Almost every fantasy franchise with a nostalgia factor has received a remake, reboot or remake in recent decades. One of the very best stories has been passed over
Peter Beagle’s classic fantasy novel The Last Unicorn is a literary masterpiece that goes far beyond a fascination with the fantastic. It’s hard to believe that the American writer put this profound fairytale deconstruction down on paper when he was only 22 years old.
There is already a very good animated adaptation, which traumatized quite a few children: The Last Unicorn from 1982, an international co-production with animation from Japan and a screenplay by the author himself. So it’s no wonder that much of the poetic original text has remained in the film and, apart from a few elements, hardly a single story station or character is missing.
My eyes still moisten when Molly Grue, a disillusioned middle-aged woman, sees a unicorn for the first time and tearfully asks: “Where have you been? How dare you come to me now?” And I still think the iconic dubbing performance by Christopher Lee, who voiced both the English and German King Haggard, is one of the best in the medium.
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The forgotten fantasy remake of The Last Unicorn that shouldn’t have been
But do you realize what slipped through our fingers 20 years ago? Lee, who was then world-famous as horror legend and more recently wizard Saruman from The Lord of the Rings, was supposed to play Haggard in a planned live-action adaptation of the book. An adaptation that unfortunately never materialized. “Magic, magic, do what you will …” This sometimes also applies to movie magic when it comes to what ends up being produced and what doesn’t.
In an interview with Cannes magazine Moving Pictures, live-action producer Michael Pakleppa spoke of a European answer to the Tolkien trilogy, while Lee, as a committed champion of the adaptation, said it was his “personal baby – a fantasy film that I believe in with my whole being. “
(King Haggard in The Last Unicorn)
As MovieWeb reported at the time from the now offline website for Continent Films’ The Last Unicorn project, actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers was cast in the role of bumbling wizard Schmendrick, while Mia Farrow (Lady Amalthea’s voice in the animated film) was slated to play ally Molly Grue. René Auberjonois, known from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, would have voiced the wine-loving skeleton, to whom he had already lent his voice in the cartoon, and also played Robin Hood for the poor, aka Captain Cully.
Murder is Her Hobby star Angela Lansbury was also hired in the same role she had voiced in the film and was to return as the witch Mommy Fortuna. It’s rare to see so much loyalty to the OG voice cast
Fascination unicorn: Something beautiful and immortal in an ugly, ephemeral world
What disturbed children about the animated film was not just the fiery red bull chasing the unicorns, the lovesick bosom tree or the harpy tearing apart her captor, who is ready to die. The Last Unicorn deals with the cosmic horror of time, the existential terror of mortality and the intangible question of happiness and legacy. Philosophical concepts that are reflected in Molly Grue’s sunken eyes and the wasted potential of the sorcerer’s apprentice. But above all in the all-consuming unhappiness of the old king, who once had to see something unalterably beautiful and was forever hurt by it.
Children may not understand it all, but they feel it. They realize that there are elusive problems and mental conflicts such as the fleeting nature of beauty that even the adults who made this story for them cannot resolve. This is also the reason why The Last Unicorn has a completely different effect when you rediscover it with a few years under your belt, after the monster of time has already gnawed at you.
(The last unicorn)
Not to mention that the story is a clever meta-narrative about fairy tale clichés and fantasy tropes that are commented on time and again. In this, Beagle was ahead of its time in the genre. Much like the brilliant Ursula K. Le Guin, who described her esteemed colleague for a book blurb as a “wanderer in the depths of the heart that reason knows not.”
Missed opportunities and new hopes: Not the last chance for The Last Unicorn as a live-action movie
Whether Christopher Lee’s death in 2016 was the reason for the failure of the live-action project or just the final nail in the coffin of a movie zombie that didn’t make it out of production hell is hard to say today. In any case, Beagle would have once again contributed the screenplay (he already had four versions ready) and New Zealander Geoff Murphy was to direct on international locations. He is known not only for the sci-fi classic The Quiet Earth – The Last Experiment, but also as the second unit director of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Surprisingly, special effects guru Julian Doyle, who had previously worked with Terry Gilliam, had a real horse in mind for the unicorn and animatronics for other creatures. And this despite the fact that the Matrix films and Star Wars prequels had ushered in the CGI age at the turn of the millennium, which for a few years led to films that have not aged very well in terms of effects from today’s perspective. Either they would have been a bit old school here, or they would have shown real foresight.
Video with concept art for the never-made unicorn movie:
A new attempt at a The Last Unicorn live-action movie has been under discussion since 2022 (via CBR ). Still with Beagle on board (the man just can’t be shaken off the unicorn), but of course not with the half-dead cast from before.
Unlike in the case of The Neverending Story, whose Wolfgang Petersen adaptation only adapted half of the original, a remake of The Last Unicorn is not about making up for an omission. The animated film is truly fantastic and, apart from the story detour to the cursed town of Hogsmeade, as good as complete.
