'My first ever job when I was 17 was about a boy and a dragon and that was terrifying as it was so many scenes with just me and the dragon that wasn’t there – you're reacting to a tennis ball,' he recalled. 20th Century Fox no doubt thought they had the next Harry Potter on their hands. There was a mythical land (Alagaësia), dragons, a dark sorcerer named Durza, elves, dwarves, dragon riders, magic and a sinister king – plus the added YA crossover appeal of a teenage boy who becomes part of a bigger quest than he could have ever imagined. The success of the three Lord of the Rings movies earlier in the decade had proved that moviegoers were in the mood for epic fantasy adventures, something Eragon and the follow-up books promised. Stefen Fangmeier – an acclaimed visual effects supervisor who had worked on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Twister and Saving Private Ryan – made his debut as the movie's director. A big studio – 20th Century Fox – purchased the rights to Paolini's book and fantasy and science fiction fan Peter Buchman, whose credits include Jurassic Park III, was brought in to write the screenplay. On paper, the 2006 Eragon movie looked destined to be a guaranteed hit. So, while we wait for the new series to go into production, what happened to that original Eragon movie and why were the sequels never made?

There was a movie of the same name in 2006, one that at the time was expected to be first instalment of a new blockbuster fantasy movie series. As fans of the novels know, the proposed Disney+ series is not the first time that Eragon has been adapted for the screen.

'This has been a long time coming,' Paolini wrote on Twitter after the announcement, and it certainly does seem like an adaptation was a long time in the making. Paolini has now told Eragon's story over four books – The Inheritance Cycle – and last month, it was reported that Disney+ is developing a live-action series, co-written by Paolini, based on the novels.

The story of a farm boy named Eragon who finds a dragon egg in the mountains and becomes bonded to the dragon (Saphira) that emerges from inside, the book became something of a publishing sensation, and ripe for a big (or small) screen adaptation. Back in 1998, Montana teenager Christopher Paolini began writing a YA fantasy novel entitled Eragon.

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