It’s a scientifically proven fact that dragons plus fire equals 60% more coolness. Dragons always look good at premieres, and while that of Eragon might be confined to a set of large screens outside the Odeon West End and some rather impressive flame throwers tacked onto the outer walls, Saphira still gets plenty of "ooohs".
It's not the biggest crowd we've ever seen at Leicester Square, despite the promise of a rare appearance by John Malkovich, but that just leaves us with more space to gaze adoringly at Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Irons and Djimon Hounsou who all star in the adaptation of Christopher Paolini's Star Wars-esque novel about Eragon, a farmboy who discovers a dragon's egg and realises he is the only one who can save his home from an evil king. Paolini made an unexpected appearance, signing arms, books, and home-made copies of Eragon and said he looked forward to telling his grandchildren all about it. Bless.
This was director Stefen Fangmeier's first film after years of supervising visual effects on films including Master And Commander and **The Bourne Supremacy **so it wasn’t exactly a surprise that it’s filled with CGI. "Oh it's completely different, of course," he said, "I've always watched directors and tried to imagine how it is, I was really wanting to move on and take on new challenges. This might have been a bit big to begin with but in the end I'm glad I did it."
King Galbatorix, aka John Malkovich, made a fleeting pose for the cameras before striding upstairs to join Fox International's cocktail party on the Odeon balcony (no cocktails; just Champagne since you ask), but the imposing figure of Djimon Hounsou soon got our attention: “As a young man I fantasised about different things,” said the actor, who plays tribal chief Ajihad, “and in the later years when I realised that my astrological sign was Dragon I developed a strong penchant for them so it was absolutely welcome.” Hounsou will next be seen in Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio, but so much for the adage that there’s more work for black actors in Hollywood: "I'll be taking a break and looking for a job to be honest."
Edward Speleers, the 18-year-old newcomer who plays Eragon, looked totally unfazed by the whole premiere extravaganza, and indeed by having to act alongside a ball where there should be a dragon. "Well, it's a tennis ball at the end of the day and that's pretty hard work so I thought the best thing for me to do was to let my imagination do the work and just have fun with it," he said glancing at the poster. “She's (Saphira) looking alright at the moment but I'd like to see the film first. I think I'm going to enjoy it; I've heard good things.”
Playing the villainous Durza, Robert Carlyle might have been less thrilled about the imaginative aspects (“Tennis ball? Don't talk to me about tennis balls. It was just a nightmare!”) but Sienna Guillory was generally chuffed with the story. The Leia to Eragon’s Luke (only not his sister - as far as we know), Guillory plays Arya, the skilled elf leader of a fighting tribe who guards the egg but is kidnapped by imperial forces.
Guillory once again proved her status as one of the nicest women in film by cheerfully showing Empire her thermals under her distinctly unthermal-looking dress, before enthusing about both Speleers and Paolini: "It's brilliant, when you work with someone who hasn't done it before, especially on film where everything's really immediate and honest you just get a whole spontaneity level that you have to fight for with other actors, and it's really helpful," she said happily, before moving onto Paolini's book. "It's awesome! He's got such a brilliant understanding of women and the relationships between boys and women, men and women and our sacrificial nature, and our maternal side and our self-effacing side and our steeliness. For that to come from a 15-year-old, you know, you don't get that in most scripts, from most 60-year-olds."
Jeremy Irons, who plays Brom, Eragon’s mentor, might have something to say about that: “Growing old is wonderful, it gets better! I find so I have no worries about competing with youngsters. Yes they can do some things faster than I can, but speed isn't everything."
Irons also denied long-standing rumours that he'd be retiring from films. "No. 'I shall never work again', I think I said that once today and that's the rumour you heard but no. Life goes on. I have a few interesting scripts which I'm working on, but I don't know what I'm going to do first. I may do some more theatre first."
Eragon is released nationwide on Friday