Babylon 5-esque WoT TV series

[dalic]

WoT movies are quite possibly a pipe dream to be done with any real faithfulness to the books. However a TV series along the lines of Babylon 5 would be awesome. If you are not familiar with B5, J. Michael Straczinsky(sp) wrote a story arc that encompassed 5 full seasons of 1hour shows on TV. It was great. Events in episode one had meaning in the last season. This could be done live action or something big and bold like the first?? one hour animated fantasy drama on TV. Anyone up for blitzing SciFi with email, snail mail, anymail. Or dare I say it, this is another in a long line of dreams that sound better in my head than out. Like the one about cooked sushi.

[Kadere]

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, I want a film version. For my feelings on this topic you can read the WoT movie thread.

[rd2000]

The only way to match the pace of the books is to make it into a series. 100 episodes an hour long each might cover the story. Might.

[SinisterDeath]

No, that just make you spend about 50 hours watching rand that one day he had excrucaiting diarhea from channeling sickness.

[Paradoxic]

The problem is that Wheel of Time is not episodic. You couldn't miss episodes or you'd be pretty lost on that plot line. Another problem is that we don't have a single story line, we have three. Even as early as EofW, we have three different and disconnected storylines (Rand and Mat, Perrin and Egwene, Nyneave and Moiraine and Lan). It would be very hard to make a TV show out of this since you'd either have to drop two of the story lines or bounce back and forth so often that you'd lose the audience.

 

Babylon 5 was a good show... but it was written from the start as a TV series with TV episodes in mind. Books rarely ever make the translations to TV... and books this size never get turned into movies.

[Almearafan]

I agree with the majority on this one. There are a couple of problems with TV Series for something like the WoT. The first is budget. It's going to be lower no matter how you slice it.

The second is already stated above...You couldn't render WoT episodically without killing the viewer.

 

I think that if the movies were done correctly. (Lord of the Rings style) They could fit the books into a series of 4 or 5 movies (pending AMoL length and action)...give or take a movie or 3...LOL...and even though there would be serious cuttage from the books a good time would be had by all/most.

 

I will admit that episodically speaking there is one advantage to a series on TV...introducing the massive amount of characters that RJ has created would be a bit easier than cramming them into movies that are 2-3 hours long a piece.

[Paradoxic]

Don't relate WoT to LOTR for movies. Eye of the World (hardback) is 688 pages. The first book of LOTR (hardback) is about 200 pages. Furthermore, they had to cut out stuff when they made the LOTR movie.

[rd2000]

Give me a break! A tv series can't handle multiple storylines??????? Which hit TV series have you not been watching? not LOST, not Desperate Housewives. Even Gilligan's Island handled several plotlines once in a while. The only way this story can be told properly is with a tv series. As far as budget goes....that too can be held in check. Use unkown, talented actors, make them sign a contract for the remainder of the series. Some hit TV series can easily spend 10 million or more an episode and still remain profitable. Babylon 5 used a lot of CGI, more than I think a WoT series would need, and it was a profitable series. Movies are a gamble, nowadays usually a very large gamble. A series shows it's profitablilty very quickly usually.

[Paradoxic]

Yes, but the story lines in this are like entirely different programs... especially later on. You can go entire books without two lines getting anywhere near each other. A good example would be when Matt and the girls go off to find the bowl or when Rand sends Perrin to get the Prophet or when Rand goes off to get the horn back from Fain.

[heinrich]

I don't know, i would rather have a movie, lord of the rings quality or something. I think if you get the right people to make it it could turn out great

[Almearafan]

Give me a break! A tv series can't handle multiple storylines??????? Which hit TV series have you not been watching? not LOST' date=' not Desperate Housewives. Even Gilligan's Island handled several plotlines once in a while. The only way this story can be told properly is with a tv series. As far as budget goes....that too can be held in check. Use unkown, talented actors, make them sign a contract for the remainder of the series. Some hit TV series can easily spend 10 million or more an episode and still remain profitable. Babylon 5 used a lot of CGI, more than I think a WoT series would need, and it was a profitable series. Movies are a gamble, nowadays usually a very large gamble. A series shows it's profitablilty very quickly usually.[/quote']

 

Just my opinion RD.

 

Paradoxic:

Not comparing WoT to LOTR...I was speaking in reference to how well LOTR was done. What I meant was that I would love to see something done with WoT that I could sit back and thoroughly enjoy at the theatre so much that I'm not craving a cigarette the whole time and getting antsy and wanting to leave the theatre. Or that I know I need to not drink much soda during because I don't want to miss anything by leaving to go to the bathroom.

That's all.

[Paradoxic]

Yeah, I agree, it would be kinda cool to see some of the scenes on the big screen. However, as someone who is embroiled in the Harry Potter world, no matter how they do the movies, they do them wrong in someone's eyes... It almost seems safer to keep it off the screen than take the chance that they would screw up the casting/acting/scenes/art/etc.

[dalic]

I think the separate story lines could handled. If you have a series where every episode is a stand alone story, then you can't dance around too much. You have to stick a good formula centered around a few or even one character.

 

As has been stated in the movie threads, a lot RJ's writing is not dialogue and even less action. It's a truck load of scene setting. I think you could write the episodes to update side stories briefly and it still work out for everyone.

 

Also it's a Tivo world out there now. Few people miss an episode they truly want to see so everyone stays on topic with the show.

 

And finally how long can SciFi survive on Stargate SG1, Atlantis, Battlestar Galactaca, and shameless rip-offs of current movies, lol. Or UPN/WB when their best shows might take a 2 month hiatus without notice.

[dawntreader3]

Actually WoT could be made into episodic television quite nicely.

 

Each book of the Wheel of Time has different "episodes" within it. And yes, there are at least three story arcs if you are just covering the three main male characters.

 

If you played your cards right, each book could comprise one season. If you are doing Network TV that would mean 24 episodes. If it is a cable channel that would mean 12. Either way, story wise this would not entail huge difficulties in translating the book to television.

 

These days budget issues would not be that huge either. When you think that Star Trek: The Next Generation had a budget per episode of 1 million dollars, and the 30 minute show Friends in its later seasons had more than that...WoT would probably have a good chance of receiving a large budget. This is particularly true if Sci-Fi picked up the idea and went with it as a Sci-Fi original fantasy series.

[ajfurst]

As a big Babylon 5 fan I'd be in heaven if Jordan colloborated with JMS to make a The Wheel of Time TV Series. B5 managed a 5 year story arc, with two major plotlines (The Shadows and retaking Earth), with romance (Sheridan-Delenn), betrayal (Lennier), redemption (G'Kar), and of course who could go past Londo, for learning the price of 'Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it'.

 

Heck you even had the dead, but maybe not, Messiah in Sheridan in Sleeping in Light (eerie name coincidence there). And it even had Prophecies.

 

How could you go past that for an endorsement of who should do a WOT series?

 

As for too many story arcs, I'd take another idea from B5. Concentrate on the three main male characters. Spin off some of the other plotlines into TV movies. Eg. only show Elayne going for the Throne from book 6 to 11 where it intersects with Rand, Mat or Perrin's plotlines. Then when the TV series is up to book 11, release a 2 or 3 hour movie - say called 'The Lion Throne', which covers just Elayne getting the throne.

[Inara]

first of all

why do we need yet another wotmovie thread?

 

that said, i agree with the tv idea. but i dissagree with concentrating on the tree mains only, that would what you do if you were to make a movie, the main thing tv series have going for them is that you CAN cover everything.

WOT is episodic, but more like the bold and the beautiful than stargateSG1. it has heaps of continuous story arcs. whereas, each episode of SG1 is a different story centered on one main story arc.

[Msnformd]

I loved B5 when it was on, and respected it for being what it's creator called it: "A novel for television". JMS always said his story had a planned ending, and the series would stop when the story did, no matter how financially successful it was. (of course he had to fight off premature cancellation several times, with the help of his fanbase, but that's another matter...)

 

I definately think WoT could be serialized as TV, and with more than just 3 main story lines. Plenty of other shows are successful with many weaving plotlines (LOST is first to mind). Or, working in stand alone movies for TV to cover some plotlines that the regular series has to skip due to time/budget constraints would also be fun to watch.

 

I'd love a TV series because it would result in more hours of viewing pleasure than a movie ever could. I read WoT because it's long and absorbing; I'd prefer TV to big-screen movie for the same reason. More "bang for the buck", so to speak. If it could be done well, of course.

 

Sadly, I don't think there's enough budget in the world to finance this project properly. The fractioning of the TV audience into more and more finely tuned niche markets means fewer viewers per channel to justify these kinds of big-budget projects. If WoT as TV can't be done well (i.e, plenty of cash for the CGI and costumes and sets and talent), I'd rather not see it done at all.

 

Has anyone seen the horrible "natural disaster" made for TV Movies the SciFi channel has been running lately? Ice, and Earthquake and junk like that? Pure schlock. SciFi is looking for original material, but buying the cheapest stuff they can get, except for their proven money makers (StarGate, BSG, etc). As passionate as we are about WoT, face it, we're still a relatively small market potential. Chances of making much money off of WoT is slim. Just IMHO.

 

Still, a mental exercise of casting the main characters makes for fun thoughts. I've got a few ideas for that, but will save them for elsewhere.

[Inara]

as can be see on the wot movie thread, the pros and cons of this series in animation have been discussed, at length and with great fervour.

budget was one such pro, animation, especially anime stlye, is very low budget for the impact it gives. it would cut CG costs, costume, sets, actors, cameras, props etc

amiators, voice talent, script writers and produvtion staff could all be provided for relaively little output.

 

this disussion has been dicussed, feel free to reignite it on tht thread.

[Wolfsbane]

It may have been discussed, it may not have, but now I bring to light:

 

"The Family Guy" Factor

 

Release to DVD. Push the DvD idea, even if you have to release a couple episodes (even movies, aka- "The Lion Throne" specifically) on DVD to guarantee sales. Family Guy was greatly funded and raised from the dead because of the DVD fan-basis (yes, I have 4 seasons on top of my DVD player..), and if used properly, it would maintain the financial interest that a business like Sci-Fi or NBC would need.. I won't push for FOX, moral concerns more than political..

The show would have the immediate fan basis of dragonmount, wotmania, wotnow?, tarvalon.net, etc., as well as old readers of the books, fantasy buffs, and our family and friends.. because it is our responsibility to uphold a decent representation of tWoT.

Also if they can film the series up here in Hollywood North like SG, SGA, and BSG, which is a pretty good standing record as it is- I might be able to play Perrin if I decide acting is my path and I get arms the size of tree trunks... I used to play football.. Ain't that far off..

Ultimately, I could see if enough of a fan basis is built and assured by ratings and dvd sales, aMOL could be made into a movie- maybe split up, but I'd hope not.. With a hollywood movie budget- it'd be freakin' sweet.

 

your thoughts

 

wolfs

[Kadere]

as I've discussed many times before I want a movie. A full on, live action, kick butt movie. Shoot it in New Zeland (they do have the best landscape there), it would rake in so much cash I don't think paying for it would be THAT big a hassle. I think it really all depends on who you get to write it, direct it, and star in it.

 

As for the "Family Guy Factor", I don't put much faith in that. It worked once.... once. Sure Firefly got a movie which bombed at the box office, but Family Guy really is the ONLY show to ever have made that work. There would have to be not only a LOT of DVDs sold, but a serious push by fans, and a willingness for the studio and creators to want to do more. And what if the DVD's actually sucked? Would we really want more made?

[dalic]

as can be see on the wot movie thread' date=' the pros and cons of this series in animation have been discussed, at length and with great fervour.

budget was one such pro, animation, especially anime stlye, is very low budget for the impact it gives. it would cut CG costs, costume, sets, actors, cameras, props etc

amiators, voice talent, script writers and produvtion staff could all be provided for relaively little output.

 

this disussion has been dicussed, feel free to reignite it on tht thread.[/quote']

 

I apologize for any offense Inara. I have not read the complete movie thread. When I was thinking about this, it was a TV series idea. So I started a separate thread. Again, if I offend in anyway, I deeply apologize. Please feel free to ignore this thread in the future.