Re: Wheel of Time Movie?

[Jonn]

I've spent the last couple of days watching and re-watching the HBO premier of "John Adams", which is a book adaptation.

 

They opened this series with two episodes back to back, with a great cast and feature film quality production values. Granted, it's not a big action piece, but there are a good many special effects which are seamless.

 

Most impressive was the fact that HBO let them get away with having the premiere of the series begin with an almost 3 HOUR combined double feature.

 

I am so impressed with the acting, the costumes, the style and the writing. I can literally watch the two episodes again and again and still enjoy it.

 

See, when I look at projects like this, I see that there is hope to see RJ's tale transferred to the screen with some dignity and scope.

 

The opportunity is in cable, especially HBO with what they've been doing with their series.

 

The Wire, and now John Adams...There was Band of Brothers before this, which I loved. It took a while for me to get into it, but by the last couple of seasons, I was a big fan of Deadwood. Sopranos kind of overstayed its welcome a bit, but overall it was pretty great.

 

I mean, Dune was turned into a series. I've never seen it, but it's an example of a beloved book finally getting devoted to a long format in audiovisual media.

 

Love it or hate it, you know that if you hear there was going to be an HBO series based on the Eye of the World, set for ten episodes...

 

You'd watch it.

 

I'd do it just as they're doing John Adams right now.

 

I'd have a 2 hour premiere, about 6-7 55 minute episodes and a two hour finale.

 

That would be just about perfect.

[Luthine]

Speaking of HBO, they bought the rights of Martin's Song of Ice and Fire to adapt it into a TV show, a season per novel: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117957532.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

 

If that encounters success it could open the way for other such adaptations.

 

Of course, considering its structure, I think SIF is more fit than the Wot for such an adaptation and its tone totally matches HBO's.

Maybe SciFi would be interested... :)

[bRANDan]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that RJ sold the rights for the option to do an EotW miniseries to NBC in 2000. I'm not sure if it has been, or even can be, resold to others since then. I myself would love to see a Lost-style miniseries done, it seems to be the most plausible way to accomplish the book-to-screen transformation, but I would hate to see it passed around between companies mid-series like a dirty diaper that no one has the fortitude to deal with.

[Jonn]

I'd hate to see what a network would do with it.

 

Networks are all about commercials and drawing things out, and ratings, number crunching. They'll grind things to an unrecognizable pulp in order to fit the bottom line.

 

Look at Heroes. Look at Lost.

 

Lost was interesting for a while but then it just turned into an exercise in making people wait for the plot to actually move. Meanwhile the commercials play and nothing really advances.

 

Heroes, same thing except it's even more ridiculous.

 

Wheel of Time, I wouldn't want to go to the major networks. Cable would be a better fit. More freedom, less commercials.

[bRANDan]

I wouldn't mind, I don't usually watch TV, I just buy the series on DVD. Without all of the commercials things really fit together better, then it's more like a really long movie, rather than something hacked up into 5-7 minute segments to fit the program time.

[Jonn]

I wouldn't mind, I don't usually watch TV, I just buy the series on DVD. Without all of the commercials things really fit together better, then it's more like a really long movie, rather than something hacked up into 5-7 minute segments to fit the program time.

 

Yes but you see the limitations that commercials put on a show. For every half hour, you're really only watching in some cases, about 18 minutes worth of the actual program. For an hour, maybe 40 minutes. The networks are required to edit episodes to fit in the commercial time. You see what I mean? The commercials literally dictate how the show appears to the audience. By the time it gets to DVD, you're still paying for that because the DVD set for one season is going to cost you over 50 dollars.

 

A network is going to be even less likely to be true to the story with these strictures attached. Add to the fact that there will be no product placement in a show like this as its set outside of our time period and reality...

 

Sci Fi channel has commercials, so I'm not exactly sold on them. No, I do believe the premium cable studios would be best suited to present The Wheel of Time.

[Dashiva]

i agree. Premium movie channels like HBO is the only way to go if you actually want a good interpretation of the books.