Just under a month ago, we released a petition asking Fox, the Inheritance Cycle’s film rights holder, to reboot Eragon on the big screen. The community responded in droves, with over 40,000 fans adding their signatures and sending one unified message: we want an Eragon movie reboot. Our petition continues to expand by hundreds of signatures per day.
We’ve released a series of articles exploring whether or not we’ll see another reboot, what Fox needs to do in order for a rebooted Eragon movie to succeed, and answer the question, “Is there a place in Hollywood for the Eragon movie?” Most importantly, we continue to back the petition and look forward to sending it to Fox alongside the incredible statistics behind our community’s response.
We’ve noticed some confusion as to what a “reboot” would entail, and concern from fans who worry that another Eragon movie isn’t a good idea after how the first movie turned out. We want to help ease those fears by explaining why we believe that isn’t something to worry about.
What is a reboot? A reboot means restarting the series from the ground up. A new team of producers, screenplay writers, director, and a cast. The studio would be starting fresh, given a clean slate and a second opportunity to get things right. In the end, the Eragon movie failed to meet expectations or catch on with audiences, and those at Fox who call the shots will have taken notice, understood where they went wrong, and if they were to try again, they would be sure to avoid making the same or similar mistakes.
Why is it a good idea? This one is a bit more difficult to answer. Our previous article answering the question “When will we see the next Eragon movie?” set out to answer this question:
Much has changed over the past nine years. Movie studios (Lionsgate, Sony, Fox) have made a key observation: staying true to the formula that made books successful will often lead to box office success. Moving away from what fans loved in the books—such as seen in Percy Jackson, Beautiful Creatures, and Mortal Instruments—saw results similar to Eragon. These movies underline the importance of taking the adaptation’s source material seriously.
The book-to-movie franchises that have nailed it over the past decade, such as the Maze Runner (James Dashner, produced by Fox), The Hunger Games (Susanne Collins, Lionsgate), and The Fault in Our Stars (John Green, Fox), all had key things in common: the authors were regularly consulted (in John Green’s case, the author was allowed to live on set); they remained in touch with the film’s fan base, working to keep them passionate, excited, and happy with the results; and lastly, the studios gave the films proper treatment, respecting their universes and avoiding the cheesiness that often plagues fantasy and sci-fi adaptations.
With ten years between the initial Eragon movie and a potential reboot, it’s guaranteed that an entirely new team would be assembled to tackle the new project. Fox would want Christopher heavily involved in the process, as constant involvement from authors in bringing their books to the big screen has resulted in successful adaptations (Hunger Games, Harry Potter, etc.).
If Fox is going to spend another $100 million+ on Eragon 2.0, you can bet that they’ll think long and hard on their first mistakes and how to avoid them in the future. Those at the helm of Fox are (usually) good at what they do and never set out to intentionally create a disaster film. They’ll study successful adaptations, successful epic fantasy movies, and even television shows such as Game of Thrones, which demonstrate a market for medieval fantasy.
In the end, these companies are entirely profit driven, and because of that, Fox would try twice as hard to succeed, realizing that they cannot afford another underwhelming box office return and the loss of a potential mega-franchise.
How can they get it right this time around? We’re glad you asked! We have released two articles filled with advice on ensuring the success of a hypothetical Eragon 2.0. These articles included recommendations such as: rebooting the series, getting Christopher involved, assembling a passionate team, hiring a writer and director with experience, not aiming for a PG rating, not straying far from the books, and more. We highly recommend reading both articles in the series.
It’s okay to be worried. We just hope you don’t put too much concern into the studio screwing a second movie up just because they got it wrong the first time. Instead, consider our points above and focus on the idea that movie studios are profit driven, and because of this, there is major incentive for them to actually get it right this time.
Looking for more reading on potential Inheritance Cycle movies? Check out our other articles:
