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Fantasy movies have, thanks largely to director Peter Jackson's seminal Lord of the Rings trilogy, finally hit the mainstream and are here to stay. A quick peruse of Apple's upcoming trailers seems to confirm this... I counted 4 upcoming fantasy flicks - and that's not counting the inevitable Harry Potter and His Dark Materials follow-ups. However, I noticed a disturbing trend as well: Almost all appear to be based in urban fantasy settings or are marketed as adventure films (see: Nim's Island).

For those not familiar, urban fantasy is a genre of fantasy that is set in the "real world" instead of a wholly original fantasy world. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was set in an entirely made up world with no ties whatsoever to our world. However, Narnia, Harry Potter, and His Dark Materials all maintain ties to the real world that we're all familiar with. The pretext in these types of movies is that the fantasy world has always existed out of our sight - hidden to all except the protagonists whom, through inherent right or extraordinary luck, have access to it. Harry Potter follows this definition to a tee, whilst His Dark Materials wraps its fantasy up with a dash of sci-fi in that it starts out in a fantasy world and allows the protagonist, Lyra, to journey to a number of alternate worlds, ours among them.

I suspect that this is chiefly because these types of fantasy movies are more easily marketable. Setting them in the context of the real world allows us to experience the story from the perspectives of the protagonists. These worlds are also new to them and we are permitted gawk in awe right along with them at the new sights and sounds we are presented in these worldsThis, as opposed to creating an entirely new world and marketing it, seems to be much less palpable to Hollywood these days. What would a normal person do when thrust into a world entirely different from our own but yet co-existing with it?

I agree that this is an intriguing question but, from a creative stand point, this approach is already becoming a bit tired. How many more times will we honestly be entertained by some child's reaction to some random fantasy world? I don't know. The new Narnia looks great, The Golden Compass was phenomenal and Harry Potter is always entertaining, at the very least. I just wish I could see adaptations of more contemporary fantasy works like The Wheel of Time or Dragonriders of Pern. Even another His Dark Materials would be sorely welcome (although unlikely).

In summation, while I applaud Hollywood in finally moving forward with more fantasy movies than we have ever had on tap in recent memory, I advise them not to stop there. Port over our favorite book series and *gasp* maybe even create new worlds for your movies. Perhaps it might catch on. Or it could be the "perhaps" that is stopping them. Thoughts?