How self-explanatory can a title be? Bioware has announced that it will release Dragon Age 2 on March 8 in the United States and on March 11 in Europe.
Dragon Age 2 is the successor of the very popular game Dragon Age: Origins, which is seen by many as one of the best fantasy games ever.
Based on the new Dragon Age 2 Destiny cinematic trailer I would say that Dragon Age 2 may very well live up to the promise!
Warner Bros has released a trailer for the movie Harry potter and the Deathly Hallows. This movie will be the first of two movies that will finalise the Harry Potter series. Part one will be released on November 17 2010 (or 18/19, depending on where you live).
Although I am not a big fan of Harry Potter, as I mentioned earlier, I will definitely watch the movie. I have good hopes that the last two movies will be darker and more violent than the last couple of movies. It will definitely be fascinating to see how the end of series is depicted on the big screen, especially in 3D.
Click here to go to the official Harry Potter movie website.
Below the trailer of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.
There have been many rumours for quite some time and although producer ABC Studios has not officially said so, several sources are now saying that Legend of the Seeker will be cancelled after it’s second season.
Although I am personally not a big fan of the series and haven’t seen the second year, I do acknowledge Legend of the Seeker as a decent series, probably one of the best fantasy television series around. it would be a shame to see Legend of the Seeker being cancelled this soon.
The TV series has a large fanbase and the episodes had more than reasonable ratings, both in grades and in number of viewers but apparently these have not been good enough for ABC to order a third season.
About Legend of the Seeker
Legend of the Seeker is a television series loosely based on The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It tells the classical story of the boy Richard Cypher who is destined to become the Seeker of Truth and defeat his evil father Darken Rahl. Richard gets help from wizard Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, confessor Kahlan and mord-sith Cara.
As indicated above, the cancellation isn’t official yet so there is a chance we will be pleasantly surprised with news that a third season of the Seeker is ordered but don’t count on in.
On May 10 2010, Frank Frazetta, one of the greatest artists in the fantasy genre, died of a stroke after a year long battle with cancer.
Frazetta made many paintings and was illustrator of many posters and covers for movies, music albums, books and comics. His work was highly acclaimed and he has won several awards for it.
In the genres of science fiction and fantasy he will be remembered for his intense and sometimes quite graphic depictions of fantasy scenes for many movies, books and comics. In these genres, the best known examples of his work are his illustrations for Flash Gordon and Conan The Barbarian.
He will be missed by the fantasy community. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Although I haven’t read the novel yet and therefore cannot post a review on it, I at least wanted to bring the news that Guy Gavriel Kay has published his latest book: “Under Heaven”.
This eleventh novel of the author of Tigana is set in the Tang Dynasty of 8th-century China and tells the story of Shen-Tai, the son of a general who sees it as his duty to his father to mourn and bury the soldiers who died in a battle in which also his father was killed. Not only does he bury the soldiers of his own people but also the enemy dead. Then he receives an unexpected gift of 250 rare horses from a princess that turns out to be a gift that will change his life. Shen-Tai has to return from his exile to his home city. As the gift is extremely precious, people are willing to kill for it which is why Shen-Tai has to go to extraordinarely lengths to protect his life.
So far Under Heaven seems to have been well-received so I am looking forward to reading this novel. If anyone has already read it, feel free to comment as long as you don’t give away major spoilers!
I was sitting in the theatre with a set of big 3D glasses on my nose waiting for James Cameron’s Avatar to start (yes, I was one of the last people on earth who hadn’t seen it yet) when a trailer of Clash of Titans was shown. I was pretty much blown away by the intensity and special effects of the trailer so it triggered me to find out a bit more about the movie and the story behind it.
The Movie
The movie is a remake of the 1981 version which, I must admit, I have never seen. Based on the trailer, Clash of the Titans promises to be a very intense movie with lots of high quality special effects and mythical creatures like giant scorpions, flying horses and a kraken (borrowed from Norse mythology).
The cast is also quite impressive. Among the actors are Sam Worthington (main character in Avatar) who plays the hero Perseus and Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson as the gods Hades and Zeus.
How good the storyline of the movie is, remains to be seen. The story (see below) should provide for enough as it contains a love story and also enough drama and action to be very entertaining. However, knowing Hollywood, it can easily become too much of a good thing resulting in an over-the-top rollercoaster ride.
The Story
With my interest in Roman and Greek mythology, of course I had heard about the classic Greek story about the hero Perseus kills the gorgon Medusa but I wasn’t familiar with why Perseus went out to kill Medusa, what he had to do to achieve this. What I also did not know was that the story contains a second part about Andromeda.
In short, Perseus, son of the god Zeus and a mortal woman, has to kill Medusa and bring her head as a gift for his king. Several gods help him in his quests to prepare him for his face off with Medusa and after killing her, Perseus battles the sea serpent to save the beautifull Andromeda.
I thought about writing a full synopsis of the story here but decided not to do so. If you want to know the story you can visit the all-knowing Wikipedia.
Conclusion
I have no idea if the movie is true representation of the original myth (knowing Hollywood it probably isn’t) but I think Clash of the Titans should be worth watching.
Click here for the trailer of Clash of Titans or here for the longer version.
Great news! HBO has confirmed that it will produce the television series “Game of Thrones”, based on George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice & Fire“. According to the The Hollywood Reporter and Winter Is Coming, for now HBO has ordered a total of 10 episodes. These will be shown the spring of 2011, which means that unfortunately we will have to wait a year longer.
Earlier I wrote about the pilot having been shot and presented to the HBO review board for approval. Apparently, it was convincing enough to order 10 episodes but not to sign a multi-season, 20 episodes per year deal. Still, it is very good to hear that a fantasy series is picked up and made into a television series.
Given the creative team behind the pilot (including author George R.R. Martin), the actors cast so far (including Sean Bean) and with the backing of HBO, it looks like A Game of Thrones will be the real deal. I truly hope it will live up to the standards of HBO and will become the best fantasy television series ever made which, let’s be honest, shouldn’t be too difficult.
As said, we will have to wait for quite some time but that will give the producers all the more time to prepare for and film the episodes. Being a big fan of the Ice & Fire series, I can hardly wait!
Update: Teaser trialer
HBO has aired a short teaser trialer, watch it on the Winter is Coming fansite.
A short update on the planned television series of Game of Thrones, the pilot that was created, the actors involved and the timeline.
Everyone interested enough in fantasy to visit this website will have heard of and probably have read The Song of Ice & Fire series by George R.R. Martin. It is one of my favourite series and hearing over a year ago that plans were being made to turn it into a television series was fantastic. And when hearing that HBO, involved in many of the best television series ever made, was interested in making it one of their original series, I was in nirvana!
Most of the time, when news is too good te be true it isn’t true. However, by the end of 2008 HBO announced that they had ordered a pilot for A Game of Thrones, the first book of A Song of Ice & Fire.
Actors were cast and several high-profile names were revealed throughout 2009, with the biggest name being that of Sean Bean who plays the role of Ned Stark in the pilot.
For more information, like other actors involved, see IMDB.
In November 2009 filming of this pilot was wrapped in Morocco and now we will have to see if HBO is impressed by it or not. HBO is expected to take the decision on whether or not to order a full season of Game of Thrones around March 2010.
I will keep you updated in case of news. In the mean time, let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Update: Game of Thrones television series confirmed by HBO.