Dragonlance License "Extended" and Dragonlance Animated Movie News

Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro have extended the current Dragonlance license with Margaret Weis Productions. The non-renewed license will expire at the end of January 2008, rather than at the end of this year. This extension will enable Margaret Weis Productions to complete any releases they have listed in their catalogue, but it does mark the end of a great partnership.

As one of the authors of the original Dragonlance trilogy, and several sequels, Margaret Weis was (and is) an ideal partner for Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro. But with next year being the 25th anniversary of the release of the Dragonlance, it makes sense for Wizards/Hasbro to attempt to draw profit directly from sales rather than through a license. I only hope that during the large 25th anniversary event Wizards has planned that they will include Margaret Weis in the products.

In other Dragonlance news, I wanted to let any Cinerati readers who weren't paying attention in on the status of the upcoming Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight. The film is slated to be released this September, but I can't tell whether it will be a theatrical or D2DVD release. The high quality cast, and the fact that Paramount is listed as the "theatrical" distributor, hint that the film will be theatrical, but the "novice" director and screenwriter (as well as the connection with Epic Level Entertainment)hint at a D2DVD release. Add to these factors the insanely rapid time between conception and planned release, two years for an animated film, and D2DVD is the most likely.

I am looking forward to the release of the film, even though I am not the world's largest Dragonlance fan. I found the original novels to have huge narrative holes, partly due to the fact that much of what happens in the Dragonlance game modules (those things the players play) were left out of the written narrative. This was even true when the events in the modules were narratively significant. Though, recently Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have been writing those events in a new series of novels for Wizards of the Coast.