It's true--his parents have a small publishing house and published the book for him. They then marketed it like crazy, and it got the attention of some major publishing houses. It went up for auction, and was sold for six figures--the number I want to say is $675,000, but I could be wrong on that. I've read the book and think that it's very well done for a sixteen year old. But of course it's derivative--what sixteen year old isn't? Then again, so was Terry Brooks' first book, so that must say something. (Though I'm not sure what.)
I'm interested to see what comes of Eldest, the sequel which was just released. I've talked to many people who have read Eragon, but I have yet to find one that liked it. Of course, my sampling of twelve to fifteen year olds wasn't that large, so that may skew things somewhat. Then again, it has a first print run of 1.3 million, and it's number 1 on Amazon as of now, so apparently it's doing fine. A lot of it is, IMO, hype, but that's the way it goes.
As for why it's getting adapted as opposed to other fantasy works, I believe that's obvious. It's coming out at the same time as Harry Potter, a series which is doing fairly well in the movie department. Eragon's been read by a ton of people--or at least bought. Of course they're making the film to make money. If anyone thinks Hollywood does differently . . .
Just because I don't like the book doesn't mean the movie will be crap. But--and here's my unjustified gut feeling--I'm betting it will be.
