Just one readers view on WOT movie possilbility or other media

[Assassoid]

http://www.variety.c...464?refCatId=13

http://geekology.co....eleased-in-2013

 

This is my second post and I wanna say first I never thought I would find a series that I would be so devoted to. That I would love SO much.I started WOT on a whim 12 years or so ago and really fell for it.I am now re-reading the series and am at LOC.Anyway.Here are two articles about a major movie company buying the movie rights for Wheel of Time. Do you think any director can do this series justice? Both articles mention a "seven firgure deal" I don't think this could be told in any less then seven 4 hour movies, and even if that were done the amount of plot that would have to be abrigged would atleast IMO ruin alot of it's greatness. I searched for WOT in relation to a movie in the search engine and found nothing being discussed so i hope this is not redundant. Opinions? I just would hate to see this wonderfull series butchered on the big screen..

[flash_fire]

My thoughts.

 

1. Lots of epic scenes in WoT. May I say more about that?

2. Good detail. But that could be a double edged sword. For one, it'll help narrow down what the scene would look like. Yet, a fan would know if they messed up one tiny button on a dress or something because of the detail.

3. Complex time lines. That will make pain for movie makers I think. At times, the plot lines occur at very different speeds. Take Perrin for example. Can you imagine how much fun it'd be to explain why the heck the movie is jumping in time so often?

4. I don't know how they'd handle all of the POVs. Sure, not all POVs are needed and some might be able to be taken from another characters eye. But, there's just a LOT going on.

5. It'll take a LONG time to get through all the books. It'll be like waiting for the books... All over again. And then people will complain when like Elayne takes too many baths in one movie! :P

But if they can cast/scene it right. It'd be pretty epic. But it seems like one behemoth of a challenge!

[Suttree]

Thread on this here...

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/forums/topic/59787-bringing-the-wheel-of-time-to-the-screen/page__st__60#entry2388625

[spoke]

My thoughts.

 

1. Lots of epic scenes in WoT. May I say more about that?

2. Good detail. But that could be a double edged sword. For one, it'll help narrow down what the scene would look like. Yet, a fan would know if they messed up one tiny button on a dress or something because of the detail.

3. Complex time lines. That will make pain for movie makers I think. At times, the plot lines occur at very different speeds. Take Perrin for example. Can you imagine how much fun it'd be to explain why the heck the movie is jumping in time so often?

4. I don't know how they'd handle all of the POVs. Sure, not all POVs are needed and some might be able to be taken from another characters eye. But, there's just a LOT going on.

5. It'll take a LONG time to get through all the books. It'll be like waiting for the books... All over again. And then people will complain when like Elayne takes too many baths in one movie! :P

But if they can cast/scene it right. It'd be pretty epic. But it seems like one behemoth of a challenge!

 

If they find the right actress, I don't think that very many men will complain about her taking a lot of baths.

[Vardar]

My thoughts.

 

1. Lots of epic scenes in WoT. May I say more about that?

2. Good detail. But that could be a double edged sword. For one, it'll help narrow down what the scene would look like. Yet, a fan would know if they messed up one tiny button on a dress or something because of the detail.

3. Complex time lines. That will make pain for movie makers I think. At times, the plot lines occur at very different speeds. Take Perrin for example. Can you imagine how much fun it'd be to explain why the heck the movie is jumping in time so often?

4. I don't know how they'd handle all of the POVs. Sure, not all POVs are needed and some might be able to be taken from another characters eye. But, there's just a LOT going on.

5. It'll take a LONG time to get through all the books. It'll be like waiting for the books... All over again. And then people will complain when like Elayne takes too many baths in one movie! :P

But if they can cast/scene it right. It'd be pretty epic. But it seems like one behemoth of a challenge!

 

If they find the right actress, I don't think that very many men will complain about her taking a lot of baths.

 

Beat me too it. I was going to say: I'll complain if she doesn't take enough baths! Her and her first sister!

[safwd]

This series will get butchered as a movie or series of movies.

 

I think the only way this series works would be like how they have done Game of Thrones.

You could have an HBO series where a season is perhaps 2 books worth of story.

 

Peter Jackson would be my choice for Director.

[nolirion]

This series will get butchered as a movie or series of movies.

 

I think the only way this series works would be like how they have done Game of Thrones.

You could have an HBO series where a season is perhaps 2 books worth of story.

 

Peter Jackson would be my choice for Director.

Well that is working for Game of Thrones but GoT is not WoT and It would be extremely difficult .

I am not sure it is a good idea

[Vardar]

This series will get butchered as a movie or series of movies.

 

I think the only way this series works would be like how they have done Game of Thrones.

You could have an HBO series where a season is perhaps 2 books worth of story.

 

Peter Jackson would be my choice for Director.

Well that is working for Game of Thrones but GoT is not WoT and It would be extremely difficult .

I am not sure it is a good idea

 

I personally think theres nothing wrong with trying. I mean really what's the negative?

 

If they try and fail, as fans you don't have to watch it. If they try and succeed, you can watch it. Even if you don't like it, other fans who can separate books from movies/shows may enjoy it. I mean look at HP. A lot of book fans HATE the movies, then a lot love them. At the end of the day, as a fan, you can only win from them attempting. You can never lose, because you don't have to watch it.

[Pinzarn]

I think Eye of the World would adapt well to a movie. The book doesn't contain the gajillion details like the later books which would really slow a movie down.

 

For the other books, I think the Game of Thrones (season 1) HBO format would be great. Given 10-13 hours to develope each book would be fantastic. Heck, even 5-6 hours of screen time for each book would be better than a movie.

[Sasha Grayes]

nope. animation is the only possible way to make something about this. Half the reason why Game of Thrones is popular is because of the blatant nudity. Interest level for the regular watcher is next to nothing. If they can't even make an animation on the the Dragons of XXXX in Dragonlance books, then WoT is a pipe dream.

 

I personally think theres nothing wrong with trying. I mean really what's the negative?

 

Whats the negative? The fact that production cost for a world as lush as WoT would be tremendous. Hell even with GoT they were skimping on the scenes with the dragons to reduce costs. Skimping on scenes with sword fight to avoid having to train actors. The show was successful because half the scenes were just two people talking. No need for scenes with too many people.

[Vardar]

nope. animation is the only possible way to make something about this. Half the reason why Game of Thrones is popular is because of the blatant nudity. Interest level for the regular watcher is next to nothing. If they can't even make an animation on the the Dragons of XXXX in Dragonlance books, then WoT is a pipe dream.

 

I personally think theres nothing wrong with trying. I mean really what's the negative?

 

Whats the negative? The fact that production cost for a world as lush as WoT would be tremendous. Hell even with GoT they were skimping on the scenes with the dragons to reduce costs. Skimping on scenes with sword fight to avoid having to train actors. The show was successful because half the scenes were just two people talking. No need for scenes with too many people.

 

Negative for the fan. And as to the nudity in GoT, none of the dozen people who told me I had to watch it mentioned the nudity. In fact, I was amazed that no one mentioned it. The quality of the show is the reason I watch it. Again, everyone is different. So I ask again, what do you, as a fan, lose by them trying it?

 

Nothing. If it's bad, don't watch. Someone will enjoy it.

 

As to the Dragonlance animation (Which I never watched because the preview didn't seem like the book at all) it's hard to compare. How many thousands of years does that book series span? (I have the entire series). Even just doing the first 3 season books requires a lot of back story. A lot.

[Sasha Grayes]

Negative for the fan.

 

You mean to say the fans are the one paying for the production? The movie/series could be great but lets not kid ourselves. The cost would be 10x more than the revenue for this one, thus in order for studios to green light it you have to butcher a lot of scenes and that wouldn't bode well. If you have 50 million dollars to throw around then go ahead.. I say lets stick this one on our paper library instead of our digital library.

[Vardar]

Negative for the fan.

 

You mean to say the fans are the one paying for the production? The movie/series could be great but lets not kid ourselves. The cost would be 10x more than the revenue for this one, thus in order for studios to green light it you have to butcher a lot of scenes and that wouldn't bode well. If you have 50 million dollars to throw around then go ahead.. I say lets stick this one on our paper library instead of our digital library.

 

How would the cost be 10x more than the revenue? How does GoT or any HBO special make money?Obviously they're making money somewhere. The rights to produce the tv/movie have been purchased, thus money has already been spent.I just don't get the opposition ot them trying. Won't hurt my pockets, and it could generate some cash.

[Agitel]

It could work, and it could be done respectfully in perhaps a trilogy, but fans would need to accept the insane amount of cuts and condensing that would need to be done to the plot, even the main one, to make it work. And/or each movie could skip forward a certain number of time and just drop throughout the movie changes that happened between movies.

 

Personally, I'd be in favor of a TV series. Animated. People may scoff, but I honestly think live action would just look ridiculous. LotR worked. GoT worked. But they didn't use a lot of overt magic. The chances of it working with live action would require pretty much perfect direction, writing and cinematography so that it wouldn't look wrong, and probably more time than even three movies would allow. I don't think that's realistic. Even if we go the movie route I think animation would be the best bet. Not even computer generated, but old school illustration.

[safwd]

I dont think i would want an animated version of the story. I would most likely watch it but i it is not what i would want.

 

I think a movie or mini series could work because alot of WoT is discription and most of what people complain about as too discriptive and time consuming (word count wise) can be accomplished with one quick camera shot.

 

What i feel hinders the idea of a long movie series or tv series is really 2 things.

 

1. The timeline. I dont think you could make a movie or series with the existing book time line. You would have to straighten it out or the movie would make no sense. That would be alot of work adapting the story on a time line bases and not on a book basis. Could it be done, sure, but it would be alot of work.

 

2. Actors. You need a ton of them. Sure most can be unknowns but i think you have to have a couple people in there that people will recognize. Perhaps not because GoT got away with a pretty unknown cast. Bean was probably the biggest and he isnt in it that long.

And also this is a long story that only takes 2 years. You would have to get the actors to sign on for the long haul but you would have to shoot like a madman to make sure people didnt grow older than the role. Probably wouldnt be a huge problem with Hollywood and how many dont appear to age much there but still something to think about.

[Apples First]

I really don't want to see the series made into any kind of film/TV/animation series.

 

 

Video Games on the other hand...

[safwd]

Lots of people have said they would like a WoT MMO but i dont see that as a serious option at all.

You have Aes Sedai, Ashaman and fodder.

 

Ashaman is the only real answer, you have all the power and none of the restrictions.

[Sasha Grayes]

people don't really understand the cost of making even a TV production. The pilot for GoT cost around 5-10 million dollars. Scenes include Pentos and Winterfell. Not too much action there just people coming and talking. With WoT you have trollocs attacking and morraine and lan killing stuff. That battle scene alone would be big for a show. Not unless you want to watch Trollocs looking like Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk.

 

Now moving on to reception, sure you and your buddies who read the book would probably be interested, however Joe Plumber across the street wouldn't care less about a Lord of the Rings "clone". WoT is PG, the young adult audience will think there is not enough Edward-Bella in it. The mature audience will think there is not enough dwarf whoring around. GoT got away with it because a lot of the scenes are just people scheming around with each other. Unless you want to only see Cadsuane and Sorilea then there is not enough scenes to cut away at the cost of the show/movie. The beauty of WoT is in the amount of big scenes and battles in it. My imagination can make a better movie in my mind and it costs free.

[Agitel]

I really don't want to see the series made into any kind of film/TV/animation series.

 

 

Video Games on the other hand...

 

Well I'm not talking about Saturday morning cartoons. I'm talking about an animated mini-series. You could probably have 4-6 one hour episodes for each book, maybe get all the way through tEotW to the end of tDR in twelve episodes. Animation is severely under appreciated in the west and is often labeled as a children's-only medium. That's disappointing. It can be used well for mature (I don't mean XXX by mature) content (see Grave of the Fireflies), and it avoids most of the hurdles that a live action series would need to tackle (exorbitant costs on special effects, cast, travel, location), not to mention the magic is likely to look far less cheesy in animated form than live action. You also wouldn't need to face aging actors, and wouldn't have difficulty with making an arm ending with a stump look right, among other things.

 

A live action movie would need to be condensed to Shayol Ghul and back again. It could work if you were okay with that. I think an animated movie would work too, especially if there were multiple ones. Animation allows the work to be done from anywhere in the world. Record in San Francisco or New York or London. The animation could be chopped up and done where needed. Digitization makes all this stuff transferable around the world. If it was a long endeavor, animation would be the way to go.

[Vardar]

people don't really understand the cost of making even a TV production. The pilot for GoT cost around 5-10 million dollars. Scenes include Pentos and Winterfell. Not too much action there just people coming and talking. With WoT you have trollocs attacking and morraine and lan killing stuff. That battle scene alone would be big for a show. Not unless you want to watch Trollocs looking like Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk.

 

Now moving on to reception, sure you and your buddies who read the book would probably be interested, however Joe Plumber across the street wouldn't care less about a Lord of the Rings "clone". WoT is PG, the young adult audience will think there is not enough Edward-Bella in it. The mature audience will think there is not enough dwarf whoring around. GoT got away with it because a lot of the scenes are just people scheming around with each other. Unless you want to only see Cadsuane and Sorilea then there is not enough scenes to cut away at the cost of the show/movie. The beauty of WoT is in the amount of big scenes and battles in it. My imagination can make a better movie in my mind and it costs free.

 

I'm going to give you soooooo many props for the Lou line. HA!

 

You don't know what Joe Plumber across the street will be interested in though. Look how many adults adore HP. That was unexpected. Lol @ Edward and Bella. They could make Rand sparkle when he channeled. (I'm joking people)

[Vardar]

people don't really understand the cost of making even a TV production. The pilot for GoT cost around 5-10 million dollars. Scenes include Pentos and Winterfell. Not too much action there just people coming and talking. With WoT you have trollocs attacking and morraine and lan killing stuff. That battle scene alone would be big for a show. Not unless you want to watch Trollocs looking like Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk.

 

Now moving on to reception, sure you and your buddies who read the book would probably be interested, however Joe Plumber across the street wouldn't care less about a Lord of the Rings "clone". WoT is PG, the young adult audience will think there is not enough Edward-Bella in it. The mature audience will think there is not enough dwarf whoring around. GoT got away with it because a lot of the scenes are just people scheming around with each other. Unless you want to only see Cadsuane and Sorilea then there is not enough scenes to cut away at the cost of the show/movie. The beauty of WoT is in the amount of big scenes and battles in it. My imagination can make a better movie in my mind and it costs free.

 

I'm going to give you soooooo many props for the Lou line. HA!

 

You don't know what Joe Plumber across the street will be interested in though. Look how many adults adore HP. That was unexpected. Lol @ Edward and Bella. They could make Rand sparkle when he channeled. (I'm joking people)

[1Brotherbill]

Don't let it happen. I don't care what kind of CGI you use it isn't going to work. The whole point of the books is first person perspective. And this perspective jumps from person to person at will. And how will you view power weaves when some people can't see them and others can.

[Wolf505]

As much as I'd love to see WoT as a TV series or movie, I don't think they can do it without butchering it. I have a feeling it would end up like "Legend of the Seeker," the series based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. The few episodes I could make myself watch were ok tv, but as a fan they totally butchered major parts of the story for no apparent reason at all. There's a reason why it didn't keep my interest. Besides the fact I didn't really like the actor they got to play the main character, Richard. They'd have to be very careful not to fall into the same trap with a Wheel of Time series.

 

I've been reading this series for more then twenty years and I'd rather not see it on the screen at all then see it butchered. They've done a good job with Game of Thrones, but as convoluted as some of the plots are, most of it is just nowhere near as complex as WoT. The casting, sets and costumes for Game of Thrones are pretty much spot on for how I imagined them while reading the books. Then again, they have the author there on hand keeping them on track as well. If they managed to do WoT the same way it would be good, but anything else just wouldn't do it justice.

[skyfirex]

Lol @ Edward and Bella. They could make Rand sparkle when he channeled. (I'm joking people)

 

Er, actually they could make Rand sparkle when seen through Min's eyes. Or Logain's and Suian's.

[Mr Ares]

Don't let it happen. I don't care what kind of CGI you use it isn't going to work. The whole point of the books is first person perspective. And this perspective jumps from person to person at will. And how will you view power weaves when some people can't see them and others can.

The books are written from a third person perspective, not first person. And it would hardly be the first time that a film or TV show has dealt with one person seeing something that another person doesn't.