The Dragonriders of Pern head for the big screen

From Deadline – At long last, it looks like The Dragonriders of Pern are finally getting off the ground. A feature adaptation of Anne McCaffrey’s beloved New York Times bestselling series (which has been consistently optioned for the past decade) is finally moving forward – concept art has been generated, a script is due later this year, and tentative plans are for production to start in 2012.

David Hayter (Watchmen, X-Men) is penning the adaptation, which will be based on Dragonflight, the first book in the series (by publishing date, not chronology). Behind the project are Steve Hoban’s Copperheart Entertainment, Hayter and Benedict Carver’s Dark Hero Studios and Angry Films partners Don Murphy and Susan Montford (Transformers, Real Steel), along with Entertainment One.

A good dragon movie, at last? Dare we allow ourselves to hope…

Book Description (from Greenwich Library):

Jora, Weyrwoman of Benden, is dead, and her Queen dragon Nemorth will soon follow. The bronze riders must ride in search of a girl to impress the next queen. But the Holds of Pern have grown to hate the Weyr. Nowhere is this more evident than in the High Reaches, where Fax has taken seven Holds. He disregards tradition, beats his Harpers for singing the Teaching Ballads, and does not believe that the hungry Threads will fall again.

But in Ruatha, last and least of Fax’s Holds, bronze rider F’lar finds Lessa. She survived Fax’s massacre of her family, and is now ready to Impress the baby queen, Ramoth. But the Dragonriders face a great problem: The devouring Thread will soon fall from the Red Star, and only dragons can sear it from the sky. But during the last Threadfall, there were thousands of dragons. Now, only two hundred fly the skies of Pern. How can they hope to defeat their ancient foe?

You can read an excerpt here.