Vivendi Takes Flight With Eragon News

It seems Peter Jackson's resurrection of Tolkien's work still continues to lay down the path for others to follow, with confirmation of a new agreement between 20th Century Fox and Vivendi-Universal Games on a fantasy property.

Confirming a videogame adaptation of the movie adaptation of Christopher Paolini's best-selling fantasy novel Eragon, the game is currently in development for the Playstation2, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameBoy Advance, Nintendo DS, PSP and PC for a release in November 2006.

The "epic" fantasy-adventure follows the story of a young farm boy named Eragon, whose true destiny is revealed with the help of a dragon. Becoming a Dragon Rider, Eragon is swept into a world of magic and power to discover only he has the power to save, or destroy, a whole empire. Starring Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich, the game promises a typical action-based romp, challenging players to engage in intense battles with a combo and magic based combat system, along with "breathless" dragon flight-based scenes and 2-Player co-op action on the home consoles. On the handhelds Eragon promises a different experience to each format, with the Nintendo DS offering an action-filled combat/RPG that takes advantage of the touch screen; the GBA provides a turn-based RPG; whilst the PSP version presents an aerial based combat game.

"Christopher Paolini's amazing fantasy worlds, characters and adventures portrayed in Eragon offer fans of the genre an opportunity to step into Eragon's world and live out the dragon rider legacy," said Bruce Hack, CEO of VU Games. "Eragon is sure to be one of the most anticipated movies of 2006 and we are excited to bring this rich story to gamers worldwide."

Elie Dekel, Executive Vice President Licensing & Merchandising for 20th Century Fox added, "VU Games has done a wonderful job adapting many of our top films to the interactive format. Eragon has proven to be the best example to date of what can happen when true collaboration comes to fruition. Movie-goers are going to be hugely impressed with the film, and gamers will be blown away by this state-of-the-art video game.

Let's just hope Eragon can buck the traditional trend of movie adaptations and offer a little more originality then the Tolkien inspired novel from where it all stems.

Eragon is scheduled to make its debut at E3; look out for more coverage soon.