How To Train Your Dragon to be subjected to the live-action remake treatment
Dreamworks' most Disney-like film franchise is making a very Disney-like move
Aux News How to Train Your Dragon
Out of all of the Dreamworks animated features that have spilled out into theaters over the last two decades, few have stuck to the Disney playbook more faithfully than How To Train Your Dragon—mostly to pretty good effect. (Eight billion Toothless plushies and a handful of Oscar nominations can’t be wrong!) Even so, there’s “Doing what Disney does” when it comes to making animated films…and “Doing what Disney does to the corpses of its own films after it’s done harvesting them for resources in the 2010s” and it sounds like Dreamworks is finally graduating to the latter.
Which is a roundabout way of reporting that, yep, How To Train Your Dragon is about to get a live-action remake, replacing all that bold, colorful CG animation with…more drab CG animation, with some humans on green screens “standing” near it. This is per THR, confirming that Dean DeBlois (who directed or co-directed all three Dragon films, while also co-writing them while working off of Cressida Cowell’s books) will now be bringing Hiccup, Toothless, and the rest of the Norse-ish village of Berk to grey-toned life.
(And, look, we know we’re being cynical about this, but there’s only so many Lion Kings you can sit through before starting to see the muddy, indistinct writing on the wall.)
DeBlois (who’ll write, direct, and produce the new film) is reportedly casting around for live-action replacements for his voice cast, which included Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Gerard Butler, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and more. The film is being set up at Universal, which also released How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World back in 2019, while also distributing two of the three Dreamworks Dragons spin-off TV shows; the new movie is currently scheduled for a March 14, 2025 release date.
16 Comments
I could slightly understand if they wanted to lean closer to the books, they are significantly different. But, that’s probably not the case so blah. This isnt even justified by the kids who saw this have kids now rationale.
I feel the same way about stuff like Shrek, which was also supposedly significantly different in the original book. Do the fans ever get bitter about that, even with books where the film eclipsed the book’s popularity by tenfold?
I’m sure there’s a forum somewhere with people complaining. It’s what the internet has become.
I read the books. They are not good. The movies are a major upgrade. In fact they may be the biggest upgrade from page to screen ever.
I would love something that was closer to the books! However, I don’t think there’s any chance that they’re going to pass up the easy marketability of animated Toothless—hands down one of the coolest dragon designs ever—to make Toothless the tiny pathetic stuttering chaos maker he’s supposed to be. Until the day someone realizes the books are better than the animated movies (which I still liked, just not as much), I guess I’ll have to make due with the audiobook series, which is still my favorite thing David Tennant has done.
*beleaguered sigh*
They have to cast Gerard Butler as Stoic, right? Right?
Plot twist they cast the superior version of Gerard Butler, Russell Crowe
The trouble is, live-action Gerard Butler has swear-word obligations that voiceover Gerard Butler doesn’t.
But American Jerry Butler can play it clean, although Stoic will have to be a scientist in a field that directly impacts the plot.
I hope They get an actor for Stoic like Russell Crow he would be better at the role than Butler
*Disney enters the room with the live-action script, disapproving and confrontational*“This yours?”*Dreamworks, deer in headlights*“No.”Disney: “Your mother found it in the closet.”Dreamworks: “One of the other studios must have-”Disney: “-Must have what? Answer me! Who taught you how to do this stuff?”Dreamworks: “You alright! I learned it by watching you!”
They need to just not make it too similar to the animated movies. Stuff that works great in animation can seem bad or weird in live-action.
I’m sure I don’t *cough* Lion King *cough* know what *cough* Jungle Book *cough* you’re talking about.
There is a stage show? Is that something one can still go and see?
I hope the real-life dragons are treated well on-set. And I hope there’s a lot of fires safety personnel.