I recently re-watched the 1996 film DragonHeart, written by Chuck Pogue (The Fly) and directed by Rob Cohen (The Fast & The Furious). I have to say it is cheesy, but lovable in certain aspects. Who doesn't like the idea of a dragon and a failed knight pulling a con on naive villagers in a protection racket? The dragon, Draco, was voiced by Sean Connery, which gave it a certain amount of gravitas. The design of the dragon was created by Phil Tippett studios and was a lot of fun to watch. I do think Draco looks, or perhaps moves, somewhat like Marvel Comics' Fin Fang Foom. The cast had a lot of notable actors, like Dennis Quaid, David Thewis, Jason Isaacs, Pete Postlethwaite, and Dina Meyer. All of them appeared to be doing their best just to get through the filming, probably nursing hangovers along the way.
Quaid doesn't attempt to do an English accent, which was a wise choice, and he has a great buddy relationship with Draco. The other actors are either extremely cheesy or miscast, especially Dina Meyer. Apparently she did not have a great relationship with Rob Cohen during the making of this film. I remember when Meyer appeared on Beverly Hills 90210 during the 1993 season--I expected her career to skyrocket. Her film career seemed to be going in the right direction with Dragonheart and was more memorable in Starship Troopers (1997). And Meyer did play Barbara Gordon on the Birds of Prey TV series in 2002.
Hour 25 Online, a site loaded with interviews with all kinds of science fiction & fantasy writers, has a great 2-part interview with Chuck Pogue from 2001. Pogue was extremely proud of his original script for DragonHeart, but felt that it was butchered by director Cohen. If you love inside Hollywood tales, you should really click on the links below to listen. Pogue shares his experiences writing The Fly, Psycho III, and a script for John Carter Warlord of Mars that was never produced. Nuff Said!
I've loved DragonHeart since I was a kid, being somewhat of a guilty pleasure, with Draco being one of my favorite film dragons. From learning about the film's development process, it's a shame that Universal messed it up as the film could have been more. After I found out about the novelization, I just had to get my hands on it and it was more than worth it. It's the true version of DragonHeart and one of the best novelizations I've ever read!
ReplyDeleteThe book fleshes out the characters, the world, and the story while the film only scratched the surface and dumbed some things down to be more family-friendly. How Pogue describes the thoughts and dreams of the characters reads like poetry. The movie ought to be remade to be more faithful to the novel, with Sean Connery returning to voice Draco and the original choice for Bowen: Liam Neeson. Remake petition link - http://www.thepetitionsite.com/919/037/836/remake-dragonheart/.
For more info check out my post on Moviepilot.com: http://moviepilot.com/posts/3698187
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