Movie news!!!

[el Nynaeve]

Personally I hope this does not get made into a movie. First off, as already pointed out, these books are long, no one will want to sit in a movie theatre for that amount of time. I certainly wouldn't. And I too would be royally pissed off if any director comes along as chops tons of things out, many of them that are essential, just to make it fit into a certain timeframe.

 

I've seen HBO series mentioned twice, I think it would work best as a series like that. But I don't want to see it for a while. In my opinion, any director or company seriously considering taking on WOT, they should take a look at ASOIAF first and see how well that goes over. ASOIAF is one the few series that I've read that approaches the size of WOT.

[temari_nee-chan]

I never thought it would be made into a movie, because the books are so long. If there is a movie, I don't know if it would be particularly good cuz the longest they'd make it is about 3 hours or so, which means lots of stuff would be cut out. I always find the books better than the movies.

[trakand_01]

Series or movie i think it would be a mistake. tEotW is IMO the most important book - if you dont pay attention / get all the details properly then the rest of the story doesnt make as much sense.

 

However from a viewer's point of view, a one-hour episode which covers Rand and Tam going to the village with the cart, and Rand / Mat unloading the barrells from the wagon wouldnt be that interesting!! Its important in the books, it set up Rand and Mat's personalities, and introduces Padan Fain, but as a TV show it would not hook the viewers.

 

A movie just wouldnt have time to show you everything, and i cant see a 12 x 3/4 hour movie set catching on.

[Nightstrike]

They (rightfully) let go of some stuff from the LotR movies. They turned out just fine. I think that we should hold in mind that a movie and a book are two quite different things. Some things are better viewed on screen than read in books - and vice versa! The LotR movies couldn't have been shot 20 years ago. And yet they were made into great movies. There is no doubt in my mind that something similar will happen to WoT eventually. And I look forward to it immensely! I think a series would be better than a number of full length movies. But I am no director, so I may be wrong!

[Duneflayer]

I disagree with whoever says that an adaptation cannot be done.

 

Certainly not in the form of twelve movies, but it is possible, as many have already said, to be done in the form of a miniseries. It's debatable how many episodes would be needed, over how many seasons, but I believe it could be done in something around five one hour episodes per book over four seasons. That would give the writers and director enough time and space to add in smaller details which the hardcore fans cherish, but keep on with the main plot. There are also some scenes that take place in the books that wouldn't need as much camera time for the audience to understand its point and significance to the plot.

 

For those who haven't read the books, an explanation of how the One Power works could be done during a scene where Moraine explains it to Egwene. Five minutes could get a major bump out of the way, and because it is early on, the audience would accept and understand it. Even showing her form a weave there, and later on it wouldn't have to be done over and over again. Rand could simply shoot Balefire from his hand, or call lightning from the sky. The audience knows it's magic, so there is no need to show each weave over and over again. Do you follow?

 

Obviously whoever was directing and writing the series would need to be influenced by someone, since sadly RJ can't, so that it could get the right flow and not have important parts left out. Also, as was said before, the casting would be tough, but definitely not impossible. As long as they kept the cast to what is described in the books, it shouldn't be too difficult. For example, have a tall guy play Rand, dye his hair red, give him grey contacts, etc. Once we see that guy, whoever it is, with his sleeves rolled up to show the Dragons on his arms, possibly holding Callandor or shooting Balefire or (insert a favourite scene here), it shouldn't be too hard to fill in the gaps and each see at least a bit of what we imagined reading the books. I find that is the way of it for me at least, with Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, In Cold Blood, etc. Obviously not everyone will be happy, but if the majority of us are, that would be OK in my book.

 

Here's the toughest thing: Keep the director from fiddling with the story and using his/her own personal judgment of how things should look and how different characters should act, and so on. TO give you an example, I was very disturbed that Peter Jackson left out the Hobbits' return to the Shire, only to find it overrun and under the control of Sarumon. That is one of the most important parts of the story as we all get to see how much the Hobbits have changed. Like I said earlier, there would need to be someone(possibly Harriet or someone like that) that could make sure that the story stays as close to the original as possible.

 

With the special effects nowadays it wouldn't be hard at all to emulate channeling, and with make up and costume design, it wouldn't be a problem bringing Trollocs and Fades to life.

 

I really think this could be done, and done well. Then again it could be done, and done poorly.

 

Also, with the Eragon books and movie, it was so awful because the book was written by a fifteen year old, at least that's what I've heard. The audience isn't going to be large, and it would consist of mainly people under the age of eighteen who won't really care about how well it was written or directed or presented. The need to do it well isn't there because the audience isn't going to question basically anything.

 

With WoT having an audience anywhere from 10 to 60+, it would have to be done well or fail miserably. Didn't really matter with Eragon.

 

Anyway, that's my take on it.

 

YK.

 

 

i agree with alot of what your saying man but i love eragon and i'm 17 and i know of lots of people older than me who love it i mean eragon sold over 2 million copies that a big enough adiuence for me

 

 

off topic there back to WOT

[YoungKing]

YoungKing, your posting made me feel a little bit better about the idea of having WoT movies, but I will only accept it if you make them!

haha.

anyway, the reason I have that quote up there is to say that to me, that some of the most interesting parts of channeling to me, is the intricacy of the weaving, not the final product.  That's what would kind of bother me.

 

Also, I have such a picture of how Rand and Egwene, and Nynaeve, and everyone would look, that any other portrayal bothers me.  It's like..to have your own idea of how they look makes it more personal to read the stories.  It's like your own world. I hope that doesn't sound cheesy. XD

 

Haha well thanks, I wish I had the means to give it a shot.

 

I know what you're saying about weaves and weaving, it is very important and that's why you have to show it. But even in the books after the first little while it's simply that channeler creating whatever they need, RJ didn't go into a lot of detail with weaves. It's basically like "Air with a bit of fire!" and then you've got some cool new thing. And anyway, the characters themselves weave almost instantly, so it's not a big deal. Like I said though, you can't please everyone, although I bet they could make healing look really cool.

 

As far as the magic system goes - that could be shown briefly with the Moraine / Ewgene scene and then a little more showing the 3 at the WT with some Novice training.  They can show a couple weaves slowly put together to create something and then say something like "and this is how you do it normal speed"  WHOOSH!

 

Yeah he's got it.

 

Think about this: all 3 LotR books could fit into less than one of the WoT books and yet each has been made into movies almost 4 hrs long (w/all those extra scenes on the DVDs) and yet many are still not happy with how much was cut out.  Granted RJ puts alot more description into his narrative than Tolkien but it still would be a massive massive undertaking that would take dozens of hours to properly display.  A multi-year mini-series or HBO series (ala aSoIaF) would possibly do it justice but I simply dont ever see it happening.  If it does, I guarantee alot of us would be gravely disappointed in its protrayal of our series.

 

Ummm, I disagree with this. Yeah the LotR books are shorter in length, but they are packed full of content, much more than a lot of the WoT books. For instance, Helms Deep is basically one chapter that takes about twenty minutes to read, yet comes out at an almost forty-five minute part in the movie. In eleven or so chapters in the first part of the Two Towers, so much happens, and there is so much more you have to show in a movie and there is a lot left unsaid as well which that wouldn't make sense to leave it out of a movie, so you have to put that in as well.

 

Series or movie i think it would be a mistake. tEotW is IMO the most important book - if you dont pay attention / get all the details properly then the rest of the story doesnt make as much sense.

 

However from a viewer's point of view, a one-hour episode which covers Rand and Tam going to the village with the cart, and Rand / Mat unloading the barrells from the wagon wouldnt be that interesting!! Its important in the books, it set up Rand and Mat's personalities, and introduces Padan Fain, but as a TV show it would not hook the viewers.

 

A movie just wouldnt have time to show you everything, and i cant see a 12 x 3/4 hour movie set catching on.

 

See I think you are missing what I said earlier, if you read it. It would take a scene of about three minutes to have all of the main gang introduced(R,M,P,E,N). I'd guess it would take a total of about fifteen minutes to get to the attack on Rand's house. You don't have to show them unloading barrels to to set up the characters' personalities, that would be developed throughout the first couple episodes. We don't really know a whole bunch about everyone in the first ten pages of the book. It's not imperative to get everything out about all the characters in the first episode, and anyway, these guys develop even more in books to come.

 

I'll tell you though, an opening scene of Rand and Tam walking through the wood to Emond's Field, all foggy and cold, and suddenly a strange black rider appears out of nowhere and is gone again without any noise or trace would probably make people want to stick around and see what happens. I know I kept reading, so as long as it is translated well to a script, it will have the same effect on the audience.

 

Personally I think that the EotW could be done in a similar length movie as the Fellowship. About three hours, but personally I think it would be much better to be done as a series, because it would be easier to get a broader audience, those that haven't read the books. You get four or so climaxes instead of just one(man that sounds bad, but good :P). That way you can get people wanting to know what happens and wait a week, instead of seeing everything and then having to wait a year or so.

 

Anyway, I'm not saying it has got to b done, or will be, I'm just saying that I think it could be done, and done well. One thing though, that should be remembered, is that a screenplay and novel are different mediums. The main difference is that in a novel, the author can describe what a forest is like, or what that guys wearing, or how he feels about Elayne, and so on. In a screenplay, a this has to be shown to the audience, because you can't have some idiot narrating the whole thing, and that is where you shave off a lot of fluff. You instead show what the character is wearing, show that Rand, through his actions, loves Elayne, show the magnificence of the White Tower without such a lengthy description. Again, in this way a lot of time can be saved merely by showing it to the audience instead of telling them.

 

YK.

 

 

 

 

[battousai]

Whatever the case, technically speaking the movie/mini-series CAN be made.

 

BUT they won't, be logical, it's simply extremely unlikely that someone is going to devote so much time for a movie/mini-series that is going to cost on immense proportions. If for example one season is devoted per year for each book, that's 12 years! Even if the season is only for half a year that's still 6 years! Way too long...

 

Honestly, I don't even thing grrm's aSoIaF will be made into a mini-series. Call me pessimistic, but when thinking about it logically it's not gonna happen....

 

...and probably a good thing too...