WoT Movie

[Eben]

and the glow of Saidar!!

once in a while a guy will be around and he'll see nothing...but the women will be able to see it

and what about Mat's fox head medallion?

how would it be shown as cold? maybe he could touch it or something...

[SinisterDeath]

Obviously, mat will try to take his medalion off, the problem is, it' would be frozen to his chest. :P

[Kadere]

You could make the medallion grow darker, or have the actor playing Mat get goosebumps on his chest, or just have him complain that it was getting colder. When Aran'gar channels at him, the medallion goes from light grey to dark grey, and then Mat mutters something about it being colder. Something like that.

[Aminalcrakers]

Jumping in...

As to Mats foxhead, you could always have him shiver a bit or be able to see his breath like it is cold outside...just a thought

[Head of House Avery]

I don't think the idea of WoT movies would ever work because theyre way too detailed with far too many things happening in the books to fit into one movie, even if it is uberly long. What I think would be a better alternative would be a high budget TV Series, each episode could be a chapter or 2 from the book and would be an hour long and every season would be a different book I think it'd work out perfectly sick a TV series is way longer than a movie obviously and if it's high budget we still get all the CGI goodness

[Chosen_Graendal]

I always simply imagined Mat's reaction the Medalion going cold.

[Guest Majsju]

The easiest way would be to have Mat say something about the medallion being "bloody cold" first time it happens, and maybe at some later point as well.

[djon]

Chicken Little was in "Direct to Theater-digital 3D" and Polar Express in "IMAX 3D" the technology is available and only lacks the financial resources. How about a wayto encourage the studios! 8)

[Inara]

well

i am a newby here and i just finished reading all 8 pages of this argument...

ive been thinking about this topic for a very long time and imagining scenes in my head as i read. ive heard some of my ideas already discussed here as if ppl had read m diary....spooky, but i dont think many people have really thought about the possiblility of a long-running anime series. now similar suggestions to this have been met with quite alot of hostility but i think this is the only method of really putting RJ in absolute control of how his masterpiece is 'interpreted' for he screen. i think a movie is too ambitious, other than LOTR, no other decent fantasy movie has been made in real time. anime is the perfect medium for fantasy as it is very low budjet (therefore less chance of axing) it already has a huge fanbase all over the world, which would introduce new fans to RJs books, the innerdialogues is a HUGE point and is pretty staple to the genre.

think about it, impatient people dont read epic fantasy, so i would much prefer the prospect of settling in to watch tEotW in 10 or so hour-long episodes than in a rushed and incomplete movie with actors comparable to harry potter.

 

people forget though, tWoT and LOTR ar actually very different in structure, twot is episodal, most featured chraracters have 'magical' powers of some sort, there are hundreds of dramatically longlived and important characters (imagine having to cast that many ppl), most of these chararacters have innermonologues at some point, there are heaps but i'm raving now, so i'll let someone pick my arguements apart and com back for more.

[Kadere]

If one more person suggests anime I think I'm going to kill myself. The Wheel of Time is the (or certainly one of the) most ambitious American fantasy saga ever written. To dumb down a movie to an anime level would be a blasphime against all fantasy in general. I KNOW that WoT is structed very differently then LotR, and the amount of cutting that would have to go into those books due to their size is ENORMOUS! but I still think it's possible to do a live action version. Yes things will have to change, the plot will have to be tweeked, some characters will have to be cut, but the ONLY way to do this series JUSTICE is to do it live action. When I read the books I don't imagine big spikey haired guys with swords bigger then Everest running at the speed of light to do battle with each other for eons. This is a dramatic series with action, love, death, and more. Live action is the only way to do it.

[SinisterDeath]

Umm, you would actually be dumbing it down more in a realtime movie, then you would in anime.. I still don't get why so many people thinks anime = every guy looks like a 13 year old girl, and all the women look alike, and talk in high pitched voices, yabbering nonsense.... Anime has thousands of different styles, and certainly not dumbed down. You want to talk dumb? Look at Nickoldean, now thats dumbed down. Theres a very big difference between, cartoons and anime...

 

Is kadere gonna kamakazi now?

[Kadere]

I've always been kamakazi :D

 

I understand there are different types of anime from Dragonball Z, to Gundam Wing, to Dirty Pair Flash, to Evangelion, to Princess Mononoke, and that some are more fitting then others. I also agree that Nickeloden is the appedime of crappy cartoons. But I still can't see Wheel of Time as an animation movie or series.

 

An animated movie or series would do just as much cutting of the books, 3 hours is 3 hours. There's nothing that animation can do that special effects can't also do, especially in this day and age. Maybe when you read WoT you picture animated characters running around in an animated world just like the comic book of New Spring, but I (and I'm guessing most readers) think of actual people.

 

You'd have to have a cast of thousands to voice the thousand characters, or close enough to. We aren't going to get Kate Reading and Michael Kramer to do the entire movie for us, that would be lame. Sure you wouldn't have to build the sets, but I think the POINT of a movie is to make the world come into reality, and animation isn't going to do that.

 

Look at the animated movie they tryed to make for Lord of the Rings, or if you haven't seen that look at the animated movie of The Hobbit or Return of the King, these are BAD movies. Sure they entertain and get some of the basics, Return of the King is actually (in it's own way) more accurate then Peter Jackson's movie. I don't want to see The Eye of the World as a Saturday night movie on the Disney Channel.

 

These books are huge and incredibly well written, SOME would argue that they're as good or better then Lord of the Rings. If they can do as good a freaking job as they did with that trilogy, then they can do just about equal with this one. It would take longer, and be a heck of a lot more confusing to non-readers, but OH MY GOD would it be worth it.

[SinisterDeath]

The orginal hobbit/lord of the ring cartoons vs peter jacksons lotr... is like comparing full metal alchemist to sponge bob sqaure pants.

 

The orginal lotr cartoon movies were basically made in the 70's, and with a budget of like $30. Mostly consisting of chips and pot.

And when it comes to anime, they have one big plus over realtime movies. You can display inner monologue much better/easier then you can then on realtime movies, its not even that much of a "stigma" either! Things like channeling, can be made much less awkward to, the flows and everything, where as in realtime, special effects would do the same thing, however it would look.. tacky imo. Like some of those crappy low budget miniseries...

Speaking of mini series.. If someone could make a realtime mini-series of wot... I'd vote for the guy who did the Dune Saga on scifi. Talk about high budget & Awesome everything about it!

 

Anyways, each version has there own benefits & fall backs.

[Inara]

i agree with sinisterdeath on this one...

and i wished ppl would stop categorising anime and cartoons as a medium for children, most of the anime made in japan is Ma or R rated! the spiky hair and young features is an asian conceit, if it were to be don for twot RJ would be able to 'cast' whoever he wants in each part.

each chracter will be created in his vision, not that of some opinionated producer, voice talent is 'a dime a dozen' as they say.

the characters wont look like they do in japonese manga, they will look european or african...whatever is needed.

it will be easier to to a long-running series, even if they go straight to dvd, thefanbasewould be enough to sustain them. too many excellent live action movies and series get scrapped due to budjet!

 

it would kill me if they stopped halfway though

[Kadere]

Have you seen Harry Potter? That's 7 movies, all of which have done well in the box office, and they're not getting scrapped ever.

 

As long as the movies do well in the box office, there will be no reason to scrap the series. And Hollywood has an endless budget.

[SinisterDeath]

But that relies on one thing. Box Office proffits.

The first movie is critical. Harry Potters got 3 aspects.

Large Reading Fan Base.

Targeted orginally to kids between ages 6-15.

This then intern brings the parents with. IE family movies.

Basically meaning if 1 child wants to see it, they bring the entire family. Meaning proffit goes from 1person to 4. Ie proffit x4. Give or take 2.

 

Anyways, wheel of time is more adult orrientated, and less "child" so the initial box office hit, would litterally be this.

Reading fans + anyone else who watches trailers and gets interested. I don't think the wot real time movies would make to much money in the box office. Harry Potter/Lotr yes, because they are more child orientated.

[Kadere]

LotR is child oriented? Since when? Since they got huge in the 60s with college students? Or later when high school students also got involved? Harry Potter is for kids 4-12, LotR is for young adults 14-99. WoT is trying for the same fanbase. And whether you realize it or not there are about 12 million people who read WoT, then you add in their friends, their families, the other people who liked the trailer, the fans of LotR who want to see something like that again, the word of mouth, the international revenue, the Wienstien brothers marketing campaign, the Oscar buzz, the cute actors, and just about everything else that makes a movie a hit, you're looking at a $300 million dollar domestic gross. If Ice Age 2 can make $150 million in it's first 3 weeks in the middle of Spring, a holiday release of a film done at this magnitude should make a wopping amount no problem. And after the first movie's a hit, you're looking at more books being sold, and more people wanting to see the movies.

 

In the end you've got all the same problems with an animated film. If people don't see the film, the rest of the films won't be made. No company is going to make 12 films, animated or live action, that don't pull a major profit. And you've got the same problem with a series, animated or mini, if you don't get the viewers the series is cancelled. It's all a risk.

[Inara]

not to mention the harry potter movies are S**T!!!!!

all the charmo f the books seem to have been totally left out, dou YOU want to see that happen to twot.

i agree that lotr has a simiar readership to wot, however, it is much shorter, an there is very little inner dialogue.

oh and not to mention almost everyone in the literate world has heard of tolkein, i got into it beacause i had to read the hobbit for school!

 

yes i agree that every show has a chance of being cancelled, but there is always dvd, which i'm asssuming every fan of the books will get. that is a huge market.

also, the lower the budget, the less pressure there is on the show to get the big ratings...

they can put it on late at night, but it will still be on

[Kadere]

Let me first clap my hands for you. *clap* *clap* *clap*

 

You're personal prefrence of whether or not the HP movies are close enough to the book, is purely your own. I myself very much enjoyed all of the HP movies, and the books as well. I believe that most of the charm of the books is accurately portrayed in the movies. And since each movie has broken records and made hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, means that there are millions of people who liked them. The fact that you yourself have seen them adds to the fact that you'd see them whether or not they are "S**T".

 

No, I don't want to see WoT turned into an uncharming bunch of movies, but just because you happen to believe that one set of books was, doesn't mean that the director, producers, writers, actors, and everyone else will make WoT into the same thing as the HP movies. LotR for insteance is very good DESPITE the fact that HP is "S**T".

 

I'm glad you agree that LotR has a simaliar readership, but just because LotR is shorter doesn't mean that a movie of WoT can't be made. As stated earlier HP is MUCH longer then LotR and movies of them are being made as we sit here. There is also quite a bit of inner dialouge in LotR, and many events are taken out or changed in the movies. As I've stated earlier voice over can accomplish all of that, and would be no more "awkward" then if it was in an animated film or a tv series.

 

I also agree that everyone in the "literate world" has heard of tolkein, but you must remember: LotR has been around for almost 50 years. It did not become as popular as it was until a decade after it was finished. Wheel of Time is very popular already, and given decades after it's finished it could be even MORE popular, and I would argue that it probably will be. Just because Tolkein is VERY popular now, doesn't mean he was VERY popular the year after Return of the King was finished. In fact he wasn't.

 

DVD sales of a cancelled show don't gaurentee that the show won't stay cancelled. For every Family Guy there's a Firefly. And just because EVERY fan of WoT would buy the DVDs doesn't mean that the studio would start doing the show again. A low budget show would probably look like crap, and cut out everything we supposedly need because it's low budget. So just because it's low budget and on at a time when no one is watching tv doesn't mean that it won't again be cancelled. Look at adult swim, they cancel shows all the time even though "everyone" watchs.

 

The Wheel of Time doesn't have to be a bad movie, given the right director, cast, writers, and producers you could very well have a series that rivals that of Lord of the Rings. There is no way in hell that any form of film or television could satisfy every fan of these books, thus the risk factor. But if we're going to risk, we might as well risk it all and go for an all out, live-action movie event. Just think, if it works, and you all liked it, then we'd have nothing to argue about.

[Inara]

you mistake my meaning when i say 'low budget'...

anime productions are notoriously 'low budget' compared to live action series with big special effects, by low budget, i mean that RJ could be in total control, in fact he could probably even afford to produce it himself. actors are paid unreal ammounts of money for the right to their face on screen, this way the characters are exactly what they are meant to be, the money could be spent on the score/voice talent/advertising/preproduction/you name it

live action is just not suited to fantasy...

the only thing that comes close is computer animation or good old fashioned pen and paper

 

im glad you liked the lotr movies, but i beg to differ with hp...the soul of the book was not in the movies...i looked and i looked, but its just not there. the soul of that story is in the details, the symmetry and the characters...they scrapped the details and the characters from the book..

there was barely anything left except hollywood

 

i know all about good tv shows being cancelled, i live in australia, there are 5 channels, 3 of which are commercial and seem to want to outdo each other on the ammount of sport, news, reality tv, and mainstream american programming (desperate housewives, lost, prisonbreak, whatever) they can broadcast, SF/fantasy is not 'in vogue' atm, the cancelled stargate sg1 after season 7 even though the team are making season 10 now...

 

(whoa..big rant..im enjoying this)

[Kadere]

The actors who are paid unreal amounts of money for their face on the screen are big actors who are already famous and can demand outrageous amounts. I'm suggesting newer actors, or less famous ones. Looking at LotR you'll see that outside of MAYBE Ian McKellan you don't have any big name actors. Peter Jackson purposefully hired a bunch of no names so that the movies wouldn't be termed "A Tom Cruise vehicale."

 

I disagree that live-action is not suited for fantasy, looking at LotR, HP, Narnia, Willow, Star Wars, King Kong, Dune, and a bunch of others, you can see that live action and a green screen can do wonders for fantasy. Again it depends on the director, writer, cast, and producers of the project. If you got a die hard fan of WoT to make the movies, like they did with LotR, then you'd get a film that other die hard fans could enjoy. An animated film or television program would cost less money, but (in my humble opinion) it would not be able to bring to reality the magic of the WoT world. I would want to actually see the lands and characters in live action as I imagine them in my head when I read the books. For me, less would simply be to little.

 

You're right that Sci-Fi/Fantasy shows aren't popular right now, so how does making a Fantasy animated show, that you put on late at night, suddenly going to make it popular enough to actually do the whole series?

 

Hollywood, right now, is killing themselves to make the next LotR, because they want to make the money. They're willing to pour hundreds of millions into any franchise in the hopes it becomes popular. WoT is not undoable. With current technology there is nothing in those books that could not be portrayed on the big screen. Will it be as great and wonderful as the books? No. Of course not. HP is better as a book and so is LotR, and Dune, and King Kong, and Narnia. But by no means are these movies terrible. I've seen terrible films, and those don't rank amoung them. A low budget, animated show, or movie, is simply going to turn into what every other fantasy animated show or movie has turned into, garbage. This series deserves the full treatment, to do less would be unjust.

[elmindreda]

i think a mvie would be a great idea but the problem is i can onli see the first 2 books being mde and then i would be incomplete

 

i hope it looks good if they do because they need to pay robert jordans fabulous writing justice

 

a human version i think would be the best suited

 

(its one of my firstpost yay!!)

[Kadere]

welcome elmindreda. I hope to have you come back to this thread, since it's becoming such a heated issue at the moment.

 

I'm also glad that you want live action! WOOT!

 

But I disagree that only the first two books could be done. Sure the story spreads out more in the other books, but then you just have to cut between each story thread like they did in LotR.

 

As long as the first two movies do well, then they would keep making them. Hollywood just wants to make a profit.

[Inara]

just for the record, i would love to see a fantasy movie that eveen comes close to lotr, but, no matter how many i go to see, i always seem to be disappointed..

king kong is a monster movie (great movie, not really fantasy)

the new narnia movie didnt come CLOSE to satisfying me, i still watch the bbc version on vhs and i think they did a better job (cs.lewis was the first author i read in english...mega favourite)

special effects dont make the movie

we cant rely on 'computer geeks' (and i use this term in the most affectionate way) to make this a reality if you want live action, which is exactly what would happen (although most of them are probably huge fans any way )

 

i have had a thought

 

you youreself said that RJs popularity will only increse in time, the secret to the success of lotr was eveyones obsession...mabey we need to wait until the timing is right, when we have a renegade filmaker who has grown up on the books, a cast of great actors who 'fight' each other for the roles

 

at this point in time, imho, the best result would be obtained from an anime-style animated series

[Kadere]

Well I most certainly agree with your second to last point. Waiting for the books to become more popular is certainly a good idea.

 

But I still disagree with your last point. At least, if they did that, I really don't think I'd watch more then the first few episodes.