It looks like the Riftwar TV show is no longer happening. Author Raymond E. Feist broke the news himself on his blog Thursday, thanking those who’d worked on the adaptation.
“As is the case often in dealing with entertainment, plans often do not pan out,” he wrote. “I would like to publicly thank bcdf Pictures, especially Claude dal Fara and Brian Keady, for a series based on my work that I considered as fine a vision as I have seen, one far better than I would have realized by myself. The nature of the industry is that often great ideas do not arrive at the proper time. Perhaps down the road we might be able to revisit the concept. I wish everyone at bcdf nothing but success in the future and again thank them for their hard work and passion.”
The series was announced last September, when Deadline reported that Feist’s Magician (split into Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master in the U.S.), the first novel in The Riftwar Saga, had been optioned by BCDF, the company behind the upcoming TV adaptation of Marie Lu’s Legend. At the time, it was also announced that Fiction Riot would be creating “mobile content” based on the book, although it’s unclear if this project is still on the table.
Well that’s really disappointing. I would really like to see Feist’s world on screen.
What a pity.
I personally think that the Kelewan series (Mistress of Empire et al) would make a far better cable series, with an exciting, unfamiliar setting lethal, brutal Game of Thrones style noble politicking* (although this predates Westeros by years) , plus it has an (originally) young female protagonist and the design of the show would be AMAZING.
People seeking the next Game of Thrones already have it
*think about the Acoma, or the Minnwabi. The Night of Knives?
Seconding the idea that the “___ of Empire” books would make absolutely superb prestige-TV fodder. I’d pay to see that, indeed.
It is every bit as good as GOT and see how that went over. People loved it. Please make a series!!
I am both sad, and happy that this happened….
Sad because I love all of Feist’s works. Happy because that production agency would have not done it the honor it deserves. This is GOTs level of entertainment and deserves that value of respect
This is a shame – perhaps instead of a series they could look at a film – something like Honoured Enemy which would give people the feel of the Midkemia world but without needing all the back story – such a good separate book.