Halldór Laxness, the only Icelandic author to be awarded the Nobel Prize, set his novel Under the Glacier in the area of Snæfellsjökull. The glacier has a mystic quality in the story and there are several references to A Journey to the Center of the Earth in connection with it. Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 3-D film by Eric Brevig. Cast members include Brendan Fraser, Anita Briem and Josh Hutcherson. The film is a modern-day paraphrase of the 1860s original — it uses Verne's book as its inciting incident instead of Saknussemm's message, then follows the novel's overall structure with fidelity: a geology professor, his nephew, and an Icelandic guide (now a woman named "Hannah") penetrate Snaefells, discover a seashore with giant mushrooms, sail across an underground ocean inhabited by a pod of Elasmosaurus, a relative of the plesiosaurus, and reach the other side where they encounter a terrestrial animal from prehistory, in this case a Tyrannosaurus, a predatory theropod dinosaur rather than a mastodon. Ultimately the three explorers exit the underworld via an erupting volcano, find themselves in present-day Italy, and return to their starting point in academia. Overall, then, this was science fiction with an emphasis on the "fiction." Little here was even remotely believable. Yet taken together, it made an interesting visual contemplation of "what if?" and an enjoyable couple of hours at the cinema (for example, the characters free-fall to the "center of the earth," which would be 4,000 MILES down. Allowing for the rather slap-dash explanation of "magma envelopes" and all, we are nonetheless asked to believe they fell thousands of miles in a few seconds. The lava tube they fell down, fake as it was, was kind of evocative--- it did bring to mind a sense of mystery, and the powers of nature that are WAY beyond our everyday experiences, even if it was rather silly). Video games called Journey to the Center of the Earth: in 1984 by Ozisoft for the Commodore 64; in 1989 by Topo Soft [11] for the ZX Spectrum and in 2003 by Frogwares. [12]

The 1959 version was filled with childish situations and bad acting, ranging from Pat Boone's idiotic performance to James Mason doing a bad Scottish accent. The only interesting character in the whole film was Alrene Dahl, an attractive middle-aged woman with a independent personality.Upon arriving in Iceland, they hire shepherd and mountaineer Hans. Together, the four of them set off for the adventure of a lifetime to the center of the Earth. After a series of mishaps, including losing the mysterious book, about midway through their journey, Olsen, a time traveling scientist, meets the explorers. All-purpose stolid British protagonist Kenneth More holds things together in a moderately effective adaptation of Verne's novel. The rest of the cast are unknowns, but do OK. This is one of those movies that pretty much stands out from the many other action and adventure movies out there, and that is that it does not have an antagonist. Well, okay, maybe we could consider the university department head that wants Trevor Anderson's (Brendan Fraser) lab, but he plays such a minor part in the film that he is hardly even worth mentioning (or even crediting). Further, this is one of those films that I sort of look at the cover and ask myself why I actually bought it, and then within half an hour of actually watching it, discover that I am actually really enjoying the film and have a lot of difficulty actually turning it off. His young nephew is Josh Hutcherson as Sean Anderson, whose dad, Trevor's scientist brother, disappeared 10 years earlier. Sean is dropped off for a 10 day visit with Trevor and then the fun begins. They travel to Iceland to pursue a theory about Jules Verne's book being more than just fiction.

artist: creature and animation, Frantic Films (as Jelma Boskma) / lead creature modeler: Frantic Films With 25 minutes or so of the film gone I saw that not only was the five year old having fun but that his mother appeared to be glad that this wasn't really an adaptation of any sort but a movie that treats Verne's book as if it was based on reality (the novel exists and is referenced throughout the film, and the characters discover that it must have had basis in reality when the novel comes to life before them and they find evidence of life at the center of the Earth). I leaned over and whispered, asking for her opinion, and she said that it was fun so far. Debus, Allen (July 2007). "Re-Framing the Science in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth". Science Fiction Studies. 33 (3): 405–20. JSTOR 4241461. .

Cast

A radio drama adaptation was broadcast by National Public Radio in 2000 for its series Radio Tales.