Ireland has become a hotbed for dragon-themed productions, with a slew of epic films and TV shows choosing our shores as their backdrop. Christian Bale & Matthew McConaughey started the trend in 2002, spending weeks in the Wicklow mountains filming the post-apocalyptic ‘Reign Of Fire’, its cutting edge special effects gave audiences truly authentic, ultra-realistic dragons for the first time. More recently 2023’s ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ and George RR Martin’s ‘Game of Thrones’ have brought more mythical winged beasts to our island.
Now, the highly anticipated live-action ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ movie joins this fiery legacy. Filmed at scenic locations around Northern Ireland & at Belfast’s Titanic & Harbour studios, the film is a live-action retelling of the DreamWorks animated phenomenon. With four Academy Award nominations and over $1.6 billion in global box office sales, the original animation set the bar high. Director Dean DeBlois, who helmed the original animation, returns to guide this new iteration, ensuring the creative vision remains the same, but with new technology & cutting-edge visual effects at his disposal to transform the cartoon into a breath-taking live-action spectacle.
Talking about filming on Irish shores DeBlois has said ‘Working in Northern Ireland means that we are essentially stepping in to the world of Berk. You get the crashing sea, you get the rugged coastlines, the green rolling hills, the very changeable weather – all of those aspects that you think are associated to the island of Berk are here in plenty”
Inspired by the book series from British author Cressida Cowell, the story follows the Vikings of the Isle of Berk, who have been enemies with dragons for generations. Hiccup, the son of Chief Stoick the Vast, defies centuries of tradition when he befriends Toothless, a feared Night Fury dragon. Their unlikely bond reveals the true nature of dragons, challenging the foundations of this long-standing Viking society.
Hiccup, the film’s protagonist was originally voiced by Jay Baruchel, who now aged 42, is too old to reprise the role, instead the live action version of the character will be played by ‘The Black Phone’s’ Mason Thames.
Director Dean DeBlois admitted to being nervous about remaking his own 2010 animated film, “It put my own convictions to the test and I feel like a bit of a hypocrite because I’ve always felt like live-action remakes are often disappointing replacements of the animated movie” DeBlois told audiences during a recent fan presentation. “We wanted to make sure that that wasn’t our intention here, that if we were going to do this in live action we wanted to find our reason for being.”
The director has previously directed all three ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ movies alongside the 2002 animated classic ‘Lilo & Stitch’, which coincidentally has a live-action remake out this summer. It’s not easy to take a beloved animated character and successfully replicate it in the real world, especially when it’s a larger than life cat-like dragon. For DeBlois, part of the appeal of taking on this production was that he didn’t want to watch someone else change the world he had lovingly created “this could be the opportunity to jump in with a big-budget movie with all of these amazing people working in a world that I know, with characters that I love. And so if they’re gonna do it, I wanna be involved”.
There are few actors that can say that they’ve played the same character in both animation and live-action. Gerard Butler, who previously voiced the bearded bruiser Stoick the Vast in the animated films is the only cast member to return for the live action film.
Swapping the comfort of a recording studio for the cold Irish countryside, the actor has joked about transforming into a Viking, calling his bushy beard “five pieces of hell”, revealing he spent hours everyday transforming into Stoick, so that his on-screen performance can match the gravitas of his powerful vocal performance. His transformation involved a heavy Viking costume weighing over 40kg, made of seven thick layers, with a wolf-skin on top, that Butler says made him extremely sweaty underneath, even on the coldest Irish day. Butler says the heat from his costume constantly caused his Viking beard and eyebrows to slip off. Bringing the animated character to Life sounded like a Viking-esq challenge for the actor with a routine that involved daily ice baths in freezing Irish weather.
The actor took to TikTok recently to share a very glowing early review for the film, even in spite of having seen it without its effects. “I’d always wondered… seeing the animated version, what would it be like to actually have to be that size? To be that character and to live it? Because, for me, one of the great things about being an actor is you get to live in those other worlds, but you don’t when it’s animated.
But now they’ve made the live-action, and suddenly you’re in those arenas, and you’re in that Viking village. The movie is incredible. I’ve seen it without effects. It’s amazing. But I cannot wait for the world to see it”.