Review Dragonheart (1996)

Doctor Omega

Doctor Omega

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Dragonheart is a 1996 American fantasy adventure film directed by Rob Cohen.

It stars Dennis Quaid, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Dina Meyer, and the voice of Sean Connery.

It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and various other awards in 1996 and 1997

Development

Patrick Read Johnson, who wrote the story for Dragonheart, first proposed the idea for the film to producer Raffaella de Laurentiis.

Johnson describes it as "The Skin Game with a dragon in it...or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Dragon", and that he wanted "the idea of a dragon and a knight conning villages for money" because he thought that the concept was "not only funny, but kind of sweet".

Johnson went on to pitch the idea to screenplay writer Charles Edward Pogue, and he agreed to work on the film.

De Laurentiis originally intended for John Badham, Rob Cohen's then-partner, to work on Dragonheart.

According to Cohen, Badham "didn't respond" to the material, so Johnson was then asked to direct the film.

To be able to stay within the budget that Universal Studios was willing to shell out with Johnson directing, the developers approached Jim Henson's Creature Shop to create the dragon through traditional means.

The dragon model was done within eight weeks time, and the crew then went to Shepperton Studios in England to begin shooting the film, starting with the campfire scene.

The crew faced difficulties in keeping within the budget.

After working with de Laurentiis on Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story in 1993, Rob Cohen agreed to take over as director for the film.

He approached Universal Studios with his new ideas, including the addition of computer-generated imagery (CGI) to animate the dragons similar to how the dinosaurs were created for Jurassic Park.

Casting

The principal cast members of Dragonheart were:

  • Dennis Quaid as Bowen, a knight who becomes a dragon-slayer and then allies with Draco. Director Rob Cohen was impressed with Quaid, telling producer Raffaella De Laurentiis "[Quaid] is a knight of the old code." Cohen called Quaid "obviously intelligent and fun to work with", and said that he "really [thought] he [was] Bowen." Quaid underwent rigorous training for the role, mostly practicing sword fighting. Quaid and Cohen both wanted Bowen's sword technique to have an "Eastern flavor", so Quaid trained with Japanese sword master Kiyoshi Yamasaki.
  • Sean Connery as the voice of Draco, the last remaining dragon. Cohen felt it was "very important that [the dragon's] personality be derived from the actor who was going to play the voice", and said that Connery was the only actor he had in mind for the role. He described Connery's voice as "unique" and "instantly recognizable", but said that it was "what [Connery] stood for in life as an actor and as a man that most related to what I wanted for Draco." Voice recording for Draco was done in three sessions. To help animate Draco's facial expressions, Cohen and the ILM animators took close-up shots of Connery from his previous films, categorized the clips according to what emotion was being expressed, and put them in separate tapes for easy reference.
  • David Thewlis as Einon, the tyrannical king who shares part of Draco's heart. Cohen cast Thewlis based on his performance in Naked, stating "what makes a villain scary is the brain, not the brawn."The young Einon in the film's opening scenes was played by Lee Oakes.
  • Pete Postlethwaite as Gilbert of Glockenspur, a monk and aspiring poet who joins Bowen and Draco in the revolt against Einon. Cohen wanted Postlethwaite for the role based on his performance in In the Name of the Father, feeling that "anyone who was assured in a dramatic role could take Brother Gilbert and make it real and charmingly funny."
  • Jason Isaacs as Lord Felton, Einon's second in command. He hires Bowen to slay a dragon running rampant around his village, but refuses to pay after learning more of Bowen.
  • Julie Christie as Queen Aislinn, Einon's mother. Cohen found Christie through David Thewlis' casting agent.
  • Dina Meyer as Kara, a peasant girl who seeks revenge on Einon for killing her father. Meyer was the second actress Cohen interviewed for the role. Cohen stated that he needed an actress who was "strong and someone who could, in the end, handle herself with these double viking axes and look believable.". Sandra Kovacikova plays Kara as a child.
  • Peter Hric as King Freyne, Einon's father and Aislinn's husband, a tyrannical ruler
  • Brian Thompson as Brok, Einon's knight who served alongside Einon's father when he was king.

Sequel and prequels

A direct-to-video sequel to the film called Dragonheart: A New Beginning was released in 2000.

A prequel called Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse was released in 2015, and a second DTV prequel, Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire, was released in 2017.

Remake

In a 2013 MTV interview about his upcoming film 5-25-77, DragonHeart creator Patrick Read Johnson expressed a desire to remake the film with Sean Connery and Liam Neeson, who was on board to play the role of Bowen before Johnson was fired from the project.

In April 2016, Matthew Feitshans, screenwriter of Dragonheart 3 and Dragonheart 4, stated that Universal wants to use the prequels to keep up the film series' momentum, mentioning the possibility and the hopes of them leading to a remake of the original film.

In 2017, Dragonheart was listed as no. 8 on WatchMojo.com's list of "Top 10 Movie Remakes We Actually WANT To See."



The second film can be found here......


https://www.imdforums.com/threads/dragonheart-a-new-beginning-2000.2927/



 
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