Dean DeBlois wrote and directed all three of the animated How to Train Your Dragon movies, which were inspired by the series of books by written by Cressida Cowell. Now DeBlois has written, directed, and produced a live-action remake of How to Train Your Dragon – and now it’s gotten an official premiere date. The movie will be making its world premiere at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on April 2nd. Other movies that recently premiered at this exhibitors covention (which we’ll be attending) include Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Flash and Top Gun: Maverick.
How to Train Your Dragon focuses on the special friendship between a young and unheroic Viking boy named Hiccup, and Toothless, an injured dragon he nurses back to health. The movies chronicled Hiccup and Toothless’ quest to combat humanity’s prejudice against dragons, the ache of overcoming the loss of a parent, and first love.
The live-action movie stars Mason Thames (The Black Phone) as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, with Nico Parker (Dumbo) as Hiccup’s love interest and fellow student in dragon-fighting training, Astrid Hofferson. They’re joined in the cast by Julian Dennison (Deadpool 2) as Hiccup’s best friend Fishlegs Ingerman, Gabriel Howell (Nightsleeper) as his rival Snotlout Jorgenson, Harry Trevaldwyn (The Bubble) and Bronwyn James (Wicked) as twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut, Ruth Codd (The Midnight Club) as Phlegma, Murray McArthur (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power) as Hoark, Nick Cornwall (Sky Sharks) as Hürl, and Outer Banks stunt performer Samuel Johnson as Skaldor. Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy) has an unspecified role. Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) is playing blacksmith Gobber the Belch – and, in a very cool turn of events, Gerard Butler, who provided the voice of Hiccup’s father Stoick the Vast in the animated films, is back to bring his character to life in live-action.
DeBlois producing the live-action film alongside Marc Platt, who is producing through his Universal-based Marc Platt Productions, and that company’s president, Adam Siegel. VP of production Lexi Barta is overseeing the project for Universal Pictures.
Released in 2010, How to Train Your Dragon was followed by two-feature-length sequels (How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)) and five short films: Legend of the Boneknapper Dragon (2010), Book of Dragons (2010), Gift of the Night Fury (2011), Dawn of the Dragon Racers (2014), and How to Train Your Dragon: Homecoming (2019). There have also been some animated TV shows that are set in this universe: DreamWorks Dragons (2012–2018), DreamWorks Dragons: Rescue Riders (2019–2022), and DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021–2023).
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