In September 2006 the announcement was made that Peter Jackson, director and producer of the immensely successful "The Lord of the Rings"-trilogy and the most recent remake of "King Kong", secured the movie rights for Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" series. This led to lots of anticipation and speculations, not least with Novik herself. But what is actually known about this production and what has to be discounted as pure speculation or wishful thinking? Let's try to answer some questions on the basis of the few interviews that were conducted after the announcement.

When will the movie come out?

No idea! Peter Jackson only secured the rights for the movie adaptation - if and when this project really is going to become reality is entirely open. It could even be put on ice for several years, although this case seems to be rather unlikely. At the moment Peter Jackson is quite busy, on the one hand as producer of the video game adaptation "Halo", on the other as director of his next movie "The Lovely Bones" with Rachel Weisz and Ryan Gosling. Shooting for this movie will begin this fall. In the case Jackson begins working on a "Temeraire" movie immediately after finishing "The Lovely Bones", the earliest possible release date would be 2009, but rather later than that.

Will Peter Jackson himself direct the movie and write the script?

Perhaps. Jackson himself doesn't seem to know it yet. It is quite possible, that he's going to direct this movie, since he likes the books and the mix of history and fantasy very much. In that case one can assume that his wife Fran Walsh and his proven collegue Philippa Boyens are going to write the script together with him, as they did on most of their previous movies.

Which book will be made into a movie? Are there going to be more movies than just one?

It is safe to assume that the beginning of the movie is going to be the same as the one in the first book "His Majesty's Dragon". However, Jackson himself is not yet sure how to structure this project, since "obviously it's more than one film." He bought the rights for all the books, including future ones, not just the first three. In his interview with Ain't It Cool News he also told of his idea of "serialized interactive entertainment" - whatever that means. With this idea Jackson referred to George Lucas' "Star Wars" universe, which has the movies as centerpieces, but is supplemented by lots of books and video games. It seems that Peter Jackson is planning something similar for "Temeraire".

Who is going to play William Laurence? Who will be the voice of Temeraire?

This project is yet very far away from thinking about a cast. Who knows, perhaps it's even going to be an animated movie? One can only speculate. According to Naomi Novik she could very well imagine Russell Crowe or Hugh Jackman in the role of William Laurence, but would rather resent a distinctive voice for Temeraire like Sean Connery for the dragon in "DragonHeart". But a lot of time is going to pass before there will be any hard facts about this subject.

Will Naomi Novik herself be involved in the movie?

She doesn't know herself yet. According to her interview at Ain't It Cool News she puts so much trust in the team surrounding Peter Jackson that she doesn't necessarily want to be involved in the project, but would be delighted to do so, if given the chance.