MOVIES A young author strikes gold with fantasy tales BY MICHAEL GILTZ he new fantasy film "Eragon" _ the story of a young man who bonds with a dragon to fight evil -opened as the No.1 movie around the world, grossing Some $5:1 milLion. (That includes Ihe better-than-expected $23 million it grossed in the U,S" right behind Will Smith" "The Pun;ulr of Happynes s,") For Ihe book'. oung auU10r, Christo phel' Paolini, it's the latust jaw-droppong moment in hjs unlikely career, " Jy sister anil [ have been lravel- ing around I he country," says Paollni, who's now 23, "And everyWhere We go we're seeing '£ragon' billboards and posters and previews on lelevision_ There's a fil'e breathing dragon bill board in L.A.! We don't see this stuff in Montana because there aren't a lot of people in Montana .</p><p> There aren't a lot of bill boards because the bison don't go to the movies," Though he's young, Paolini is a fantasy veteran.</p><p> Home-SChooled, he was ready for college at age 15.</p><p> But his parents de cided Paolini should wait until he was older.</p><p> Suddenly, with time on his hands, Paolini fa mOusly mnpped out a fantasy trilogy and began writing, When he was done wiU, the lirS! book, rile famUy decided 10 self-publish i1-and lOur Ihe country 10 promote the work, fj"sl-seliing aut ilor Carl Hiaascn ("Striptease," "Skinny Dip," "Natur" Girl") got wind of their success, read the book and pushed his publisher to snap up the title.</p><p> The re sult? Two best sellers: "Eragon" and its sequel, "Eldest," with more than I mil lion copies in print -and a third book on the way.</p><p> Since Paolini always imagined hIS tale as a movie (he was going to write a script before it became a novel), see mg his story on the big screen with ac tors like Jeremy Irons and newcom- er Edward Speleers as Eragon seems amazing.</p><p> What surprised him most about the movie? "Just the fact that it was a movie," he laughs. "There were times in the film when characters would do a line of dialogue right out of the book and it was a deja YO, 'Twilight Zone'-sort of moment." College has been delayed for now, since Paolini has found his calling.</p><p> After he finishes the final book in the trilogy, he's bursting with ideas for nov els in all sorts of genres, including his torical fiction, romance, detective nov els, you name it.</p><p> Since he started at 15, Paolini has devoted more than a third of his entire life (eight years and counting) to the trilogy.</p><p> But alreHtly, ev 'n :-,ollng r authors are nipping at his heels.</p><p> He was d~lighl cellO hear thai a girl in the U_IC is pub li~l:ung her first fantasy. book at only 13 yem"S or age. tio as [he grand old mlln of youn.g fantasy aUlhors, when is he going to I1nish the fjn~ I book? "I do want to finish it as soon as pos sible," says Paolini.</p><p> But apparently he's been struck by J.K.</p><p> Rawling syndrome, because, he says, he's realized, "It just keeps getting bigger'" •
