Will there Ever Be a Film Adaptation of the Elric Saga?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Aug. 12, 2020, 9 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock is a well-known and beloved fantasy series, but it has not yet been adapted into a movie, so I wonder why that is. Since I have not yet read any of it, I can only speculate, and I imagine that the story is extremely complex and would be difficult to translate to a film, which is likely the reason for which there was such a long duration between the animated adaptations of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson’s adaptations.
Given that both writers and audiences today are fond of subverting traditional fantasy, I imagine that the Elric saga would be popular. Moorcock found the works of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis to be trite and cliched, so he deliberately made his own writing different from theirs; he was deconstructing the fantasy genre long before George R.R. Martin did. If such an adaptation were to be made, I would hope that it would use the music of Cirith Ungol, who, despite deriving their name from the works of Tolkien, use images of Elric on all the covers of their albums.
What does everyone else say about this? Will there ever be a film adaptation of the Elric saga?
I think it is telling that the person advocating for its potential adaptation admits they have not read the series. I'm not the biggest fantasy nerd, but I have a decent working understanding of the genera, and I have never even heard of this series.
That's not to say a cult fantasy series cannot be made into an adaptation (more on this in a sec), but it certainty makes it unlikely--it would require a stroke of luck for all the elements to come together for something that is not innately popular (writing a script, finding a studio, finding a network, finding funding, etc.)
Plus, from my quick googling, this is a Sword-and-Sorcery series, not a High Fantasy one. That's a huge difference in terms of the genera. High Fantasy--our Lord of the Rings, our A Song of Ice and Fires, etc.--deal with large scale conflicts and higher themes, making them more relatable to wider audiences and generally giving them more moral, emotional, and philosophical depth.
Sword-and-Sorcery is not as mainstream. The genera was born in pulp magazines in the early 20th century, and has not really evolved much since then. I am willing to bet mainstream audiences only really know one major Sword-and-Sorcery work, and that would be Schwarzenegger's Conan movies. Those films are fun and relatively popular, but still firmly B-movies and cult films. Even then, most people probably have not even read the original source material (I have--the writing is objectively terrible and incredibly racist and misogynistic, but they can be entertaining if you look past their many flaws and accept them as products of the era).
It probably does not help that there have been a number of recent attempts at rebooting Conan (a film that under-performed and a TV series which fell apart and is mired in development hell), showing that Sword-and-Sorcery just does not have the same appeal that High Fantasy does.
So, you have: (a) A cult series that relatively few have direct experience with, (b) in a cult genera that has not proven itself, (c) where there is a more recognized alternative that has not been done recently. None of that is particularly appealing to producers.
August 12, 2020 9:42 p.m.
Somewhat of a tangent but very much related, as someone who owned the original version of deities & demigods while playing D&D back in the day, Elric of Melnibone was a featured character before a copyright cease and desist from the secondary buyer of the characters rights had it removed. I sold my copy in 1998...I’m still as sad about that as I am for selling my original magic collection.
August 12, 2020 11:01 p.m.
The closest we will get is probably the witcher show which has it's roots firmly mired in the antihero style of the books like the Elric Saga.
August 13, 2020 12:24 a.m.
EleshNornsFs says... #6
Yeah, despite being a self-proclaimed fantasy buff, I have never heard of the Elric Saga. It is also unfair to call Tolkien's world cliche when he was the one to establish that. Can't call the original a copycat. Anyway, I don't think that the source material is well known enough for the movie to do well, so there wouldn't be enough interest for a filmmaker to want to touch the idea. It doesn't always work that way, but it is rare that a book to film adaptation does well if the book isn't widely known.
August 13, 2020 6:59 a.m.
Alright. I've actually read the first 3 elric saga books (its hard to find copies lying around, so I haven't continued further). The writing is decent, and the actual story is pretty good, so I think that it could work in a movie/tv format.
There are quite a few ideas and themes that have been borrowed by fantasy writers over the years, and I think many people would find it familiar enough to bridge the high fantasy/sword and sorcery gap.
Btw, the song "Black Blade" by Blue Oyster Cult is about the series, with lyrics co-written by the author of the books.
August 13, 2020 11:22 a.m.
1empyrean - that is kind of a neat piece of music trivia; although you spelled "Öyster" wrong!
August 13, 2020 11:27 a.m. Edited.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
I conducted some research, and it seems that the Elric saga is comprised of both full-length novels and short stories. I went to Amazon.com, and could not find a "definitive" version of the story, the way that most other fantasy sagas have definitive editions; there was no clear sense of where one should begin with the story, which I suspect may be a strong reason for why it has not yet been adapted into a film.
Caerwyn, I have always been of the opinion that A Song of Ice and Fire is low fantasy, not high fantasy, because magic is very rare in that series and epic battles have been few and far between; that series focuses more on political intrigue than it does on traditional fantasy tropes.
August 13, 2020 12:32 p.m.
I think the traditional divide between High and Low Fantasy is the setting--High Fantasy works are a complete fantasy; they are set in a fictional world, with fictional peoples and cultures, but not written in a "pulp" style that would result in their being Sword-and-Sorcery stories. While they might have real world themes and be inspired by real world events (such as ASoIaF's being inspired by the War of the Roses), they are still a 100% fabrication, built from the ground up by the author.
I would argue ASoIaF firmly fits in this definition--its biggest strength is Martin's ability to craft a believable, complex world from scratch. The themes and characters are complex and dynamic, a clear distinction from pulp stories such as Howard's Conan books.
Low fantasy is traditionally something set in the real world (either the present, past, or future of the real world). Low fantasy includes your Urban Fantasy (Dresden Files, or the more literary American Gods), your romance novels (Twilight), and your horror stories (Poe, Lovecraft).
August 13, 2020 1:39 p.m.
DemonDragonJ, the reason it does not seem to have a clear beginning and path through the series is because Michael Moorcock produced a number of short stories & novellas with Elric and the world he lives in before any novel was written. The stories started in the 60s and the first novel was a prequel released in the 70s. It was the pulp era, so a clear timeline probably was not important to Moorcock at first.
Small Spoiler: Because of Elric being part of the being that is called the Eternal Champion he appears in stories in many different times and eras and in other dimensions or "spheres" as Moorcock labels them in his books. This also can confuse things because he is part of a few other book series by the author but is not necessarily the main protagonist.
To top it all off, There are a number of Elric stories that do not fit into his chronological order at all or cannot be equated with his main timeline. And multiple publishers printed and reprinted the stories in different groupings or as different anthologies making it complicated to track.
Edit: I was a huge fan back in the day, and I was confused quite a bit and bought books that ultimately were pseudo duplicates of anthologies I already had, etc...
August 13, 2020 4:14 p.m. Edited.
DemonDragonJ says... #13
August 13, 2020 10:35 p.m.
I read most of Moorcock's books when I was a kid, and starting reading them again about 10 years ago. I always wondered if a movie would ever come from the books and stories. I enjoy reading his books, but they do have a repetition to them, that can grow wearisome. The witcher is the closest comparison to the Elric character, so I guess it's been done, and I'll stop wondering. haha.
abby315 says... #2
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is already an Elric saga. Eh? EH?
August 12, 2020 9:04 p.m.