Wheel of Time Movie News

[Segurant]

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=58590

 

Universal Pictures has acquired film rights to the late Robert Jordan's best-selling Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels in a seven-figure deal, Variety reported.

 

Big-screen adaptations of the books will begin with the first book in the cycle, The Eye of the World.

 

Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will produce for Red Eagle Entertainment, which published graphic-novel adaptations of Jordan's books.

 

The Wheel of Time follows, among its dozens of characters, Rand al'Thor, the latest incarnation of a force for good called "The Dragon." Rand is born to fight an evil character called Shai'tan.

 

The Wheel of Time books have sold 44 million copies worldwide and have spawned computer, trading-card and role-playing games; a soundtrack; comic books; and numerous fan sites. The four most recent installments have reached number one on the New York Times best-seller list.

 

Jordan died last year at 58, but the final book in the series is still set for publication in fall 2009, with fellow fantasy scribe Brandon Sanderson writing the novel's conclusion from Jordan's notes and tapes. (Universal is owned by NBC Universal, which also owns SCIFI.COM.)

 

Remember you heard it first on the Seanchan Board!

[Majsju]

Was not Red eagle the company that managed to royally piss RJ off for how they screwed up the NS comic book, or am I completely mixing things up here?

[Segurant]

Nope you are right.  I guess they were able to get the movie sold before their rights expired.

 

Hopefully they don't mess things up because WoT fans are crazy!

[Ganth]

Is it possible to make movies out of these books?

 

The Harry Potter movies were ruined for how much they cut out. You can cut out some stuff in WoT but nearly everything is subtleties, which is hard to put on the screen.

[Loreina]

If RJ didn't like them, I have no doubt they will screw it up royally.

[Werthead]

Reprinting my thoughts from here:

 

So the Wheel of Time has sold 44 million copies (he's catching up with Terry Pratchett, slowly but surely). That's A Lot. Obviously a TV or movie adaption would be popular and make a lot of green, so some producers want a piece of the action.

 

However, you then hit a problem. This is a series of 12-13 novels which will cross 10,000 pages before it's done. The books vary from 700-1,000 pages in length. As a rule of the thumb, a 2-3-hour movie can be based on a book of about 300 pages without losing any material at all. So for a faithful adaption you're looking at 2-3 movies per book. Obviously that's not going to happen.

 

So now you're looking at cutting the material. A lot. You're looking at maybe 30% of the printed story making it to the screen even if you make 12-13 movies. And you're not going to make 12-13 movies, you're going to make 8, tops, as Harry Potter has shown that's about the maximum you can push it. So now you're looking at 15% of the story making it to the screen. And if you decide to go for a Lord of the Rings-style trilogy, that's 7% of the entire storyline on screen (compared to the LotR trilogy getting about 85% of the book on the screen). That's going to tick off a lot of fans. In fact, if you're going to do that, you may as well not bother.

 

So you start looking at it as a TV adaption. Say five 22-episode seasons. Season 1 is Books 1-2, Season 2 is Books 3-4, Season 3 is Books 5-6, Season 4 is Books 7-9, Season 5 is Books 10-12 (seriously, you can do a lot of CoT in 30 minutes, maximum). That gives you some sweet cliffhanger endings and gets more or less the complete story out in a reasonable timeframe (we may have to skip some bath scenes in order to spend more times with Mat scything down Seanchan troops with cannons, but that's probably a cross we can bear).

 

There is a slight problem there though: the budget won't be very big. $2 million to $4 million an episode, tops. Great for scenes of characters talking, small skirmishes and politics, not so great when you want to depict the Second Battle of Cairhien or the Battle of Dumai's Wells. Flashbacks to the War of the Shadow? Brief clips, at best. The Last Battle? Offscreen, probably. And fans will get annoyed with that as well.

 

This paradox is precisely why it's taken so long for the project to get on the screen. Looking at the other fantasy series and novels to make it to the screen, Sword of Truth is made up of self-contained books (apart from the last three) with a few ongoing story threads in the background. If it gets cancelled after a few seasons that's fine, as long as they get a few episodes' warning to wrap everything up. A Song of Ice and Fire is contained in length at 7 books, possibly 6 seasons (since the fourth and fifth books could possibly be compressed into one season since they won't want to lose half the cast for a year), and is being made by HBO with a giganormous budget (possibly as much as $50 million per book). The Lions of Al-Rassan (still stuck in development hell) is one book which can be pruned down easily.

 

The Wheel of Time is one massive, ongoing story which starts in The Eye of the World and ends 12/13 books later with A Memory of Light. And that makes adapting it an absolute nightmare. Only The Malazan Book of the Fallen - which is even more complex with even more characters and will be, probably, slightly longer when its finished - would present scriptwriters with an even bigger challenge.

 

I will be very interested to see how Universal proceeds, because I don't see any way it's possible to get the whole story on screen unless they go for a big-budget TV adaption, and the sources indicate it's going to be a movie series.

[Ararana]

Good man Werthead! I completely agree. I just don't think any acceptable adaptation of these book could possibly be conceived. And when it comes to WOT if its not going to do justice to the books, then it should not be done at all... Poor RJ had to go through Red Eagle screwing things up...lets not add universal to that list...

[Loreina]

What would you think of a rearrangement of the material? Instead of trying to adapt the books as written in series, change the format to be character driven. True, maybe an inferior arrangement compared to the original, but it would allow for options that would comply with the parameters you've outlined. For example, Universal could choose to make five-eight films, one setting up the story (basically EotW), then one or two focusing on each of the three main characters (since they are mostly not together anyway), plus the ending film that blends them back together for the Last Battle. That's doable without losing too much of anything important. The biggest battle will be to keep it from becoming too male oriented. The AS play an important role in RJ's story and his themes. That has to be preserved.

Also, we have to consider that at least some of those 10,000 pages are redundant, where he describes people and explains events that have happened in the earlier books for the benefit of new readers who had to begin in the middle of the series.

With that type of arrangement, I think it is feasible at least. How good it would be depends on the writers. Maybe they could hire the same writers who did LoTR and a real producer, with the understanding that these guys keep their hands off it and just collect their paycheck.

OMG I just thought of something. They're going to do this in CGI aren't they? It's going to be like Beowulf.  :-\

[Emperor]

But really.. it doesn't matter how much it sucks... the millions of WOT fans will probably still go see at least the first one.  I think they are banking on that fact.  

 

 

[Majsju]

Well, I better start hitting the gym if I am to audition for Logain ;D

[Thorum]

The main problem is this: Narnia is 5 movies for about 1,000 pages

LOTR was 3 movies for about 1,000 pages (the last 200 pages - the return to Hobbiton - were not filmed)

 

How can they EVER put WoT in movies? Unless it's at least 30 of them. Long ones... That means a couple of things:

 

- no one is gonna go and watch them all in the theatre, so that means less income

- no one is gonna want to play a part if that means playing it in 25 movies.

- no one can make all those movies without aging more than 10 years, which would really be the max.

 

If it's any shorter, they cannot give the story even a bit of accuracy.

 

But, of course all of us here will have seen the first movie within the first week in theatres.

 

Let's hope they're smart enough to go to different places in Europe for the different accents. That was one of the lesser things in LoTR: Merry and Denethor had exactly the same language, while Pippin had an accent...

 

Oh yeah, and give fans the opportunity for audition

[Loreina]

:) I think you'll do very well in that part, Majsju!

 

I'm a big fan of this series, but I'm not a rabid "everything's got to be in the movies" type fan. I've read every robot story Asimov ever wrote, several times. I, Robot was not any of them, but it was a lot like them. I thought they did a very good job of capturing his ideas. And it was a good movie. Same for LoTR. By ignoring the return to Hobbiton, they lost one of the major themes of the LoTR. That and some other things lessened the story IMO, but, they were still very good movies and stayed very true to the Tolkien ideal. I do think the same could be done for WoT but only if Harriet and maybe Sanderson can keep it on track. I know some people don't like it when I say this, but IMO there are some things that can be left out or reduced without harming either the plot or RJ's vision.

 

Oh yeah, and give fans the opportunity for audition

I agree Thorum; I want to be one of the Kin *nods*.

 

But really, with those two in charge, I think it's gonna be like the SW Clone Wars.

[Thorum]

What could be left out whithout harming the basic story?

 

- Faile getting captured by the Shaido: RJ himself said this was something to 'fill up the time'.

 

- the little tower embassy

 

- everything with the weather bowl

 

- Cadsuane

 

- the tradesman-turned-lover-turned-heir of Saldaea

 

BUt I don't really see what more can be left out. And we'd still be left with 7,000 pages

[jezzahardin]

As someone mentioned in the general thread, a lot of the books is description.  What is being conveyed in pages of detail can be captured in a single 10 second shot in a film, so perhaps it is possible.

 

I think the only way everything would be retained would be a TV series.  24 hour or two hour episodes.  Each episode is half the book.  Granted that would limit budget and audience, but DVD sales would make a killing.  :)

 

I don't see anyone going that route, unfortunately.  I'd love to try to arrange such a venture in a few years, but as I say, I doubt the powers that be would go for it.

 

When we finish HP I think there'll be an opening in the industry for a new long running epic fantasy series, so we'll see.

[Loreina]

And they'd better wait until after the last book comes out to make the first movie. Otherwise, they might cut something essential to understanding the ending. We don't know what RJ has planned for us.  :)

[Niamh Sedai]

Hmmm... Interesting. I think they'll trash it but I still will see it...

[Corki]

I am more interested and excited about SoT being turned into a TV series than WoT.

 

A film just won't work - hence it will have to be a TV series. Serious damage will be done if it is made into a film.

 

I feel all these fantasy series being signed up for film/TV rights is like a gold rush. Everybody is doing it...whoever releases first will probably be the one to hit the jackpot, in my eyes...

[SinisterDeath]

Okay 2 things

1) 1000 Pages does not equal 10 hours. Theres a reason Book to Movie format movies ussually end up 'sucking' in comparison, Its quite simply, Some things WORK in books, that DON'T work in movies. In a book you can spend litterally 2 hours describing a character, and there surroundings, which can take only a split second on film. Then you have parts in the book that only take a few seconds to read (dialogue) that could litterally take minutes. The obvious problem is trying to 'make' enough dialogue. But 2-3 hours 'is' possible for each book, They just need to be smart about it, focus on the main events, as well as events that while they are minor, do effect the story. But they don't need to dedicate alot of time to it.

One example is in the beginning of the first book, where rand and his father were walking the wagon 'home'. Rand thought he sees something, it isn't there, and his 'father' tells him about various 'things', like myrdraal. (I think, its been awhile.)

Point is, that part of the book may have taken 20-40 minutes to read through, but really thats less than 1-5 minutes on the screen...

 

2) What really fucking pisses me off about this whole deal is Red Eagle Entertainment. These people 'bought' the rights from RJ, for movies/comics/games/ect. They than sat on them, and didn't do a DAMNED THING for what, 4 years? And the 'one' wot related thing they were actually involved with, they royally fucked up (newspring the graphic novel). Escentially what Red Eagle Entertainment did, is something that 'should' be illegal but it isn't, and won't be. They don't care about wot, not in the slightest, What they did was 'buy' the rights to the movie, and waited for the highest bidder, and in this case, they got a 7 figure deal out of it. Its probably like 2-3 guys who were actually involved in it to.

 

If your not familiar with what it is they exactly did, in the world of 'patents' you have people who 'patent' very broad and vague ideas, for the explicit purpose of 'sueing' companies for using there ideas, with out paying them for the rights to it. one example is of the duo/quad core CPUs (and the Cell in the Ps3) A guy who had nothing to do with computers, patented sycnronis/a-sync processing in some really vague words, After its been a known process for ages, and tried sueing everyone left and right. He 'patented' it not so he could make & sell it,but so he could make money off of it. It be like If I patented the word, the. I'd be able to sue everyone...

[jezzahardin]

...

2) What really fucking pisses me off about this whole deal is Red Eagle Entertainment.

...

 

Agreed.  They do seem to be a bunch of twats.  Doesn't surprise me in this business though.  And maybe they were waiting for the series to finish?  Not likely, but it's possible.

[Cadsuane]

Well, I better start hitting the gym if I am to audition for Logain ;D

Oooh, then can I be... (wait for it)... Cadsuane?? I mean, if I can do this in 30 minutes with Photoshop, imagine what a good makeup artist can do with a few hours?!  ;D

[Vemynal]

aww id love to see you as caddy^^

 

as for me, i gave my opinion on the WoT movie thread in the structure discussion thread a month or so ago.

 

 

 

i just cant see them doing movies

 

first off: 12 books means 12 movies! and at lets go with the absolute quickest of they come out with a movie every two years!

 

rand would be 17 when it starts? and 41 when it ends! he's technically only 20 atm i think in the books...

 

So they do a cartoon movie series, probably easier and to be honest it would probably look better to have it drawn then crappy 3d effects, and cheaper.

 

This way the voice actors doesn't matter as much either, were not as tied down to their voice as we are their appearance and voices can be trained to sound the same.

 

but it still seems to me it would take a minimum of 24 years to put the movies out, i don't know about you but i don't wanna wait that long.

 

I'm thinking they make the books into a TV series, they would have to obviously cut stuff out but overall i think they could fit more in this way. Four 1 hour long "episodes" can cover more then any movie could. if you place the first book at 4 episodes then the 2nd and 3rd book would be the same. so its 12 hours (12 episodes) for the first 3 books.

 

thats 1 season! and if you think about it that also ends an an appropriate point for a season to end at, the battle in Tear, the claiming of Callandor, he's now the dragon reborn!

 

season 2 would consist of books 4, 5, and 6 and be a lot longer. probably 15 to 17 episodes. but it does in fact cover a lot that would link together. and the season finally? Rand being freed from the Aes Sedai and them finally bowing to him at dumanei's well.

 

season 3 would be at short as the first and would encompass books 7, 8, & 9 ending with the cleansing.

 

season 4 would be 10, 11 and 12 and its ending would be the ending of book 12

 

there you have it! the entire series in 4 years! get 17 year olds to play the main characters and by the time the series is done they will all be 21ish, not such a big age gap.

 

and it could still be a cartoon, as i said it would probably look better and be less expensive to make, though i do enjoy human actors more since you can connect with them better. + i think if it was a cartoon it would receive some of the stima "well its a cartoon, i dont wanna watch it" among adults.

 

in any event thats why i think a tv series would be a bit better

[SinisterDeath]

Well, since universal is apparently owned by nbc universal... a tv series 'might' be possible, and we can only hope that it'll go the mini-series route instead of the movie route. But with all this 'remake' or 'book to movie' or 'video game to movie', do you really think Univeral is going to pass up this chance to have there own harry potter?

[Loreina]

As for the cartoon route, I'm reserving my opinion until after I see how they did with the SW Clone Wars movie.  :)

[Majsju]

Well, I better start hitting the gym if I am to audition for Logain ;D

Oooh, then can I be... (wait for it)... Cadsuane?? I mean, if I can do this in 30 minutes with Photoshop, imagine what a good makeup artist can do with a few hours?!  ;D

 

Bah, you must audition as Birgitte. I am quite sure you would make that feathery dress she wears in Ebou Dar justice ;D

[Vemynal]

do you really think Univeral is going to pass up this chance to have there own harry potter?

 

we can hope sin

 

we can hope