George R.R. Martin's Favorite Fantasy Movie is Old, But Still Gold
For most fantasy fans it is George Martin's Game of Thrones which tops a list of their favorite fantasy movies. But what about the author?
It's quite interesting to learn what kind of films he considers great and to what extent they could have influenced his literature works and cinema adaptations? G.R.R. Martin has once penned a story for Daily Beast where he shared his own list of the best fantasy films. So what's number one?
It is Fellowship of the Ring/ The Two Towers/ Return of the King, which top the list of A Song of Ice and Fire's author.
"I could list these as my Top 3, but they are really one long movie (very long if you watch the extended cuts with their extra footage, which are my preferred versions) just as the Tolkien "trilogy" was actually one long novel sliced into three parts by publisher fiat," said G.R.R. Martin, adding that Lord of the Rings was long thought to be unfilmable but it was Peter Jackson who proved otherwise.
According to Martin, "if you don't like these films, you don't like fantasy" at all (via).
The 1987 Princess Bride comes second and the author believes that the movie was a success because it managed to capture all of the book's charm and wit, which is not easy to do. The film is followed by the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz starring Ray Bolger and Bert Lahr. Martin says that the movie's music is "marvelous" and that all the flying monkeys, munchkins and lions are totally unforgettable. This is the reason why the film ranks third of the author's list.
Ladyhawk shot in 1985 comes next. The medieval romance story about a woman who turns a hawk during the day (Michelle Pfeiffer) and a man who turned a wolf at night (Rutger Hauer) so they don't have much time to spend together is one of the most beautiful and dramatic love stories, according to Martin.
If you ever wondered what Martin thinks about the dragons, here's the answer – Vermithrax Pejorative, a 400 year old androgynous dragon from the 1981 Dragonslayer "is the best dragon ever put on film" and it "has the coolest dragon name as well".
He also said that the movie was sort of a pioneer as one of the actors Caitlin Clarke who played Valerian spends most of the film pretending to be a boy. Martin describes it as "a bit of gender-bending one would never have expected from Disney. " Dragonslayer is not to be confused with Dragonheart though, which Martin finds inferior.
Other films which are on the G.R.R. Martin's top fantasy movies list are the hilarious Monty Python and the Holy Grail shot in 1975; Dark City which would easily make it to his top 10 sci-fi or horror movies as well; Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, the classic 1946 Beauty and the Beast and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Now that you know what kind of movies was George Martin 's source of inspiration, try watching them to see if they work for you. Perhaps they will inspire you to write your own best-selling fantasy novel, which TV networks will fight for to get adapted!