RIYADH: Scottish actor Gerard Butler is returning to the Viking Isle of Berk, but this time he is trading his animated voice for full costume and presence in the live-action adaptation of “How to Train Your Dragon” — a remake of the beloved DreamWorks franchise, helmed by three-time Oscar nominee Dean DeBlois.

In this new retelling, which releases on June 12, Mason Thames plays the inventive Hiccup, a young Viking who defies tradition to befriend Toothless, a Night Fury dragon. Butler reprises his role as Stoick the Vast, Hiccup’s formidable father, stepping from the recording booth into full-bodied performance.

“It’s a big change,” Butler told Arab News. “When I’m doing the recording, the animation, I could pretty much turn up in my pajamas if I wanted to. But there’s no getting away with that here. It was all of me. There’s no excuses.”

He described the live-action shift as “a chance to bring Stoick’s bigness and smallness” to life in a whole new way.

Butler praised his co-stars, including Nico Parker as Astrid and Nick Frost as Gobber, and especially young lead Thames.

He reflected on the dynamic between the father and son, saying: “Well, he’s an incredible young actor. And I feel like the characters and the relationships that our writer-director Dean DeBlois (has created), there’s a reason they became so beloved and people feel so strongly because they’re incredibly emotional.

“So, I think to play that Viking father who expects so much from his son, and his son who’s trying his best and actually has all these incredible characteristics that I just can’t see, was beautiful to delve into ... on sets with our clothes, with our costumes, and really believe that we were in that world. That was pretty epic.”

Returning to Saudi Arabia for the film’s press tour, Butler shared his affection for the Kingdom, saying: “I had an incredible experience here and made some really nice friends. AlUla is beyond. I became very attached to that place, to its energy, its history, and to the community there.”

Butler expressed his excitement for the audience, adding: “There’s so much … for them to see because there’s so much in this movie. I think that some of the scenes of the dragons flying are some of the most beautiful, immersive, powerful scenes that I’ve seen on a big screen. But on top of that, I think that we have very complex, emotional, heartfelt performances and a story that they can also climb into. I think we have a lot of modern references that we can all like; the characters are so relatable.

“It’s a big honor for me to be able to play this character again. I feel very lucky to be part of this franchise. I feel very protective of it because I was there. I was actually there even before Dean DeBlois was there, you know, because we had a different director way, way back. So I’ve been with it for a long, long time, and to see it start as just a little planet and then become a whole universe has been amazing.”

HASSAN, India: All writers draw on their experience, whether consciously or not, says Indian author Banu Mushtaq — including the titular tale of attempted self-immolation in her International Booker Prize-winning short story collection.
Mushtaq, who won the coveted literature prize as the first author writing in Kannada — an Indian regional language — said the author’s responsibility is to reflect the truth.
“You cannot simply write describing a rose,” said the 77-year-old, who is also a lawyer and activist.
“You cannot say it has got such a fragrance, such petals, such color. You have to write about the thorns also. It is your responsibility, and you have to do it.”
Her book “Heart Lamp,” a collection of 12 powerful short stories, is also her first book translated into English, with the prize shared with her translator Deepa Bhasthi.
Critics praised the collection for its dry and gentle humor, and its searing commentary on the patriarchy, caste and religion.
Mushtaq has carved an alternative path in life, challenging societal restrictions and perceptions.
As a young girl worried about her future, she said she started writing to improve her “chances of marriage.”
Born into a Muslim family in 1948, she studied in Kannada, which is spoken mostly in India’s southern Karnataka state by around 43 million people, rather than Urdu, the language of Islamic texts in India and which most Muslim girls learnt.
She attended college, and worked as a journalist and also as a high school teacher.

Constricted life

But after marrying for love, Mushtaq found her life constricted.
“I was not allowed to have any intellectual activities. I was not allowed to write,” she said.
“I was in that vacuum. That harmed me.”
She recounted how as a young mother aged around 27 with possible postpartum depression, and ground down by domestic life, had doused petrol on herself and on the “spur of a moment” readied to set herself on fire.
Her husband rushed to her with their three-month-old daughter.
“He took the baby and put her on my feet, and he drew my attention to her and he hugged me, and he stopped me,” Mushtaq told AFP.
The experience is nearly mirrored in her book — in its case, the protagonist is stopped by her daughter.
“People get confused that it might be my life,” the writer said.
Explaining that while not her exact story, “consciously or subconsciously, something of the author, it reflects in her or his writing.”
Books line the walls in Mushtaq’s home, in the small southern Indian town of Hassan.
Her many awards and certificates — including a replica of the Booker prize she won in London in May — are also on display.
She joked that she was born to write — at least that is what a Hindu astrological birth chart said about her future.
“I don’t know how it was there, but I have seen the birth chart,” Mushtaq said with a laugh, speaking in English.
The award has changed her life “in a positive way,” she added, while noting the fame has been a little overwhelming.
“I am not against the people, I love people,” she said referring to the stream of visitors she gets to her home.
“But with this, a lot of prominence is given to me, and I don’t have any time for writing. I feel something odd... Writing gives me a lot of pleasure, a lot of relief.”

‘The writer is always pro-people’
Mushtaq’s body of work spans six short story collections, an essay collection and poetry.
The stories in “Heart Lamp” were chosen from the six short story collections, dating back to 1990.
The Booker jury hailed her characters — from spirited grandmothers to bumbling religious clerics — as “astonishing portraits of survival and resilience.”
The stories portray Muslim women going through terrible experiences, including domestic violence, the death of children and extramarital affairs.
Mushtaq said that while the main characters in her books are all Muslim women, the issues are universal.
“They (women) suffer this type of suppression and this type of exploitation, this type of patriarchy everywhere,” she said. “A woman is a woman, all over the world.”
While accepting that even the people for whom she writes may not like her work, Mushtaq said she remained dedicated to providing wider truths.
“I have to say what is necessary for the society,” she said.
“The writer is always pro-people... With the people, and for the people.”