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SyFy’s Looking Through the Eyes of the Dragon


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From Entertainment Weekly:

Stephen King’s fantasy novel Eyes of the Dragon could at last become a movie or miniseries.

The 1987 bestseller is being developed by Syfy as a longform project, along with a scripted drama series based on the comic Grey Legion and two high-concept movie projects. The network is set to announce all the titles later today at its upfront presentation in New York City.

Michael Taylor (Battlestar Galactica) and Jeff Vintar (I, Robot) will pen the Dragon script, with Taylor and Bill Haber as executive producers. … And given HBO’s success with its fantasy hit Game of Thrones, the timing for Dragon couldn’t be better.

Dragon takes place in fictional realm of Delain and follows a teenage prince who is falsely accused of murdering his father, the king. Imprisoned in a high tower, the prince must figure out a way to escape, clear his name, and confront the devious and powerful wizard who is responsible for his father’s death.

Though Dragon was aimed at younger readers than most of the author’s books, the story also has plenty of characteristically dark touches. The tale also has some overlapping mythology with King’s Dark Tower novels, including sharing a villain (Flagg) who was also in one of King’s most beloved works, The Stand.

Oof. Growing up, Eyes of the Dragon was one of my favorite books, and I know I read it at least a dozen times — although I have no idea how well it holds up now. So I’m not tremendously upset at the idea of SyFy getting their mediocrely budgeted hands on it, although I’m certainly wary of the idea. I mean, I have a hard time believing they’re going to do Eyes of the Dragon any better than they did Earthsea, and the less said about that the better. Question: What’s the chance of Billy Zane being cast as Flagg? Like, 1 in 1.0000000023?