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At least that's what Fox executives are hoping for as they talk up the fantasy involving 15-year-old Eragon and his pet dragon. Could it be the next "Lord of the Rings"? I'm sure they'll be satisfied with a good deal less than the $1.1 billion box office that the "Rings" trilogy generated. BW's Ron Grover notes that Fox is spending more than $120 million to make "Eragon," which is scheduled for release on Dec. 15. Of course, the movie is just the start.
There's already an Eragon video game headed to stores, and Fox has signed a ton of licenses for lunch boxes and t-shirts and has enlisted Mountain Dew, Intel (INTC), and Eragon publisher Random House as promotional partners. Heck, ol' Eragon even has his own page on MySpace. If there's a 20-year-old out there who hasn't heard of Eragon by the film's Dec. 15 release date, I'll put on an elf suit myself.
Grover notes that "Eragon" faces a slew of competition during the holiday season, including "Blood Diamond" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and "The Pursuit of Happyness" starring Will Smith. And that's not a typo (thanks Hollywood - imagine the number of kids who will now think that happiness is spelled with a "y").
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.