Eragon (2006)

Eragon (stylized in all lowercase) is a 2006 fantasy adventure film directed by Stefen Fangmeier (in his directorial debut) and written by Peter Buchman, loosely based on Christopher Paolini's 2002 novel of the same name. It stars Ed Speleers in the title role as well as Jeremy Irons, Sienna Guillory, Robert Carlyle, Djimon Hounsou, Garrett Hedlund, Joss Stone, and John Malkovich, with Rachel Weisz as Saphira the dragon. The film also marked the film debuts for Speleers and Stone.

Principal photography took place at the Mafilm Fót Studios in Hungary, starting on August 1, 2005. Visual effects and animation were provided by Industrial Light & Magic, Weta Digital and Cinesite. Eragon was released worldwide on December 15, 2006, by 20th Century Fox. It received widespread negative reviews from critics and book fans, who criticized its acting, screenplay, visuals and unfaithfulness to the source material, though its CGI and the performances of Speleers and Irons were praised by a few critics. It was the 10th worst reviewed film of 2006 on Rotten Tomatoes, but the 31st highest-grossing film of 2006 in the US. The film was released for home entertainment on March 20, 2007. Originally, Eragon was supposed to be the first in a franchise based on Paolini's Inheritance Cycle book series, with Fangmeirer shooting both Eldest and Brisingr back-to-back. However, following the poor critical reception of Eragon on its release, and its box-office performance, the planned sequels were not produced.