Interviews and News Articles

[CaddySedai]

Just now, Borderlander said:

 

Very understandable, I will give them that. ?

 

By the by if you like flourished dialogue may I suggest Gods & Generals. Its a shade under 4 hours ?

[Ralph]

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/the-wheel-of-time-season-1-review-amazons-fantasy-show-stumbles-then-engrosses/1900-6417789/

[notpropaganda73]

28 minutes ago, Borderlander said:

Here's an example of what I refer to above:

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In the recent 2-minute IGN video, Moirane says: "That's the thing about these little towns..."

 

I may be in the minority here, but the clause "That's the thing about XYZ" strikes my ear as a relatively modern phrase. (I just spent about 10 minutes trying to google the history of the phrase, but, as you might expect, kind of hard to nail it down, and I didn't find anything helpful.) This just does not sound like old, Renaissance-era, fantasy-world lingo to me—especially not for a sophisticated, educated 'Lady' like Moiraine. I could maybe get on board with someone like Mat saying something like, "That's the thing about dealing with a peddler like Padan Fain—once you find out he sold you a bad egg, he's already gone." 

 

For Moiraine, I would expect something slightly more dignified. "I have travelled the world over—for longer than you might guess, Wisdom—and there is a common thread I have found which runs through every small town and forgotten village, such as yours: there are precious few records kept. Births, deaths, fires, a bountiful harvest—seldom if ever are such things written down. It takes... great effort... to learn even the smallest detail."

 

Not perfect, I admit, but by comparison, "That's the thing about little towns..." sounds like she's about to do a Seinfeld joke.

 

Nitpicking, I know, but these things jump out at me. 

 

Don't get me wrong, though—I am totally ready to binge all three episodes and let the goodness wash all over me!

 

Edit: Admittedly, I don't have much to go on—just clips and snippets. And some of these nitpicky things can tend to melt away in the course of a longer dialogue conversation where the actors really sweep you away.

 

 

 

To be honest, I like what you've written from a *reading* POV, but if you take any "intro to screenwriting" class or something like it, they will hammer home the idea of getting a point across in 5 words is better than 20. A lot of screenwriting (from my limited understanding - I've attended a couple of those intro type courses) is about telling as much as you can in as little space as possible, be that dialogue or a whole scene. 

 

In terms of adaptation I'm sure that's even harder, when you have such rich worlds and characters to draw from, the rules of film and TV are probably telling you to cut away so much of the good stuff, so I'm sure we will find some of those things very jarring as lovers of the book series. 

[mackemlad79]

Watch this be rubbish when ive scrambled to get the book and frantically read enough of it before the series starts??

[Skipp]

2 hours ago, DaddyFinn said:

A positive review.

 

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/wheel-of-time-review-amazon/

 

This part made me chuckle a bit. ?

 

"Watch out for new characters who help fill in backstory, as well as a scrapping of the book series’ slightly dated sexual politics that became infamous over the years (basically, in the novels every so often our heroes stop the battle against evil to go “Tchah, women… can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em!” and then carry on)."

 

This was a good read.  The writer seems to know his stuff.  Still more mention of potential pacing issues concerning the worldbuilding and lore but we'll see.

[Borderlander]

4 minutes ago, notpropaganda73 said:

To be honest, I like what you've written from a *reading* POV, but if you take any "intro to screenwriting" class or something like it, they will hammer home the idea of getting a point across in 5 words is better than 20. A lot of screenwriting (from my limited understanding - I've attended a couple of those intro type courses) is about telling as much as you can in as little space as possible, be that dialogue or a whole scene. 

 

It's a great point, and true—but it makes the writer inside of me shudder. But I write books, not screenplays.

 

I heard a story once about Beethoven; one of his publishers told him the new symphony he just composed was genius, a work of art, but it was too complex, it had too many notes, and he should trim some out. Beethoven said, "Okay—which ones?"

 

I will almost always land on the side of the fence of keep the quality of the writing as high as possible, engaging, genuine, and realistic, and the audience will stay with you. There was a lot of praise for extended conversation in GoT that lasted several minutes... I'm not sure the screenwriting-rule-of-thumb is always true.

 

And there may be a difference for writing screenplays you are hoping to sell (which need to hook a reader quickly) and final scripts given to actors who are already committed to a 100$ million show, and have no more 'gatekeepers' to win over.

 

But I definitely see the other side as well, and hard decisions do have to be made.

[notpropaganda73]

1 minute ago, Borderlander said:

 

It's a great point, and true—but it makes the writer inside of me shudder. But I write books, not screenplays.

 

I heard a story once about Beethoven; one of his publishers told him the new symphony he just composed was genius, a work of art, but it was too complex, it had too many notes, and he should trim some out. Beethoven said, "Okay—which ones?"

 

I will almost always land on the side of the fence of keep the quality of the writing as high as possible, engaging, genuine, and realistic, and the audience will stay with you. There was a lot of praise for extended conversation in GoT that lasted several minutes... I'm not sure the screenwriting-rule-of-thumb is always true.

 

And there may be a difference for writing screenplays you are hoping to sell (which need to hook a reader quickly) and final scripts given to actors who are already committed to a 100$ million show, and have no more 'gatekeepers' to win over.

 

But I definitely see the other side as well, and hard decisions do have to be made.

 

for sure, but I also think that while the script and the writing have to be top quality, that can mean different things from what we would be used to: it could be brevity, it can mean getting an idea across in 2 sentences that took a novel writer three pages to illustrate, it could be like you mention, the extended conversations still holding the audience even if it's longer than the "norm" for screen. 

 

I agree with your original point in one way though, I think how you've written it would get much more of "Moiraine" across than the line in the show, they wouldn't necessarily need a long flowery version, but just something in the same vein that was the same length of dialogue, I think would maybe work better for Moiraine as a character. 

 

Bit of a rambly response, but essentially I agree with you but have huge sympathy for the writers involved in the adaptation, I can't even begin to think how I would start adapting the Eye of the World and trying to condense it down to 500 pages of a script.

[DaddyFinn]

10 minutes ago, Borderlander said:

There was a lot of praise for extended conversation in GoT that lasted several minutes...

I'm sure WoT will have those

[Ralph]

https://winteriscoming.net/2021/11/16/oh-thank-god-the-wheel-of-time-isnt-terrible/

[Borderlander]

4 minutes ago, notpropaganda73 said:

I can't even begin to think how I would start adapting the Eye of the World and trying to condense it down to 500 pages of a script.

 

It's so true. I almost feel bad taking pot-shots at these guys from my computer chair, here, like some nitpicking little internet troll, when they've been putting in 70-hour weeks on a nearly impossible task, with a world of pressure to live up to, living in Prague, spending all day thinking about WoT, getting catered lunches and OKAY I've talked myself back into it, let the potshots continue! ?

 

 

[Skipp]

17 minutes ago, Ralph said:

https://winteriscoming.net/2021/11/16/oh-thank-god-the-wheel-of-time-isnt-terrible/

 

Solid article, I certainly enjoyed reading it. 

 

One thing though  "Without giving away too much, they manage to fit in a prolonged battle scene (the fight in question happens in the books but we don’t see it) and some pointless nudity which is definitely nowhere to be found in the pages of The Eye of the World."

 

Spoiler

If he is referring to Lan's hot tub scene, which I understand is the only actual nudity in the first episode, then it certainly follows the book.  I suppose he is referring to the Egwene/Rand scene but I don't believe there is any actual nudity in that scene.  So I dunno.

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by Skipp

[DaddyFinn]

12 minutes ago, Skipp said:

 

Solid article, I certainly enjoyed reading it. 

 

One thing though  "Without giving away too much, they manage to fit in a prolonged battle scene (the fight in question happens in the books but we don’t see it) and some pointless nudity which is definitely nowhere to be found in the pages of The Eye of the World."

 

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If he is referring to Lan's hot tub scene, which I understand is the only actual nudity in the first episode, then it certainly follows the book.  I suppose he is referring to the Egwene/Rand scene but I don't believe there is any actual nudity in that scene.  So I dunno.

 

Spoiler

How could anyone call Lan's bare buttocks "pointless"???

 

[TheMountain]

43 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

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How could anyone call Lan's bare buttocks "pointless"???

 

It was all planes and angles!

[themann1086]

53 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

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How could anyone call Lan's bare buttocks "pointless"???

 

It definitely got a lot of appreciation at my screening lol

[Ralph]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/wheel-of-time-review-amazon/&ved=2ahUKEwj07dDk1aD0AhVJ-qQKHb4VC2gQr_oDKAB6BAh1EAE&usg=AOvVaw1EevU3uynCYCpkkBUzR_tG

[Deadsy]

2 hours ago, TheMountain said:

It was all planes and angles!

 

 

I hope not. 

[themann1086]

Video of the Cast Q&A at the London Premiere. I just started listening. May be some minor spoilers for the first 2 episodes

[Pembie]

I watched Daniel Greenes premiere night on YouTube and I’m more excited for the show now these YouTubers are very lucky what a cool thing to do

 

That billboard in picadiddy in London with the Fade coming out the screen at you is very cool the bit in Morraine though abit cheesy haha

 

The cast seem like nice people from their interviews 

[flinn]

 A lot of not good reviews popping up now. Most have seen 6 episodes. I have seen a few mention that episode 6 is good and if they can continue with what they have in episode 6 it can be a good show.

[Guire]

58 minutes ago, flinn said:

 A lot of not good reviews popping up now. Most have seen 6 episodes. I have seen a few mention that episode 6 is good and if they can continue with what they have in episode 6 it can be a good show.

I think this is just going to be an issue of having to cut so much and increase pacing.  I love EoTW because I have reread it so many times it is wonderful to see the foreshadowing and innocence of EF5 and where they are going.  We just need non reader viewers to stay around long enough to appreciate characters and get onboard with the ride.  

[Pandemonium]

with all these bad reviews hopefully wot can still build momentum in last 2 episodes so there is hype for season 2.  

[Daenelia]

Did anyone see this article yet, in the Guardian?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/17/the-wheel-of-time-is-far-from-great-for-women-amazon-prime-rosamund-pike

 

Just thought I'd share it.

[SinisterDeath]

5 minutes ago, Daenelia said:

Did anyone see this article yet, in the Guardian?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/17/the-wheel-of-time-is-far-from-great-for-women-amazon-prime-rosamund-pike

 

Just thought I'd share it.

Yea, the gist of it is the books aren't great, and they'll try to watch the show.

I also have a hard time taking that author serious after this

Quote

but has also devotedly ploughed her way through The Belgariad, most of Terry Goodkind (until it got too crazy even for me) and Simon R Green.

The author also doesn't state they've read all the WoT novels (and only made it to book 4 on a reread before giving up). Most of the criticism of the novels comes from another article by someone else.... and nothing really about the tv show.

[Mnemosyne]

15 hours ago, Ralph said:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/wheel-of-time-review-amazon/&ved=2ahUKEwj07dDk1aD0AhVJ-qQKHb4VC2gQr_oDKAB6BAh1EAE&usg=AOvVaw1EevU3uynCYCpkkBUzR_tG

 

"Whether either will actually reach the global heights of Thrones remains to be seen, but it does The Wheel of Time a disservice to only look at it in terms of George RR Martin’s Westerosi world. Not only because Jordan’s series is actually older than Martin’s, and inspired much of what would become Game of Thrones (check the dates), but also because this is an accomplished, gripping story in its own right that lovingly adapts – and updates – the book series."

 

FINALLY a review that acknowledges this!

[notpropaganda73]

1 hour ago, Daenelia said:

Did anyone see this article yet, in the Guardian?

 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/nov/17/the-wheel-of-time-is-far-from-great-for-women-amazon-prime-rosamund-pike

 

Just thought I'd share it.

I read it earlier and found it sort of irrelevant to the show. Just complained about well known issues from the books and then went on to sort of dismiss the idea that maybe the showrunners have made changes to those issues. 

 

It reads like a very superior "I'm better than anyone who enjoys this series" sort of take.