Which stories will be in the movie?

[Heiron]

I have read some things on the subject but I can't find them.
So,I ask you Multivesians...what will we see in the movie?Not the gatherings with the other ECs,not the fortress of the pearl...but where will the movie end?It will be a trilogy?Because I doupt if they will put all the things up to "Stormbringer" story.

[lemec]

Elric of Melnibone and The Dreaming City


Michael Moorcock wrote:

...Thus the film script is different in some story-points to Elric of Melnibone and The Dreaming City, but the essence is retained, as are the leading characters. Readers more familiar with Jerry Cornelius are probably happier with this idea than others. I think there is a point, because I wrote these stories between writing other stories about the multiverse and the Eternal Champion, where it's worth reading some of those other books, at least to get the full flavour of the saga. They all interconnect on some level and at some point and it might, for instance, be worth having a look at the most recent books, which deal more with the dream quests and the moonbeam roads, which help explain discrepencies between one story and another, if discrepencies they are. Anyone else have any thoughts on this ?

Michael Moorcock wrote:

On July 4, 2005, Mike reported that "My agent tells me that Universal have voluntarily paid the second option money two months before it was due, so things look pretty good for the movie."

On May 10, 2003, Mike wrote: "...all three movies would be culled from the first six books. First one is based on Elric of Melnibone and The Dreaming City (from the second book), middle one will be drawn from the adventures in the next books and the final one will largely be based on Stormbringer. I think Elric is more likely to be a 15+ audience..." (Source: Q&A Archive Article #2882)

[Blackrazor]

Controversial Opinion I realize...

Elric of Melnibone and The Dreaming City


Michael Moorcock wrote:

Michael Moorcock wrote:

Well - I think that as much as Elric is part of the Eternal Champion - that some portions of the story will end up being left out, and should be.

First and Foremost, film is an economical storytelling medium. Not that it isn't expensive, but because it is and there is a very limited amount of time to tell the story. Every director complains that his "babies", his favorite moments get edited out finally in the editing room in the final cut, and many admit that it's a good thing that they did. Most screenplays get chopped to hell, and worse, rewritten entirely because of the medium in particular.

Recently there has been a move towards authenticity and purity in story-to-film conversion, and I'm a big fan of it to be honest, but at the same time, no element of the story that doesn't directly relate to the plot should be left in, in many cases, because it can't be and won't be in the final cut anyway. The movie can only be so long, and it's worse trying to stitch it back together after such an edit. Fans of the books will always be let down by the fact that the movie isn't 100% the book. Heck , even if it was, we'll all be unhappy at the interpretation as it doesn't match our own internal interpretation. This is part of the pleasing 100% of the people, 100% of the time problem. I say - stay as true to the heart of the characters and the plot of the story as the time and medium will allow, and cut everything else.

With that in mind, I'd leave the entire sequence involving his fateful meeting with the other incarnations, the ship in the fog, the blind navigator, everything involved, out. For that matter, I'd leave out everything that doesn't directly tell the story of the characters in their world and how they came to live, die, even destroy one another and that world. If there is time to tell the significance of these actions in the larger scheme of things, across the planes, etc, during the commision of these acts then fine. Otherwise it's pure vanity and a wink for the fans of the other books, which, if it can be done without cost to the story we ARE telling, is just fine.

Personally - I'll be glad if they remember to get Elric down as a powerful metal-armor-wearing, alchemy-enhanced, baneful-sword-weilding sorcerer-and-summoner, and one that doesn't throw fireballs and lightning bolts in his cloth armor. He's unique in that and I'd hate to see him painted into a sword-and-sorcery archetype of the underdog who's bad at sorcery, just because Yrkoon surprises him a few times with his near suicidal audacity. Elric is a skilled swordsman and the best sorcerer in centuries. I hope they can remember that.