Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

If you ever thought about having your very own castle, built from the ground up you don’t need to hire some European architect who is a direct descendant of Ludwig himself. Here is a link to a company in the states (Idaho) that custom builds real castles. The cost varies between 400 and 600 per square foot! And we are talking about real stone castles here!!

Anyhoo, if you are curious about the current state of castle building in america you might want to check the site out. I think I might send them an email and ask them if they would build me a one square foot castle - I might be able to swing that

Castle magic

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It has been a while since I wrote anything about my 300 diorama (The Scene is the Battle of Thermopylae). So here is an update.

 The Diorama is coming along great and is almost finished. I have done 95% of the landscaping, have painted the first series of Spartan Warrior Miniatures and have poured the water. I even built a paper long boat for the water. 

Coming up next is the wiring for sound and lighting. I have also been toying with the idea of using a parallel board coupled with a computer so I could make a show out of it. But I will give this some thought.

Also, I have no clue as to what I am going to do with this thing when I am done so I am thinking about putting it on display somewhere. Let me know if you have any ideas about where I might be able to display it. Can’t stay in my house! It’s two feet by three feet and well, I need the room for more projects.

I am thinking about doing a hobbit home or maybe even a complete shire.

 If you want to learn more about the diorama or are considering making your own fantasy diorama I have a complete tutorial that shows the steps I used to make this diorama here: How to Make a big Diorama

I have also created a tutorial on Painting Miniatures where I show you the steps I took with Painting the Spartan Warriors A Guide to Painting Miniatures

Ditto, My cat, seems to have taken a liking to the diorama. If you have an idea for a place where I can display this diorama sorry but Ditto doesn’t go with it

Popularity: 16% [?]

There are a lot of great fantasy movies coming up over the next couple of years. I have paid particular attention to movies that are adapted from fantasy books. There have always been successful fantasy movies but we really have to thank lord of the rings for the re-invigorated interest in taking successful fantasy books and turning them into movies.  Some of these are very well known books ( Like The Elfstones of Shannara) and many of them are children oriented in the Harry Potter vein.

Summer/Fall 2008

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – Release Date: May 16, 2008 This is the second movie in the series and the third is planned for release in 2010. In this movie the children are whisked off to Narnia again and tasked to combat an evil villain who is preventing the rightful Prince from ruling Narnia. The official website - The book at amazon: Prince Caspian (Narnia)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – aka: Indiana Jones 4; scheduled for release 22 May 2008 - Famed archaeologist/adventurer Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls. Book at amazon.com Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The DarK Knight – The lastest in the very successful Batman Series and the final tragic work of Heath Ledger. July 18, 2008 Official Website

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor; The latest installment of the Brendan Fraser Indiana Jones like series of movies. Scheduled for release 1 august 2008 In the Far East, trouble-seeking father-and-son duo Rick and Alex O’Connell unearth the mummy of the first Emperor of Qin — a shape-shifting entity who was cursed by a wizard centuries ago Official Site

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince : Scheduled for release November 21, 2008 — As Harry Potter begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he discovers an old book marked mysteriously “This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince” and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort’s dark past. Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)

Scheduled for 2009

Where the Wild Things Are 16, Oct 2009 and Forest Whitaker is the voice of Wild Thing. The adventures of a young boy named Max who, after being sent to bed for misbehaving, imagines that he sails away to where the wild things are. Max is loved by the wild creatures who make him their King, though he soon longs to be back home with his family. An adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s story. The film is expected to be live-action with heavy CGI-animated elements. Book: Where the Wild Things Are - Movie Site

The Runelords The Sum of all Men – Release date 2009 This is based on the first book of the popular series of David Farland books. The basic premise of the series is that people can gift their skills, abilities, and strengths to their lords which makes them super human. The Book: The Sum of All Men (The Runelords, Book One:)

The Power of the Dark Crystal - A sequel to the 1982 Movie The Dark Crystal. Jen and Kira , having lived for many years as the rulers of their world since the reunification of the crystal , welcome an unexpected visitor to their castle, Thurma the fire girl. From her they learn that the U-mun people, who live in the blazing center of the planet, are threatened by the death of their sun. There is only one thing powerful enough to heal the star - a shard of the crystal

In Development

The Elfstones of Shannara - Based on the Best selling Terry Brooks Shannara novels.

The Book of Lost Things - Based on The John Connolly fantasy novel High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the loss of his mother. He is angry and he is alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness, and as he takes refuge in the myths and fairy tales so beloved of his dead mother he finds that the real world and the fantasy world have begun to meld. The Crooked Man has come, with his mocking smile and his enigmatic words: ‘Welcome, your majesty. All hail the new king.’ And as war rages across Europe, David is violently propelled into a land that is both a construct of his imagination yet frighteningly real, a strange reflection of his own world composed of myths and stories, populated by wolves and worse-than-wolves, and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a legendary book.” The Book of Lost Things: A Novel

The Elric saga - Based on the Michael Moorcock Elric series of books The series takes place in a post-apocalyptic, neo-Medieval future of crumbling skyscrapers in which science is all but forgotten, and humanity’s new advances have gone down the path of magic instead

Here, There Be Dragons - An unusual murder brings together three strangers, John, Jack, and Charles, on a rainy night in London during the First World War. An eccentric little man called Bert tells them that they are now the caretakers of The Imaginarium Geographica — an atlas of all the lands that have ever existed in myth and legend, fable and fairy tale. These lands, Bert claims, can be traveled to in his ship The Indigo Dragon, one of only seven vessels that is able to cross the Frontier between worlds into the Archipelago of Dreams. Pursued by strange and terrifying creatures, the companions flee London aboard the Dragonship. Traveling to the very realm of the imagination itself, they must learn to overcome their fears and trust in one another if they are to defeat the dark forces that threaten the destiny of two worlds. And in the process, they will share a great adventure filled with clues that lead readers to the surprise revelation of the legendary storytellers these men will one day become.” It is later revealed that these three young men are future fantasy authors (and real-life Oxford classmates) J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. Here, There Be Dragons (The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica)

The Lightning Thief - Based on the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. The Hollywood Reporter reminds us that ” Thief centers on a young boy who discovers that he is the descendant of a Greek god and sets out — with the help of a satyr and a daughter of Athena — on a dangerous adventure to settle an ongoing battle between the gods. Along the way, he faces a host of mythological enemies determined to stop him. He also must come to terms with a father he has never known and an oracle that has warned him of betrayal by a friend.”

Septimus Heap - Based on seven-book series created by Angie Sage. The series follows two children switched at birth: a boy destined to be a wizard and a girl destined to be a princess.

Tunnels - Based on the Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams upcoming series of of books . They revolve around a teenager whose quest for his missing father leads him to a secret world of wizards.

The Subtle Knife - This is the second installment of The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials Trilogy)

Stoneheart - Based on the Charlie Fletcher novel - A 12-year-old on a class trip to London’s war museum knocks the head off a stone dragon and quickly finds himself menaced by stone serpents that adorned the museum and have come to life. The kid is saved by the bronze statue of a soldier.

The Stolen Child - Based on teh amazon best selling book by Keith Donahue. Amazon.com actually has a hand in this movie. They optioned the movie rights. A man is kidnapped by hobgoblins as a boy and is replaced by a look-alike imposter. Both the real person & the imposter struggle through their new lives and environments.

If you love fantasy and epic fantasy check out my website: The Fantasy Guide

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