Weyrworld by Michael Whelan

If you’ve read my Flashback Friday on Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey or my Book Cover Throwback on Michael Whelan‘s cover for All the Weyrs of Pern, then you know what a huge influence Ms. McCaffrey served on me as a reader and a writer. You also know that I love the Pern series despite all the little flaws that make it classic sci-fi.

Warner Bros. has optioned Dragonriders of Pern for a movie franchise. Movies get optioned every day. That doesn’t mean the movie will happen, but it’s more likely than it was when Ms. McCaffrey died.

Part of me is excited by the idea of this series on the big screen, but I’ve seen what happens when studios hire people who don’t get it to convert a book to a movie. Eragon anyone?

This isn’t the first time something larger has been done for the series. Just check out the Dragonriders of Pern video game  that was done for the Dreamcast. Yeah, it really was a thing.

If done well, by someone like Peter Jackson maybe, this series could rock on film, but my fear is that they will ruin it the way they did Eragon. Too much “special effects” and not enough plot & character development. Too much crappy, stilted acting and not enough attention to the world building done by Ms. McCaffrey.

The last thing we need is non-telepathic dragons flying towards the Eye of Sauron in search of the starship Enterprise.

Do you think it’ll happen? And if so, do you think it’ll fall on the side of Harry Potter or Eragon as far as book to movie conversions go?