Universal Studios buy WoT rights!

[Fryn]

Could work; I would be worried about people thinking it was a LoTR clone though which it isn't. Did you pick him because of his role in LoTR? or because he used a sword? because to me Aragon and Lan are completely different. Age is about right though. If its because of sword knowledge you could also look at Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert (Highlander series/movies). Really the better at swords they are the more realistic it would be.

 

My only issue with big name stars in general is as others have stated it takes a lot of money out of the budget unless they are willing to work for less (some are for the right movies). As others have pointed out to do the entire series will take a lot of time. In the end its out of our hands anyway =)

 

I always pictured Mat as a trickster/gambler and the child trouble maker which collin doesn't seem right. If anyone I would of said Heath Ledger in A Knight's tale fits how I see Mat. All of Collin's roles tend to be more serious, and Mat is anything but serious.

 

Edit: I hope it is full of graphic battles and leaves nothing out of the battle front. RJ does a good job of showing the gore of battle as well as the aftermath. I can't wait to see the battle of DW on the big screen or the deathgates later on when Logain comes at the right time to help defend.

[CatinaSedai]

oh what about cilian murphy.  he was the scarecrow in the batman movies.  he would be a good mat but he has blue eyes.

 

did they say who is going to direct this movie?  also, will they start with eye of the world or new spring?

[Majsju]

Again, leave the cast talk out of this thread, or I might have to consider locking it.

[CatinaSedai]

oh sorry.  so did they say who would be directing the movie? and will they start with eye of the world or new spring?

[Majsju]

They are a few years from starting to even think about things like director.

 

Universal has bought the rights to do movies. This does not mean they will actually do anything. And if they do it, there is years of work ahead of them, like planning how many movies they should have and bring in people to write a script.

[Mathias]

I'm not sure what to think on this. I just realized, when browsing the general discussion, that much of the WoT is actually description and this wont take up much of movie time. It may actually be possible to do this.

 

Thank you Rand... This has been my contention since the beginning.,,

I hope they make the films...

 

[Majsju]

From Brandons blog...

I've had a number of people posting on my LJ asking about Read Eagle, the nature of this movie deal, and all of that fun stuff.  I shot an email off to Harriet, and she was kind enough to give us some explanations.

 

This is not the result of a new deal with Red Eagle.  It's the option deal with Red Eagle that Mr. Jordan made before he passed away.  (He discussed it and the company several times in interviews.)  I had originally thought that this option had run out and that Harried had signed a separate deal with Universal, not remembering the name Red Eagle from the article.  (I knew that she had an option with someone that was soon going to run out, but didn't remember the name, so didn't connect the two when I saw Red Eagle in the movie announcement earlier.)

 

However, Red Eagle managed a last minute sale to Universal, right before the option ran out.  This hands the project off to Universal.  This is NOT an option, but a purchase, and it is with Universal and not Red Eagle--though Red Eagle has been named as a producer of the films and the deal.

 

Harriet is very happy to have Universal on the project, and is pleased with this turn of events.  As with all Hollywood deals, a large part of getting a good film seems to be luck.  (See my last post.)  However, this involves a couple huge steps forward from where the property was just a few months ago.  Things look good for the film being made, but there is still need for a lot of patience.  (See below.)

 

My favorite quote from Harriet was the last part of her email:

 

The first film (EYE OF THE WORLD) is not yet "in development." Universal legal has advised us that Red Eagle has yet to fulfill two requirements Universal has placed on them as producers -- financial obligations they have not yet come up with.... AND MORE MEANWHILE the clock ticks. If the movie isn't made within a certain length of time the deal between us and Universal self-destructs. How Universal will feel if Red Eagle continues to delay, only Conan's Crom knows--perhaps they will have the right to fire Red Eagle.

 

The wheel of time turns and ages come and pass....

 

I'll get some annotations out tomorrow.  Sorry for the delay on those recently.  I've been working hard on WoT, as the percentage bar hopefully shows

[Mr Ares]

oh sorry. so did they say who would be directing the movie? and will they start with eye of the world or new spring?

According to the article linked in the first post the plan is to start with Eye of the World, which is the obvious place to start, given that it's the first book.

 

I hope they make the films...

I hope that if they do make the films, they make them correctly. Do it right or don't bother.

[DuDZiK]

Wow. Tough crowd... ::)

[Jambo]

They could have one version for the US, and another for the more grown up countries ;D

 

Just come up to Canada where you can see a US R-rated movie as a 14yr old :P

[Majsju]

In Sweden, for the more graphic R-rated movies, you officially have to be 15 to see them in a theatre. Of course, since theatres are more interested in selling tickets than "protecting" the youngsters, it is usually no problems getting in when you are 11-12.

 

And if you should not get in, there is no age limit for buying the dvd  ;D

[Jambo]

 

I hope they make the films...

I hope that if they do make the films, they make them correctly. Do it right or don't bother.

 

Amen  :)

[Kravchenko]

Hopefully they don't mild it down too far to make it a PG - 13 movie either instead of R as well.

 

The books are obviously PG-13.  The series is written PG-13.  Any movies will be PG-13.

 

Since when is nudity, sex scenes (only 2 - 3 were described, but still), and graphic battles been pg 13? The first book was pg 13, but the later ones weren't.

 

1) Graphic battles are nothing to American audiences.  Easy PG-13.  Squirting blood and gibs are not needed in WoT movies and that's the way you get past PG-13 with violence.

2) Sex scenes don't have to show any nudity to work.

3) There probably won't be any nudity, period.  The scenes with it could be cleverly covered up without hurting anything.  I think that very few fans would care and including it only means the film will be viewed by a smaller audience.  

 

The books are PG-13 literature.  If you want to see an example of something more closely representing "R" writing in the fantasy realm, I'd hit up some George R.R. Martin.  (aSoIaF could also fairly easily be adapted to PG-13 ratings in a screen play)

 

I want the movies to be good.  I want the screenplays to be quality adaptations of the source material.  Acting, writing, directing, cutting, and editing will go a lot further in making WoT a viable movie series than whether you can see someone's nipples.  Though, I do think American audiences are way too hung up on sex and nudity, but WoT is not going to be the crusader flick to change that.

[CatinaSedai]

wow i sure hope they get someone like peter jackson to make the films.  do you think they will go through multiple directors like they did with the harry potter series or stick with one to do the whole series?  also they would have to film multiple books at the same time because if they cast a young rand for eye of the world they will need him to not look much older in knife of dreams.  

[Graendals favourite]

One thing that is good about the series being long, is that if the production goes forward, the first film needs to do its share in building momentum. And this means not only momentary hype, but the viewers are going to have to have good opinions of the movie, to look forward to subsequent movies. After all, if done right, the movies will mean 12 successful movies.

 

Being a minor is something you grow out of, for example everyone here now should be above 18 when the first movie would come to the cinemas. Also, the later books perhaps even primarily deal with issues that will not immediately appeal to very young audiences. Also the international movie audiences should be taken into account, for example the 'clever coverings up' of nudity are usually quite ridiculous. Grown up audiences should not be shocked by violence or nudity, given the subject of epic fantasy, and epic fantasy being an adult genre in this instance. Hmm, actually I can't recall any on-screen sex in the books, aside perhaps from that chair of Graendal's in FoH, even what happened to the innkeeper Moiraine drugged in NS happened off screen, as well as Shaidar Haran raping Moghedien and Mesaana, though these last would better qualify as violence that sex. Speak about a relief, movies with nudity but no sex scenes! Anyway, this is not something that should be allowed to affect the quality of the movies, or to downgrade it into a children's tale.

 

Now, of course in the Eye of the World there is not too much to make it R-rated, aside from the Prologue that certainly cannot be omitted. However, it is just as well if there is distance between the Wheel of Time and Harry Potter, as the audiences are different, the latter is for the young while the first is for young and old both. Especially since people will be growing older as the movies come out, it is essential for their success that they are marketed for an older audience from the beginning. I have nothing against Harry Potter (or David Eddings or anyone similar), they are simply not written for me as an adult, but I am simply not very keen on going to see the HP movies, and have not. I seem to recall seeing the first one on tv, but it seemed to have no substance for me as an older viewer, and I have not bothered watching later ones even when some of them have been on tv and I'd have had the time. They are distinctly marketed for the young, and I cannot be bothered to take them seriously enough to watch. Mismarketing is a big mistake if its scares out the primary audience.

[balefireruinssteaks]

We're also talking about how you would possibly take a series with so MANY different story lines and make them into a one and a half - three hour movie at the most. 

 

I would simply pick out the biggest parts of the book which move the story along...i.e.  the Cleansing, the battles with the Forsaken, battles between the Aiel, the meeting at the Golden Bowl, etc.  and then try to build the book around those things and see what you could fit in there.  With a projected series-movie you have a lot more time to develop a person's character, so you don't have to make Rand "Winter's Heart" Rand in the first movie, he can be "Eye of the World" Rand and so on.  You givey our audience enough to catch them, but to also desire to see what is going to happen to these people.

 

Eye of the World should definitely have a dance scene where Moiraine gets to the Two Rivers, the fight scene where the Trollocs come to the Two Rivers, and of course the scene at the end where the group meets Aginor and Balthemal.  (I think James Earl Jones should do the voice of the Green Man)

 

Also I think I'd love to see how writers play out the scene where Moiraine tells Nynaeve she can channel, and the scene where Moiraine uses Illusion to freak out the Whitecloaks by growing larger than the entire city.  Haha!!

[Darth_Andrea]

We're also talking about how you would possibly take a series with so MANY different story lines and make them into a one and a half - three hour movie at the most. 

 

I would simply pick out the biggest parts of the book which move the story along...i.e.  the Cleansing, the battles with the Forsaken, battles between the Aiel, the meeting at the Golden Bowl, etc.  and then try to build the book around those things and see what you could fit in there.  With a projected series-movie you have a lot more time to develop a person's character, so you don't have to make Rand "Winter's Heart" Rand in the first movie, he can be "Eye of the World" Rand and so on.  You givey our audience enough to catch them, but to also desire to see what is going to happen to these people.

 

Eye of the World should definitely have a dance scene where Moiraine gets to the Two Rivers, the fight scene where the Trollocs come to the Two Rivers, and of course the scene at the end where the group meets Aginor and Balthemal.  (I think James Earl Jones should do the voice of the Green Man)

 

Also I think I'd love to see how writers play out the scene where Moiraine tells Nynaeve she can channel, and the scene where Moiraine uses Illusion to freak out the Whitecloaks by growing larger than the entire city.  Haha!!

 

The problem with doing it that way is that alot of those little story lines directly impact the larger ones and setup other events that are Major plot points. I can see pareing them down some but not cutting them completly.

 

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow]   

 

[CatinaSedai]

they did cut out a lot of harry potter in those movies and the same with lord of the rings.  i wonder what they will cut out of wheel of time. 

[DemandredFO]

Most of the two rivers sequence you can't cut because that explains the boys' attitude toward channelling for the first three or four books and the Manetheran story gives the history.  I am sure that for most sequences that people would say could be cut someone else would present a convincing case why it can't.  As for Potter and Lotr, Fellowship was pretty good, two towers deviated from the book and RotK evicerated the book.  Best thing that came out of Rotk was the soundtrack.  As for HP, I don't love the books but I read them and the movies seem to clip shows to me.  Both these book series are far less complex than Wheel of Time.  I really think they shouldn't make it.

[Graendals favourite]

I'm thinking that if they make 3-hour films, they could succeed fairly well. Somethings can be done quicker in film than others. I'd also refer to BS's point about adaption, I agree they shouldn't attempt to do it one-to-one, but if done well they will be able to capture most everything in the books. Of course there will be scenes in the books that would directly become scenes in the film, but some passages can be handled differently. I'm not an expert in film making or script making, so I will not try to give examples, mine will not be the best ones here, but they should take advantage of visual possibilities in order to (1)have as much in the film as possible and (2)make everything work on screen.

 

To (1), especially since the books exist, the film makers do not need to worry about explaining the significance of all things in the film to the viewers especially at first viewing, as RJ does not in the books, as long as the things are somehow seen on screen. The epic scale of the series kind of demands this, and also they'll sell many dvd's since people will want to watch the movies many times. (2) Is of course essential to have a good film, though the existence of the books helps here too in my opinion.

 

The 3-hour movie scale, and there are movies made to this length, would also be very good for marketing the larger-than-life aspect of the story. For marketing purposes, as well as clarity in production, I would stick to the movie-per-book format as that fellow Asmodean saw stuck to that tuft of grass, because it is simply so much easier to sell and produce a movie that corresponds to one book, instead a movie somewhere within the series. Even if a PoD movie would only reach 2 hours, there would be no fears about a great mess of what is where and in which movie. Path of Daggers is clearly the shortest book by length, so perhaps some of New Spring could be included there as the prequel is too short to make a movie out of, dunno.

 

Anyway, I see much potential for greatness, and done well there would much profits for the movie producers too so the greatness could well be achieved. Hope they will listen to Lanfear  ;D.

[Kajima]

I wish that someone had made an anime series first. It would've been cheaper so they'd have come out alot faster, we wouldn't have to worry about bad effects, etc. I don't see Universal doing this though. Have they ever made a realistic, adult-ish cartoon? Mini series? A mini series would have to be shown on cable. The main networks have gotten so bland that the way they're headed, they'll be censoring women's bare ankles soon. The whole series would be completely bloodless, they'd cut away from showing someone getting run through with a sword, and they'd probably put Graendal in a long sleeve turtle neck. But even if they did run it on something like the sci-fi channel, the effects would be horrible.

 

    I think a movie is the only way you CAN go. They'll have enough dough to do decent effects and the battles will have scope to them. The actors for the main characters (rand, mat, perrin egwene and nynaeve would have to be like 15 right? Just as long as they could act a little older and by movie 4 or 5 that wouldn't even be an issue anymore. I mean Tom Welling is in his early 30's and he still plays someone that's like 21. Just about every other character can be portrayed by a revolving door of actors for all i care.

 

  Really the only thing i worry about is how the movies will be split up. I've never heard of any studio signing on for 12 movies before. Even if they released them once a year that would just take waaaay to long. And then think about EotW as a stand alone movie to a non-reader.

 

 

SPOILER ALERT**********

 

 

The ending's kind of weird, isn't it? until the very end, what had Rand done with the power? Called a lightning bolt, some other smaller things presented in pretty indirect ways. In the end though, he's all of a sudden he's Skimming, making the ground explode under an army of shadow spawn, taking to the Creator? and severing a Forsaken's link to the Dark one, right? Everything is explained later on of course but i know if i hadn't read the books and i saw that ending, I would've been like 'what the eff?!' BUT if they could find a way to make books 1  and 2 into a 3 hour movie and end it with Toman Head, now THAT's an ending!!!

 

 

 

END SPOLIER ALERT*********

 

And you know, all the parts where characters are thinking to themselves can be cut,  all the descriptions can be shown, and cut some of the repetitive traveling and I really think they can do it.

 

[callandor]

im sure there are tons of the most beutiful tall pale woman who looka ageless right? :sarcasm:

Just because they aren't common doesn't mean they can't actually cast someone beautiful, does it?

 

And casting a 42 year old to play a 21 year old? While we're trying to force actors from Heroes into roles they are woefully unsuited for, how about Jack Coleman as Mat and Malcolm McDowell as Rand. And Masi Oka as Nynaeve. Egwene could be played by Jimmy Jean-Louis. Thom by Ali Larter.

 

just a thought. but, sylar would make an awesome Mazrim Taim. you have to admit that.

hopefully he is done being spock for a while.

 

1) Graphic battles are nothing to American audiences.  Easy PG-13.  Squirting blood and gibs are not needed in WoT movies and that's the way you get past PG-13 with violence.

2) Sex scenes don't have to show any nudity to work.

3) There probably won't be any nudity, period.  The scenes with it could be cleverly covered up without hurting anything.  I think that very few fans would care and including it only means the film will be viewed by a smaller audience.  

 

The books are PG-13 literature.  If you want to see an example of something more closely representing "R" writing in the fantasy realm, I'd hit up some George R.R. Martin.  (aSoIaF could also fairly easily be adapted to PG-13 ratings in a screen play)

 

I want the movies to be good.  I want the screenplays to be quality adaptations of the source material.  Acting, writing, directing, cutting, and editing will go a lot further in making WoT a viable movie series than whether you can see someone's nipples.  Though, I do think American audiences are way too hung up on sex and nudity, but WoT is not going to be the crusader flick to change that.

 

******SOME SPOLIERS******

 

are you kidding? if the movies went up to dumai wells, that would have to be R rated. people just exploding in lines of hundreds. they cant pull a LotR and make the blood different colored so it is pg-13, the people dieing are human, and they have red blood. almost all the movies would have to be R. cmon, in the third book, wolves biting at people throats. im guessing trollocs have red blood as well since they are partly human and most animals have red blood (except for like crabs and a few others).

 

the worst part about the series being movies is that the actors if they do all 12 books will, if they start at around say 16 ( or very unlikely a very mature looking 15 year old) years old, then they will finish at around like 35+ years old. if they take 8 years for 3 movies (based off of LotR movies) thats 32 years hypothetically for all 12. i know that that number is Tops for the whole series, but there is gonna be some serious CGI modifacation of the actors faces or else 21 year old rand will be 40. if they get around this, which im sure they should be able to, then yay.

 

and about the nudity, i dont think they can take away all of it. like

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT FOR AFTER BOOK 5***

 

when egwene becomes amyrlin and the hall shows they are all women, they can take away that nudity part, for it isnt extremely neccesary, but the aiel weat tents and such, some of it will have to be shown.

[Graendals favourite]

Indeed, and the first book is the mildest. Now these two categories, violence and nudity, are rather strange when put side by side like this, but making it R-rated from the beginning would be very necessary for marketing, and because the going just gets more rough through time and if they start mild they finish ridiculous. If they start with R, they can hold that policy. So they should show the bathing scene in Baerlon with penises and show the prologue in full with the "Old servants and friends of his childhood, faithful companions through the long yeas of battle. And his children. His own sons and daughters sprawled like broken dolls, play stilled forever. All slain by his hand....The Betrayer's laughter flogged him..." Things are done with good taste in the books, so after doing this correctly there should be no need to edit anything in the later books either, so they could just concentrate on portraying what is important as best they can, regardless whether or not it contains nudity or violence.

[dmanmiller34]

I personally hope that it is not rated R. They could make it Pg-13 and still hold true to the story. Just because there is fighting does not nessecarily have to be gorey. Look at Lord of the rings. Plenty of battles with no R rating.

[Fryn]

yet it lost most of the end of the world type feel to it. Also try making deathgates or teh DW battle not gorey. RJ was pretty descriptive in those battles. It was to teh point that even Rand was sick as people were literally exploding as they tried to flee.