Harriet McDougal, wife of the late Robert Jordan, dropped some exciting news late Thursday: the TV rights to Jordan’s Wheel of Time fantasy epic have been acquired by a major studio.
In the wake of the success of Game of Thrones, and considering the staggering amount of fantasy and sci-fi book properties that have been optioned for TV and film, the absence of The Wheel of Time has been eyebrow-raising. (Or in the parlance of the series itself, perhaps the better term is “sniff producing”?) Fans of the series were given a glimpse into the legal tangle preventing WOT’s emergence onto the small screen on February 9, 2015, when a sudden pilot episode dubbed “Winter Dragon” aired in the early A.M. hours on the FXX Network. McDougal released a statement clarifying that the pilot was made without her knowledge, prompting Red Eagle Entertainment, the production company behind the pilot, to issue a lawsuit. (Which they later withdrew.) A more detailed account of the behind-the-scenes machinations can be found at io9, but regardless of the details, overall it seemed as if fans would have to wait a very long time to see Jordan’s work on screen in a large-scale production.
Now, the wait is seemingly over.
Received from Team Jordan moments ago. #WoTpic.twitter.com/cETgZnH9L6
— Dragonmount.com (@dragonmount) April 28, 2016
From the Wheel of Time Google Plus group:
Announcement
The following is a press statement that has been approved by the studio involved in contract negotiations:
Update: Wanted to share with you exciting news about The Wheel of Time. Legal issues have been resolved. The Wheel of Time will become a cutting edge TV series! I couldn’t be more pleased. Look for the official announcement coming soon from a major studio —Harriet
Still, it’s heartening to hear that Jordan’s work has emerged safely from the path of daggers, ready to make the jump to television!
Burn me!
My dream scenario: Animated series from the team that made Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra.
Part of me is filled with the fanboyish glee one would expect, but another part of me is concerned. Part of what made the books great, in my opinion anyway, was how deeply we were immersed in the characters’ minds. Beyond just the occasional thoughts in italics dialogue, the narrative itself was shaped by the focus character’s perspective. A Rand chapter reads very differently than an Egwyne one, or Mat, or Perrin, etc etc. I’ve got concerns over how that might translate to a filmed medium.
As long as this has Harriet’s, RJ’s family, and Team Jordan’s stamp of approval then I’m all for it being made. I just hope that it is made well so that I don’t have to lead a Trolloc army to anybody’s door to scrawl a Dragon’s Fang.
@RaySea
You and me both! On one hand, it could be a good adaptation like GoT; OTOH, Shannara; and on the gripping hand, some of the truly dodgy/campy fantasy shows from pre-GoT days…
Despite that, am really happy with the news, and looking forward to hearing details.
Well, I for one am cautiously optimistic. After being burned by Red Eagle entertainment I am more than willing to give ANYONE else a shot at producing what would be my epic television show. As Matt would say, “Dovie’andi se tovya sagain.” For those not fluent in Old Tongue “It’s time to toss the dice.”
I think one of the biggest challenges to doing a Wheel of Time TV show is tone. On the one hand, a lot of studios are keen to replicate Game of Thrones’ success, but that seems to also come with most of them thinking that that means “dark, bloody, gritty, sexy, and epic”. I feel like if that tone was applied to WoT, it just wouldn’t work (well, aside from the ‘epic’).
On the other hand, there’s also a push to get shows for the more YA audience, so a sort of YA GoT-lite has been brought up several times. Shannara, I think, came from this idea.
The problem, I think, is that WoT is pretty balanced in tone and content to be sort of halfway between those two. It’s not excessively dark and gritty. Sure, it has dark scenes and spots, but overall that’s not what it is. It’s also not exactly YA, even though it has a lot of pretty standard YA ideas and tropes in it (young teenagers off on an epic quest from a peaceful village, etc.). The Eye of the World, in particular (actually, really the first three books), feel pretty YA at times.
I think that striking the proper balance between not trying to make it too dark and gritty while also not making it too YA/younger focused is the key to the project. I think it could work well, the issue is getting a studio to see it that way too.
@6 a YA WoT would be HORRIBLE!! Shanara was Bad because they Deviated from the orig. text and went some “Sexy” route a la GoT…And it was just bad! I stopped reading the books because it was so much different from the show, and the books just didnt do it for me.
Now @2, I would LOVE WoT to be Animated or specifically Anime so it can get all of the SFX it needs for the One Power or to be on Netflix so it can have Nudity that it does have but very lite…And if it can stay 90% to the books like Season 1 of GoT was then it will be EPIC!! However if it starts to deviate like Sea 3 on of GoT did, then it will be Suspect!
any word how we can see the Winter Dragon pilot?
Please, please,please! Whoever is in charge of bringing this to life- take a hard look at The Chronicles of Shannara and Legend of the Seeker so you know exactly how NOT to bring a book to the small screen!
I’ve been craving this with every ounce of my being for so long but I and I think more than a few others have trepidations concerning how it’ll get translated to screen. Terry Goodkinds ‘Sword Of Truth’ series was a pure travesty that did the series no justice but Game of Thrones has been a testament to the potential that these great works can produce. All in all I have my fingers are crossed and if they mess up my all time favorite literary series then I guess I’ll have to find who did it and invite them to dance
Please don’t be animation…
Please don’t be animation…
Please, please, PLEASE don’t be animation…
Given Jordan’s tendency to get way too inside his characters’ heads, I think TV/film is a perfect medium to abridge some of the written content and make WoT the mainstream blockbuster series it deserves to be.
Please, please, please, please don’t make it adaptation in name only like the Sword of Truth series.
@9: Bobbicoker: I’ve seen it on youtube ages ago.
Honestly, I think one good example of how this could be done well, and done in a way that is the right kind of psychologically scary (because Jordan does well-placed psychological horror, as opposed to grimdark and gore, so skillfully) is the fan film Escape From Shadow. You can find it on Facebook. It’s NOT the same movie as “Winter Dragon”. It’s a student film that was approved by Team Jordan as a legitimate extension of fan art. And the filmmakers set up Randland, especially the overwhelming terror inspired by men who can channel, and the central point that the characters are all so young and scared and often lack an authoritative older voice to help them along, extremely well. Honestly I wonder if the mystery studio should consider hiring those guys as consultants. (The only thing I don’t like about the film is the opening, which is a total ripoff of Jackson’s Lord of the Rings opening, and also makes no sense in-universe because a Fourth Age copy of Loial’s book would surely be printed, not written in manuscript. Oh, and the cheesy Random Black Ajah Infodump Actress at the beginning. Keep watching past that and it gets good then.) I suppose that raises two other important issues: how to not feel like a Lord of the Rings ripoff when the early chapters are definitely engaging in intelligent Lord of the Rings intertextuality (the crucial difference between the two could get lost on screen if people aren’t careful), and how to use the fact that the material culture of Randland is at a significantly higher level than that of Planetos, which if done well would be a good way of keeping the two distinct visually.
And @9, “Winter Dragon” is all over YouTube, though you might want to watch it quickly in case this development gets it taken down. It’s worth watching, despite Billy Zane sucking as Ishamael. Honestly, I found the use of the dolls to non-literally represent the carnage of the Prologue scene inside Lews Therin’s damaged psychology to genuinely work, even if nothing else in the film did and it was a thoroughly low blow to make an ashcan version without the consent of the author’s next of kin/executor. Some less literalistic filmmaking choices might also be a good alternative to this becoming Game of Thrones Lite Except We May Not Have Twincest But Look Polyamory.
When this hits the screen, I predict a lot of b*tching, whatever the form they make it in and however true they stay, even with official approval. Because a book fandom will always b*tch about a series being brought to screen. Expectations and having pictured situations already in mind will do that.
Am I enthusiastic about this announcement? Not really, but I’m also not shooting it down without having seen anything. Also, I always separate screen adaptations from books.
Having said that, will I watch? Hell yeah. I’m a series binger, and I even enjoyed Shannara enough, although I won’t rewatch it.
I’m similarly concerned about this, since the popularity of GoT has very little to do with being fantasy and everything to do with being a medieval telenovela imo. If they think they’re striking while the iron is hot, I think they’ll find themselves sorely mistaken.
If this adaptation is going to work, WoT really needs someone worth their salt behind the directors chair, someone that can actually do a good job of selling the rotating PoV and how the PoV characters are feeling, since as other people have pointed out, it is the main appeal of the series (Besides Mat, of course).
Mother’s milk in a cup!! I am genuinely curious as to how you can adapt such a large series. Game of Thrones is great for sure, but the show leaves so much to be desired by fans of the books. And there are only 7 books! One book a season, one season a year… Wheel of Time for the next 14 years then??? I’m totally OK with that but by the Light, if you mess this up I will send my draghkar after you and harvest your souls!
And what was so wrong with The Seeker series?!? lol
This actually has me extremely worried and excited at the same time. I’m excited at the prospect of being able to see something epic played out on the scale of LOTOR. I am also extremely worried about it because so often the shows producer’s will start to take liberty where they shouldn’t and ruin a great series….. look to the failed legend of the Seeker. It was a great series in book format, but ruined when brought to TV.
@15: For anyone like me looking for this, the name of the fan film is actually Flight From Shadow and it’s on YouTube.
I’m really excited about a new company taking over for a TV series. I think I’ve wanted one since I read the first book. And I would definitely prefer a Live Action vs an animation because I feel that this wouldn’t do as well in an animated rendition.
Unlike how dark Game of Thrones is, what I loved about Wheel of Time was how colorful everything was. If the Tinkers aren’t blindingly colorful I think I’ll cry. Seriously every culture in his books was colorful and unique.
Thanks, @21. That’s what happens when you post before coffee, I guess.
@22, I think that depicting the mixture of cultures would also be critical to this being a success. Randland is neither medieval nor whitewashed, and depicting something that looks believable but not “fantasy-ish” could draw viewers in. Though the issue of diversity [ducks fireball that is inevitably being lobbed somewhere on the Internet since I used that word] is an important one, since at the very beginning none of the major characters is clearly nonwhite, and I’m not sure I can come up with a retcon to allow any of the Duopotamians to be plausibly nonwhite (hashed this one out at great length when partner semi-seriously started arguing that Aziz Ansari could work as Mat–no flames, it wasn’t my fan casting). Though there is the possibility that all Borderlanders look more East or Central Asian than Caucasian, so to get in a non-Caucasian main character to hint at the fact that there are tons of non-Caucasians not much further into the story, Lan might be an option.
And culture brings up a third thing that I think is critical to distinguishing this from GoT and making it feel true to the source material. This is an utterly American story. I don’t want to see ANYONE using a Generic British Accent, unless they are actually cast as a Caemlyner. Sorting out the complexity of accents will be a challenge, but the “default” absolutely has to be a variety of American English, not Default Fantasy Brit.
@23: Randland is early industrial, the trains got moving way too fast to be true medieval. And yes, they better not white wash is all. If Tuon is played by anything other than a black actress – screams everywhere. Even Tear and the whole south is a wide range of “dark.”
I hope the whole cast is the full range of everything – including many bi-racial actors.
The core Two Rivers & Andor characters are white, but that’s because the country is based on England.
Uhm… Well Rand has to be pale, but the others could be almost anything except as dark at Tuon. Because she was so different from the girls Mat grew up with in his mind.
I would love to see Gina Torres as Siuan Sanche.
I’m hoping the core case will be relative unknowns so past baggage is not brought in.
There was en antry in the WOTFAQ about which accent each region had. Duopotamians were Irish, but the Seanchan had all the glorious Texan accent. Finally a fantasy series where Texas is represented.
When I think of Tear my mind mostly goes to either Spain or the Phillipines (which was a colony of Spain), due to the surnames (Sanche, Saniago, Saranche, Toranes, Tomares, Belcelona, Colona, Mecandes) and description of their shoes . The class divide is very big there, so I think having both Spanish and Filipino actors play Tairen could be good. So, Siaun Sanche could theoretically be played by a Filipina-American actress.
This could be good. I mean, it could also be horrible, but I think I would try to watch it without expecting it to be just like the book. But totally agreed that if they try to make it ‘Game of Thrones’ lite, they will sorely be missing the point.
@26: That would be good too. The main point, Siuan was the most powerful women in the world at one point. She’s not a pale as the Queen of England.
I would love to see Native American actors somewhere. The world of WoT is a mash up. Almost anything goes.
Since they probably won’t be in it for the 25 year epic that it would take to cover the whole series, I’m in favor of a more GoT themed roll out. Use the world, the plot, and the characters but make it darker, harsher, and more adult. What would make it better than GoT is the FX.
I may be cynical, but this strikes me as too little, too late. By the time the movies or TV series comes to the screen, I think we will have long since passed “peak fantasy,” at least for this generation. (Much as the Maze Runner and Divergent series of movies show that we have passed “peak teen dystopian futures.”) After Game of Thrones, The Dark Tower, LotR, Harry Potter, the endless MCU, Mockingjay—and lesser imitators and spoofs like the overly bloated Hobbit, Sword of Truth, Magicians, Shanarra, the DCU and Gallavant—I just don’t see millions of people committing themselves to 6+ more years of a “must watch” TV or movie series.
I realized why Tor especially is tickled at the prospect of a new movie series to sell more books, but I think, as far as the big/small screen is concerned, the WoT will need to wait for another turn of the Wheel.
However, as an immersive video game with an MMO component…?
Isn’t Torres too tall to play Siuan? Or am I confusing her with Moiraine?
The Wheel of time turns……… A wind rushed over a silent crowd, It whispered secrets into the ears of the waiting armies. its coolness was a balm to all, yet faint traces of fear could be smelled at its passing. The wind blew passed the shoulder of lone figure who stood tall above the generals and officers who surrounded him. His hair seeming to shift to red at quick glances. He watched as a man with golden eyes cleared the ground near his feet. A third figure with a sly smile laughed as he tossed his dice in the now clear areas before them all. Time froze. The wheel itself stood silent. The world may not be ready for what is to come but the army stands ready. The horn may sound again, we will dance with jack o the shadows, The wolf banner will howl its fury. May the creator have mercy on any who choose to alter the next turn of the wheel of time.
Can’t wait for certain scenes:
– Rand’s journey in Ruidean
– Mat’s trips through the red doorway ter’angreal
– Dumai’s Well
– Egwene in the White Tower
– Nynaeve breaks her block
Too many to name!!
@29: Darker & harsher? God no. There are already darker & harsher stories out there in abundance. Nor do I want to see “rape as background” as on GoT. If the Trollics start raping people rather than “just” killing and eating them, I will know the show producers don’t understand the point of the books.
We also don’t need to see the sweat tents scenes becoming soft porn. Everything can be shown above the shoulders and information can still be conveyed.
@31: Moiraine and everyone from her country is short. Reminds me of pictures I see of my 6’2″ co-workers in Peru. They tower over the local population.
Siuan is not noted as partially tall, but the height issues should focus on the Aiel.
@34 Trollocs are trolloc sexual, they have no interest in humans.
Now Fades on the other hand. That’s a different story, and we’re told straight up they’ll rape women, we read the pov of several women who even survive it.
@34 – I always loved that Moiraine was short. I am also very short and have similar coloring (although I’m not as pale) and people never get my age right so I could totally play her ;) That being said, I wonder how they will do the ‘ageless face’.
I would also love to play Nyneave. Or Faile. (I’m not an actress, but I used to think about which character it would be fun to be if they ever made a WoT movie…)
@30 Unfortunately I agree. And fantasy on tv basically all has the same look (unless it’s GoT and can throw cinema-levels of cash at it for both locations and actors), so it’s going to be hard enough to distinguish it from previous cheesy tv fantasy series. Especially with tEotW beginning so much like a LotR rip-off, that’s going to turn people off right out of the gate.
Though I suppose one way would be to open with them entering Baerlon, that might at least showcase the differences that it’s a pre-modern, not medieval, setting with varied peoples, and then use flashback to the beginning of the adventure. But however they do it (if they do it at all), it’s going to be a harder sell now to audiences, than a couple of years ago.
@@@@@ 28 If I’m not mistaken, Arafellin look like Native Americans, but have a cutlure like Russia. Aiel have a culture like North America Native Americans, but look like Irish. That’s Robert Jordan for you.
@28 Siuan could easily work as a darker-skinned character whom we see fairly early (the book description of her as paler than average for a lower-class Tairen is easy to ignore), but we would still have to wait quite a long time for her to come on screen, unless there are flashbacks to New Spring, which I don’t think is a good idea for dramatic tension. I’d still like to see Lan and the other Borderlanders as some sort of multiracial Asian–then you have at least one nonwhite character potentially from Episode 1. Illusion of whitewashing solved.
And I’m not sure you necessarily have to start with Baerlon. The Two Rivers isn’t necessarily more technologically backward than, well, the agricultural smallholder Deep South. That level of technology rather than medieval would work. And it would be easy to showcase important details like that Tam owns a reasonable number of printed books and there are books like The Travels of Jain Farstrider popular enough that Mat is embarrassed he’s never read it. Printing and widespread literacy is a huge post-medieval innovation. (Plus emphasizing that printing technology never seems to have lapsed after the Breaking really helps with potential questions about the lack of multiple languages.)
@34, big cheers for anyone who both tries and succeeds in shooting a Bechdel-pass, non-sexualized sweat tent scene. It can be done, if you want to. Look at the father-daughter bath scene in My Neighbor Totoro to prove that non-Western assumptions about gender propriety and bathing can be totally convincing on screen.
I don’t think similarities with LotR will turn potential viewers away, on the contrary: it’s good to have some familiar ground at the beginning of a new epic where you introduce the audience to a completely new world, to sell it like: if you liked LotR, you will probably like this. Because LotR has a completely different feel from GoT, and this is a good thing, as we never had a TV show like it.
I’d use the prologue in the cold open of the first episode to show how this was different from The Lord of the Rings. For a few bits, show how futuristic the Age of Legends was. Then, in the second cold open, I’d use the scene of Gitara Moroso having the foretelling of Rand being born and Moiraine and Siuan hearing it (from New Spring). With some exposition of how there’s a war, there’s some weird people called Aiel and how these two Accepted must now search for the Dragon Reborn, the one who’s prophecised to save the world but also break it, or the world will be DOOOMED. And then, finally, the wind and all that happens in the Eye of the World. With that, there’d be enough things to differentiate it from The Lord of the Rings at the beginning.
@@@@@ 39 Regarding borderlanders, skin-color wise, Arafellin look like Native Americans, Saldeans are people around the Black Sea (Ukrainians, Turks, Tatars, Armenians, Georgians), Shienarans culturally are like Japanese, but I never could get a true sense of how they looked, and some Kandori have Japanese surnames, other have Russian surnames, but I also could never get a feel of how they looked.
It could have been better, it could have been worse. It least they didn’t actually show the One Power.
https://www.youtube(dot)com/watch?v=hUQE0-G_GeU
I don’t think they did a good job on the Sword of Truth Series. Hopefully Wheel of Time will have
writers like those who transferred the book. Game of Thrones, to the screen and were able to create
new episodes for this season even though R,R,Martin hasn’t written them yet.
@41. I like the sound of your openings. It would convey enough of the story for people to know what is going, but not ruin anything going forward. I really want to see EOTW’s prologue done justice after the crapfest that was Winter Dragon.
Maybe it’s just me, but I always thought of the Cairhien as Chinese. With their almost universal shorter height and the soldier’s practice of shaving the front of their heads. Moiraine could be Asian if that is the case.
@35: Right. RJ said that Trollocs would rape humans if ordered to do so (and presumably did when their potential to interbreed was being tested), but that it’s not their inclination. Humans are food.
Showmakers, please get the Shadowspawn right. That’s all I ask.
I’m excited. I do worry about the direction they take this since it could be played as straight fantasy, like GoT or LoTR. Or they could go the campy route, which would be fun to watch for some series (enjoyed both Legend of the Seeker and Shanarra), but there’s alot of good drama and pathos that they miss out on if they go that way. My guess is, they won’t have the budget to go full GoT, but if they get writers and producers that love the source material, we should have something enjoyable to watch even if they make some decisions that go away from the books.
The other thing I’m hoping for is to keep the casting as open as possible. A more diverse world makes for a more interesting one. That’s something that Jordan worked hard to put into the books, and it would be a shame to leave that out just because of typical Hollywood nonsense. Also, reverse feminism tropes will be fun to watch, natch.
“reverse feminism” -> “reverse sexism”
I think one huge problem they might have is in doing the whole series justice. Do you do one season per book (14 seasons)? I would love that, but the usual practice of 1 season per year would stretch even Marvel’s hubris for planning – so many problems re network cancellation, nailing actors into contracts, actors ageing 14 years over a 3-year plot.
But I think it could be done if they did some really careful planning: Decide from the beginning to trim some major sections (eg Perrin could do all the same stuff in 1/10th the time, still hit all the highlights but snip most – no flames please, just a hypothetical); Cut out some plot points altogether (maybe male a’dam, the whole city of no chanelling); Release multiple seasons per year (maybe like Netflix does) 3 per year gives 4-5 years.
This is great! I was just thinking about a read through again, but it is heavy lifting, now I have a reason.
I’d just randomly started a re-read, went online to re-familiarize myself with the whole universe, and then I read this! Awesome!
Even though I agree with many commenters here that there will probably be disappointment as well. No film or TV series will be able to match all the awesomeness that is RJ’s writing and my imagination… Though I don’t doubt the latter can be improved upon in several areas, if done right.
As for the duration: one of the laments I most often hear is that of pacing in the middle books. There’s a lot of detail that could be left out of a series without being missed by all but the most avid book readers.
We don’t need 14 seasons. Often 1/3 of each book is describtion of location or dress. Show takes care of that in set design.
The middle books could easily be mashed together, considering all the flashbacks when Rand cleaned the source.
It could probably be done in 7 seasons. That’s still an issue for Olver, since we only know him for 1 year book time.
Remember, book 5-13 are just 1 year book time.
Perrin and Faiel marry at the end of 4. They celebrate their 1 year anniversary in 13.
Fingers crossed whatever happens.
My take on what to leave out of a TV show:
As much as I like Perrin, pretty much his entire arc after going to see the prophet can be trimmed. Likewise, Morgase and Siuan’s arc should probably kept off-screen. Elayne also spends a lot of time repeating mistakes, so the Andoran succession can be cut back. Gawyn’s arc can be minimized, too. Unfortunately, the hunters for the Black Ajah in the Tower can probably go.
For bad guys, the bits about Graendal and Semirhage can be cut down. Only Lanfear, Moghedien, and Ishmael are thematically important of the Forsaken so the others can be minimized. It might make sense to combine Sammael’s and Demandred’s arc so the most effective big bad doesn’t appear out of nowhere right at the end. The Shaido can be tidied up so they’re less relevant after Dumai Wells. I think a lot of Black Ajah stuff can be scaled back, in part so the Supergirls don’t look quite so featherbrained. That leaves the problem of how to get them to Falme and Tear though.
Hard to imagine how they cd do a gd job without a decent budget. Orcs, mydraal and of course loial wd need quite a bit of screen time. That calls for a lotr sized make up team straight up. And visualising saidar and saidin, and the complexities of their weaving, without lookin naff….
And the quick succession of very different looking towns and cities. So much detail, so little mulla.
I’d almost prefer a top quality cartoon than a halfbaked cgi blitz.
So hopefully they get a massive budget *)
I’m very excited for this series! One of the greatest series of books I’ve ever read!
I hope the producers will keep it clean and non graphic. I don’t want this literary marvel to become obscene, pornographic and overly violent like the GOT series or others like Vikings and Turn. These are all some of my favorite genre and shows I would love to watch if it weren’t for all the immoral and vulgar scenes, most of which are gratuitous!
Like others here, I’m cautiously optimistic. GOT is successful because it’s well done, period, end of story. Before HBO adapted it, there were few if any television adaptations of fantasy stories with good writing and acting, and that’s why they largely failed. My hope is that they use live, skilled actors and top drawer writers, producers, and directors. The tone should be Peter Jackson LOTR, where the material is taken seriously and presented that way, but the sex, nudity, and violence are on par with the books (on the light side, more at a PG-13 than an R rated level). Rand et al never visit any whorehouses, so there won’t be so many opportunities for gratuitous boobs and rear ends, and the teens don’t start bedding each other til later in the series, so it will be interesting to see how producers handle the chastity issues (I’d wager the moment Min shows up, there’ll be an early, off-book romp between her and Rand…though I hope not since that would completely undermine the impact of his and Avienda’s first time).
An animated version would be potentially interesting but American audiences, at least, would immediately write it off as a “kid’s show” if it’s animated. For marketing purposes, because the material becomes adult, even if it does begin more at a YA level, I think live actors would be preferable.
While this seems interesting, I wonder how they will pull it off.
WoT is such a huge undertaking that I believe most of the content of books will be left out, or if thye get into the details, an unlikelihood this will ever get done to the end.
Some books are just too big for other media.
My biggest gripe about books made to film or TV programs is the major plot changes due to the artistic license of the director/production company. The Harry Potter films worked because they did not stray too far from story. In contrast Sword of Truth Tv series died an early death because fans of the book did not like the tremendous changes made to the storyline. It almost seemed like the production company skimmed through the books enough to get a few names and minor plot devices and then went on their own direction. The Lightning Thief movie suffered the same fate. Fans of the novel’s had been turned off to such a degree that the second movie, made much closer to the original storyline, could not recover the franchise.
Please, please stay on the path of the WoT books. There are no issues exploring additional backgrounds and ideas, but please make sure it fits into the original plot and storyline.
They had better take all of Season 1 to do just the first book.
I only have a couple suggestions for them.
1) Reduce, reduce, reduce. The series is so huge that any impulse to add to Jordan’s universe is almost certainly a digression or a mistake. They should be able to find a good tv show in there, not by adding things that they think will work better, but by removing things that don’t translate well to the small screen.
2) Keep the early books’ pacing. By all means, keep the prologue, but the story starts properly with village life, small-scale dramas, and a little foreshadowing. The insulated early life of the characters allows us to learn about the wider world at their pace, as they experience it. The writers are going to want to show more magic early on, for example. I don’t want to see that, or cutscenes of Siuan giving orders, or any of the bad guys, until the characters first encounter them as in the books.
It’s been a while since I’ve read the books. I haven’t even finished reading the very last book. I’m gonna have to read from the start and get excited again.
> They had better take all of Season 1 to do just the first book.
I agree. That’s the best way to tackle the books. And with as many episodes as required.
I always worry when my favorite fantasy books become movies or tv series (look at that debacle Syfy did to Wizards of Eathsea but I have loved Game of Thrones sinceepisode 1 and I did enjoy the Shannara series on MTV. I hope this is a good show, we need more fantasy on tv.
I well say that the reason why this series lends well to TV is the success of the audio books. Imagine the the audio books without the descriptions of every little detail (that you will now get to see) and you have in essence how it will play out on screen.
I’m not so much worried about the POV because it will sort of play out like Shakespeare. Shakespeare is very POV driven, you just can’t see it so much because it’s a play. But if you’ve ever read Shakespeare you can see the stylistic elements more clearly. The fact that there is so much embellished descriptions of the surroundings makes writing a script easy. It’s basically cut and paste. The script writers need only make sure the text play’s out well on screen and change accordingly.
What I’m most worried about are the quality of actors. This is a vast world, and while it’s not such a big deal early on, by the time you get to Dragon Reborn there will be mad introductions and appearances of characters that will be with us until series end. The cost of financing that many good actors could be incredibly high. Many come and go, not to be seen again for an entire book or more and that would need to be contractually locked in place….some for the entire series….14 year’s possibly!
Now on the other hand some of the books can be squished together. 6,7,8 and 9 could combined into two. Remember much of Jordans writing is devoted to describing how gnarly the bark on the near dead trees from the endless drought, looks like that Mat decides to take a much needed rest under ….. blah blah blah. That will disappear in the cinematography and set designs. But wow, will those sets be easy to envision come build time? I actually think the whole thing could be done in 10 years because of that.
-Z
I am of the mind that if a story is worth telling, it can be filmed, but should be filmed in the most watchable way. That includes remaining true to the spirit and overarching plot of the books, but pruning and rearranging as much as is necessary. I waited to read the Wheel of Time until it was done, and have always pictured Cameron Monaghan as Rand.
WoT would be a huge challenge to adapt. There are SO many characters, that many of them would of necessity have to be combined, as much as book purists would hate it. You could keep the 3 male leads, but combine the 5 or 6 female leads into 3 or 4. Combine many secondary and minor characters. Make the leads more ethnically diverse. Maybe even make only the Aiel white, as an interesting twist since they are the tribal outsiders. You would have to cut a lot of the slow stuff, like wandering around aimlessly playing the flute, or getting lost in the woods, or messing around in the dream world. I would probably cut several subplots that are not vital, like the Snakes and Foxes, the Shaido Aiel, and regional politics in most places. Combine Seanchan and Shara. You could probably make this in 5 or 6 longish seasons, using the most important battles or dramatic turns as season dividers, not the book divisions. Rearrange plot order as seems most conducive to TV storytelling.
I would want to jump right into the action in the pilot. No backstory or first age stuff until later. Then in following episodes tell some of it visually in the opening credits with a turning wheel of time and the cycle of ages passing, with a song based on the poetic prologue (“The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass…). Focus on the plot and characters, not the map. Also focus on what makes WoT unique, like reincarnation, the Pattern, and male/female magic. It would be interesting to see people weaving magic with choreographed hand motions to keep it consistent throughout the series. Add special effects when the leads are learning to do it themselves, but only where the POV character can see it. Also greatly simplify the teaching process.
For the opening credits: instead of the map, I envision something that utilizes the chapter icons. Maybe each actor gets their character’s icon.
As to fidelity: I am torn. I actually might want some changes to be made, after a point. People dying earlier/later, or introduced earlier/later. I think I might be okay with something that follows the broad strokes but isn’t afraid to make changes, like Game of Thrones.
And the nudity: I wouldn’t want a lot of it, but I don’t think that they should shy away from it either, where appropriate. Rand and Aviendha in the makeshift igloo, for instance, or that time (offscreen in the book) when the Superboys discover that Shienarans don’t have a problem with mixed gender bathing. As a rule of thumb: there should be a naked man for every naked woman, and the camera should not leer.
I am greatful this is finally happening but I have to say I was looking forward to movies not a TV series but I’ll take it anyway I can get it. Thank you Mrs. McDougal.
Why is the Aes sedai symbol upside down? The flame of the dragon and Tar Valon’s Fang?
I hope the series will have originality and wont try to copy GoT style. And in my opinion if everything goes right and GoT fans dont start a war i think WoT can be even bigger than GoT hell maybe even bigger than LoTR. But thats just my opinion.
P.S.Bela killed Asmodean
Having read the series through and through more than 20 times, I can tell you that any adaptation is going to have to disappoint someone. If it were me, I would begin the series by combining the story of “Strike at Shayol ghul”,”Dragonmount”, and Rand’s trip through time in Rhuidean, into a Full Movie, first generate interest in the story without touching on anyone’s favorite character. then begin the TV Series in Edmond’s Field. You could incorporate scenes from Rand’s experience in Rhuidean, but using different perspectives so that when you see them through Rand’s eyes you will recognize the events. Then do a full motion picture event for the finale of each book. If you take out the narrative descriptions and look at just the dialog and action you will soon see that it could easily be made into a 5 or 6 year series. Jordan has already story boarded everything from the food they eat to the clothes they wear.
My biggest fear is that they are going to try and turn it into a soft porn series. Maybe if we can recruit Brandon Sanderson to oversee the creative aspect of the production we can keep the smut out. My 2cents
Argh! Please don’t screw this up by over sexing things or deviating from the story. It’s so perfect as it is! It isn’t like RJ hasn’t left us with enough description to practically make a perfect visual translation of his words. The Winter Dragon weirdness was bad… a bastardization of the entire series would be SO much worse! Match the books!!!!!
Ive got mixed feelings – its gonna be really tough to get pov right. Just take matt for example, as sanderson pointed out after missing the mark portraying matt, he’s often thinking one thing, saying something completely different, and doing something contradictory to both. As an actor, how do you convey that?
They could use Manowar for film music. Whenever I hear “Warriors of the World”, I think of battle at Dumai Wells.
For those concerned about the lack of internal dialog with a movie or tv show, the same was true about A Story of Ice and Fire. There was alot of second person views with the narrator telling a third person view with the character’s viewpoint Game of Thrones showed that you could effectively tell the story without that.
I am a huge fan as well as anyone that I have cinvinced to read this series, there have been a few. I love the way it was written and even though I know I my heart that there will be some disappointment with some of it I still cannot wait to see what they come up with. Just like the walking dead they had to make some things diffrent and keep some things but shift them to different characters they may have to do something like that here. I started this series as a young reader and have waited for this, so I think I would love to see what they come up with.
OMG this is going to be awesome if it truely does happen. Because of epilepsy messing with my memory I have lost all remembrance of this series that I read as a young teenager.. don’t think I will be able to go through all the books again now though.
And still no official announcement. Face it folks, this isn’t going to happen.
Yeah, I’m going to agree. They handled the rights issue stupidly by selling Rights to that small start up production house with no money and no connections. We should be watching the series by now and they haven’t even signed a contract with anyone let alone start preparing production and casting. We aren’t going to see it. And if we do they won’t have any control and it will be ruined.