how gos the elric movie

[Anonymous]

Like the new site but the star spangled night look was cool. Are they still gonna make the elric movies. The Lotr films are good but the missing bits are noticed when you read the books (Im on book 2) they sacrificed too much for comedy with the ent scene in two towers, I could wrong.

[Michael Moorcock]

The Elric movie being planned will incorporate salient elements from the books but will be even less like the books than LOTR are to the books.
This is because I want the chance to rewrite the story and as far as I'm concerned improve on it! Three are ultimately planned. After that, Universal have rights to do more. It could be that all the elements in the books will eventually be screened, but not necessarily in the same order!

[dlackey]

Will the film at all touch on Elric's "nightmares" (ie traveling to other dimensions to help other aspects of himself)? The only reason I ask is because the most vivid sequence in the entire series to me is the battle with Agak and Gagak. The Elric series really seperated itself from other fantasy series that I read at that time because of scenes like that one. I feel like I'm caught in Elric's nightmare every time I read that part. There would be the problem of most of the audience going "who the hell are these guys" when Corum, Hawkmoon and Erekose were introduced, but then again, I read Sailor on the Seas of Fate before I even knew that you had written stories about other aspects of the Eternal Champion and didn't have much of a problem with it. Actually made me want to track down more of your books!

I know that films shouldn't follow books exactly, and I am glad that it is you who are doing the rewriting. I guess every fan has a scene in mind that they would like to see, and of course you can't cover them all in 3 movies, but I'm putting in my 2 cents worth for Agak and Gagak. They seem like pretty nice folks, for alien sorcerors who want to suck the life out of the multiverse.

[Michael Moorcock]

It's definitely the kind of Elric material the Weitz brothers would want to use and it would be good to use that sequence in the second movie, certainly.
The comic Elric: The Making of a Sorcerer, which I'm doing for DC, is all to do with the dream couches -- the problem of how Elric being so young could know so much is solved by describing how he learns his sorcery and forms his 'unholy' alliances via the dream couches (also touched on in The Skrayling Tree). I just finished the third script, The South Wind's Soul, which has an oddly mythic feel about it. I learn something new all the time.
Another tool for the tool box...

[dlackey]

Wow that is cool to know and I can't wait to read the new stories! I have read the odd review here and there where the reviewer has trouble with the fact that Elric seems to be too powerful- a summon spell for every situation and a sword that kicks major ass, but they are in the minority. It is my opinion that you gave Elric a fair number of weaknesses to compensate for his powers, something that is lacking in the genre for the most part, and the fact that his people have been making deals with elementals and demons for 10,000 years more than explains how he has an answer for most any situation. What good sorceror wouldn't have counterspells? I think the system of "magic" in Elric is the best that I've ever come across in fantasy. Elric doesn't fling about fireballs and teleport himself all over the place- he has to summon more powerful beings and then beg for their help. That makes sense to me.

[Michael Moorcock]

Well, you could say that you don't get anything free in Elric's world! No wise old wizards turning up to save the day, for instance... And the graphic novel stories should help explain how he makes his bargains with the elementals of Earth, Water, Air and Fire, as well as how he gradually comes to make compcts with Chaos.
Hope you find it convincing. If that's the right word!
The 'no free lunches' is probably at the heart of much of what I write and
I think that's what I also find in regular mythology. One thing I find lacking in much of the fantasy around today is that it derives too much from other fantasy novels and not enough from the core mythic material.
As with most fiction, you have to go back to the roots to get the best
inspiration. It's true of painting, too, I think.