the theater stage, where Stefen introduced the film to the audience. It was a large audience, too. The Odeon seats almost
two thousand people. Then the lights dimmed, the curtains rose, the Twentieth Century Fox fanfare rang out, and we settled down to watch the movie.
The after-party was held at the Halls of Justice, or Old Bailey, as it's known, which doubles as the main hall in Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.
It's an impressive location, to say the least.
After all that hullabaloo, it was a relief to head home two days later. We stopped back in New York for another screening of the movie with many of
the people from Random House, Writers House, and Listening Library who have helped make the Inheritance trilogy so successful (and for several more
interviews, of course) and then we finally returned to Montana on the 16th.
Long as this newsletter may seem, I've barely even begun to describe everything that's happened in the past two weeks. I've been on some busy trips
before, but for sheer variety, nothing I've done before even comes close. Crammed in among all these other activities was a visit to Random House UK
(where I saw mockups of new editions of Eragon and Eldest with covers unlike any other version in the world), an epic walk in the dark and the rain
from our hotel to Big Ben, an encounter with Penn of Penn and Teller, and a surprise book signing in NY City.
Now, I want nothing more than to stay home, resume work on Book Three, and enjoy a quiet holiday with my family. This past year has been a wild and
exhilarating ride for the four of us, and we need some time to recover. I wouldn't change a second of it, though. And I want to thank all of you for
making this incredible journey possible. I hope this missive finds you and yours well, and that you will prosper in the coming year.
Here's to 2006, and to a bright 2007!
Stronr sverdar sitja hvass!
Christopher Paolini
For more information and news about Eragon and Eldest, visit Alagaesia.com.
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PadfootReturns
SOB.net Webmistress
Posts: 9608
Registered: 3-19-2006
Location: King's Cross getting the answers from Albus!
Member Is Offline
Mood: happy to have reached a goal!
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| posted on 12-23-2006 at 03:08 AM |
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I still haven't seen it. 
Kindness is a language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
When it's all over, it's not who you were but whether you made a difference. -- Bob Dole
May those who love us love us,
and those who do not love us,
may God turn their hearts,
and if He cannot turn their hearts
may He turn their ankles
that we may know them by their limping.
~Irish Prayer
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Mad-Eye
Head of the Paranoid Auror Office
Posts: 8537
Registered: 3-19-2006
Location: Apparently I am now beyond the Veil
Member Is Offline
Mood: Eek!
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| posted on 12-23-2006 at 12:57 PM |
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I haven't either. My friend Ken said it was very fast-paced, and they did cut a lot out, and the end is way different. He said that in the end
| Spoiler: Scroll over text to highlight
spoiler text. | | Eragon and the Shade are both on dragons, |
which as we both know is in no way the same as the way the book ended. He did like it but he was displeased with the ending.
(reading the spoiler won't ruin the ending for you if you've read the book)
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skratchyourhead
Retire to Number 12 Grimmauld Place
Posts: 8710
Registered: 5-2-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: Curious
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| posted on 12-23-2006 at 11:38 PM |
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I have neither seen the movie nor read the book, but my brother bought the book on Tuesday and finished it Thursday or Friday. He was absolutely irate
about all the changes they made for the movie. Said there were more changes made in the book-to-movie process for Eragon than there were for LotR.
"Even when two of my brothers held me down while a third tickled me until snot came out of my nose, I knew I
was home." - Ven Polypheme in The Floating Island, written by Elizabeth Haydon
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