Legendary Pictures Developing Modern Dragon-Killing Script 'Slayer'

Briefly: Given the way that '80s movies have become frequent fodder for remakes, I'm surprised that we haven't heard about a remake of that 'not exactly a classic' 1981 movie Dragonslayer. It's relatively good material for a redo: a tale of a magician's apprentice who has to kill off a dragon with the amazing name of Vermithrax Pejorative. There are betrayals, threads of religion and power, and a princess devoured by baby dragons. And yet the movie is pretty boring and, aside from the effects sequences, mostly forgettable. Dragonslayer hasn't been remade (as a Disney/Paramount cooperation, the rights might be complicated) and isn't being remade now.

But Legendary Pictures, the company that has done so many comic book projects (Watchmen, 300, The Dark Knight) and is behind Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, has just bought a new dragon-killing story called Slayer. (Slayer!)

The script is by Martin Helgeland (son of L.A. Confidential screenwriter Brian Helgeland) and it is said to be "a modern day story about a young doctor whose estranged father dies and he finds out the old man was a dragon and creature slayer. The doctor must now become one too." So it is a completely different angle than Dragonslayer — the modern day thing could lead to some great setpieces — but that's all we know right now. No director or cast is on board. [THR]