On 05/10/2018 at 9:28 PM, Maedelin said:

Oh Light.  Will they keep the Aes Sedai ageless looking face?  If they keep it, how would they show it?  I do not think I can even explain how I see it in my head. xD

 

What does everyone else thing?

There's a technology called Digital Noise Reduction (DNR). When used properly, it removes grain and pops from old film stock to make for a better image when it is scanned in HD or 4K. It's very useful for getting old movies and TV shows upgraded to modern high-def. When used badly, it goes haywire and starts "smoothing" everything on screen, making it weird and soft-looking. On people, it can remove a lot of the detailed features, especially of the skin, and make people look slightly off-putting and fake. Fox used it particularly badly on their recent HD remastering of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (especially in Season 1) and it has that effect.

If you fiddled around with it and reduced its effect to just a character's face, it could achieve the same fate as the Aes Sedai ageless look. 

Quote

 

I think the best thing they can do is to make Mazrim Taim be Demandred as originally intended. Yes I know Jordan denied this but I still don't believe him, he just made it too obvious.

 

 

 

We know now from RJ's notes that yes, Taim was Demandred and, yes, it was changed because the fans figured it out. So that could be kept the same, and Shara kept firmly off-screen altogether.

Here's my attempt at such a map or diagram of the White Tower.

My initial thoughts for a somewhat more realistic cast list:

Rand – Louis Hoffman (from the Netflix series Dark, although he's not that tall but they can always work round that)

Lan – Daniel Wu (from Into the Badlands)

Egwene – Ally Ioannides (also from Into the Badlands); Camilla Mendes from Riverdale I thought was also a good match

Nynaeve – Jessica Henwick (from Game of Thrones and Iron Fist/Defenders)

Moiraine – Morena Baccarin (from Firefly and the Deadpool movies)

Thom Merrillin – Miltos Yerolemou (from Game of Thrones, where he played Syrio Forel)

Padan Fain – Callum Keith Rennie (from Battlestar Galactica and  Jessica Jones)

Lanfear – Eva Green or Katie McGrath (the latter from Merlin and Supergirl)

Elaida – Maria Doyle Kennedy (from Orphan Black and The Tudors)

Galad – Bradley James (from Merlin)

Of course, some of these are more likely than others. Into the Badlands seems to be doing really well for AMC, so those actors are likely locked in there for a long time to come.

EotW is very reminsicent of LotR in tone and structure, and it makes a lot of people bail out of reading the whole series because they think it's a Tolkien rip-off. It was one of the more challenging questions as to how they were going to address that in the TV show. They're not massively going to change the story or anything around, so it sounds like they'll address it through emphasis, shifting the early POV from Rand (which pretty much destroys any tension as to the identity of the Dragon Reborn) to Moiraine. To what degree they do that is unclear though, as apparently Episode 1, Scene 1 is still Rand and Tam on the road into Emond's Field. It might not very different at all to the books.

Red Eagle are Producers In Name Only. They'll have a production credit, in recognition for the work they did in setting up the original deal with Sony, but that will be it. Judkins was cracking jokes about Billy Zane, so his opinion of the Red Eagle infomercial appears to be fairly low.

Harriot have even the limit influence on the production that RR Martin seems to have had on Game of Thrones.

GRRM wrote multiple episodes of the TV show, had limited casting approval, acts as a creative and visual consultant, had (and still has) final say on any spin-offs that are made and got both a big chunk of cash up front and a slice of the revenue the series makes, not to mention benefiting in the form of 73 million (and counting) extra books sold as a result of the TV show being made. His deal was exceptional by TV standards and unusual (because he used to work in Hollywood so knew what kind of deal to make). I suspect Harriet's deal will be significantly less generous, mainly because of the legal mess the situation ended up in. However, they do say they will be using Harriet as a consultant (and not anyone at Red Eagle).

On 17/09/2018 at 5:04 PM, solarz said:

Faile is confirmed, but not Perrin???

These are the only characters mentioned explicitly by the showrunner. So of course Perrin will be in the show and I think we can assume most major characters from the books will be.

Where characters will likely be cut is around the level of Weiramon, Dobraine and about 80% of the Aes Sedai named or mentioned in the books, unless their casting budget is ten times higher than Game of Thrones.

Huge Q&A with the showrunner today.

Main take-aways:

• The books will not be mapped 1:1 to the TV show seasons. This sounds like the approach taken by The Expanse (which took all of Season 1 and then 4 episodes from Season 2 to adapt Book 1, then 8 episodes of Season 2 and 5 from Season 3 to adapt Book 2 etc) and the new His Dark Materials show (which will adapt 3 books across 5 seasons).
• Episodes will be 1 hour long each.
• There'll be more than 5, but definitely less than 14, seasons in total.
• Amazon hasn't greenlit the project yet but there's been positive sounds in the last few months (which is why he's been allowed to do the Q&A).
• New Spring may be adapted as well, possibly as a special of some kind once the series is fully underway (could be a good way of keeping Moiraine and Lan's actors interested when they're not doing much in the main series).
• The TV show will be a faithful adaptation of the books, but will of course have to condense some characters, storylines. Apparently the "latter middle" section of the series may be compressed a bit more (i.e. PoD through CoT, surprising nobody). Judkins notes himself as a Lady Stoneheart fan (from Game of Thrones) and was sorry to see her cut from the TV show, but these things are sometimes necessary.
• He wants to cast Rand and the Aiel as "tall gingers" if possible.
• On LGTBQ+ representation, there'll be "pillow friends out of the wazoo."
• How channelling will be handled is still being discussed, but Judkins liked how the magic was done in Doctor Strange and Avengers: Infinity War, which may serve as a template.
• Trollocs and other Shadowspawn may be a combination of CGI and prosthetics, but he feels that prosthetics is better for both actor and viewer immersion.
• Billy Zane will not be reprising his role of Ishamael from the Red Eagle informercial.
• Judkins is aiming for the quality level of the LotR movies or GoT, definitely not Shannara.
• Brandon Sanderson, Harriet and the rest of Team Jordan will advise on the show's development, some more than others (I suspect Brandon will be busy with his own books to do a huge amount, though).
• Confirmed characters: Rand, Egwene, Cenn Buie (if less than in the book), Logain (in an expanded role), Tam, Bela, Padan Fain (who'll be less obviously a villain), Faile, Mat. His favourite Forsaken are Graendal and Moghedien, so it sounds like they'll be in as well.
• Unconfirmed characters: Aviendha, Min, Elayne. Judkins notes that the four-way relationship from the books isn't really viable for the show and will be changed. He refused to confirm if this means that some of these characters will be merged or cut. I suspect this is the most controversial take-away from the Q&A. My guess is that the characters will still be in the show and Rand may be sequential relationships with them, but won't be in a polygamous relationship with all of them at once.
• His favourite character is Egwene and his favourite scene is Dumai's Wells. His least favourite character is Faile, but promises she'll be awesome on the show. In terms of tough scenes to write, Tel'aran'rhiod is proving problematic (mainly as they won't know how it's going to be depicted until the vfx department comes on board).
• There'll be less braid-tugging and dress-smoothing than in the books. There will be one braid-tug in the first episode though.
• No decision yet on filming locations. He hopes the budget will be large enough so they can visit the most appropriate locations around the world.

On 30/08/2018 at 8:39 PM, HighWiredSith said:

Episode 1 ends with the fight in Shadar Logoth.  I would completely cut out the stuff in Baerlon and have the group leave Emond's field, a few LOTR type traveling sequences, maybe a conversation around a campfire, and then start the entire Shadar Logoth sequence, end with the separation.  Episode 2 could end where the book ends.  Stuff is going to have be cut out, no way around it.  Perrin and Egewene's visit to the Tinkers, condense that entire subplot to a single encounter with the Children of the Light, make that Perrin's introduction into wolf-hood, the wolves coming to his aid and creating that bond.  As for Rand and Matt, you could excise most of that plot, take out his meeting with Elayne, leave that introduction for later, bring Loil in at Whitebridge, have the group re-group, hit the ways, and into the blight, roll credits.   

Sorry, I was talking about what the actual TV writers are doing. They've already confirmed that Episode 1 will cover the introduction, Winternight, battle for Emond's Field etc, and Episode 2 will then be Shadar Logoth (and presumably Baerlon as well, although they may indeed cut that or speed through it).

At the moment we know that Episode 1 ends with the team leaving Emond's Field and Episode 2 takes them through the Shadar Logoth encounter. So whilst they're going fast, EotW is clearly going to cover 6-8 episodes at the lower end, not 2 or 3.

The question at the moment is if they are working towards 1 book per (short) season or 2 books per a standard 12-13 episode season.

On 18/08/2018 at 5:49 PM, Durzan said:

Any additional news so far?

Yes. The showrunner, Rafe Judkins, is actually posting new information every (or almost every) Wednesday on his Twitter and Instagram feeds.

So far we know that Sony is making the show, Amazon are funding and will show it and the series has two writers in the bag already: Judkins (Agents of SHIELD) and Amanda Kate Shuman (The Blacklist). They have completed writing the first two episodes: 101 will be called Leavetakings and 102 will be called Shadow's Waiting.

Judkins has also confirmed four characters from the books (so far) will be in the TV show: Rand, Mat, Tam and Bela. Presumably most of the main cast from the early books will be in the show, but I expect to see massively less characters than are in the books later on (we're not going to get 150 Aes Sedai characters who are pretty similar to one another).

They've also said (today) that they will be looking for a fairly diverse cast to reflect the books: East Asian-looking actors for Shienar, ginger-haired actors for the Aiel Waste etc.

It is coming out, it's just going to take years. We've got Bethesda's current project, which is almost certainly Starfield, and then *another project* they're working on simultaneously, and after that they'll move onto Elder Scrolls 6. I wouldn't expect to see it for another five years or so minimum, and a Fallout 5 will be even longer after that.

And yes, it was very silly of Bethesda to make people wait for that long for the next game in the series. They should have put together some other arrangement where they can crank the games out more quickly.

The showrunner is making occasional Twitter and Instagram posts confirming he's working on the script.

On 12/03/2018 at 4:11 PM, Sabio said:

Honestly if it's ever made I would be shocked.  How long have we heard of a WOT movie in the works etc...  Just seems like the longer they wait since the series ended the slimmer the chances get.

It's worth noting that previously options have been taken out, but never before has the option been taken up and the project gone into active development. So this latest project is certainly by far the most serious and has gotten much further than ever before. It's not 100% greenlit yet, but almost.

The Invasion by Peadar O Guilin

The island of Ireland has been sealed off from the rest of the world by a mystical barrier. Technology cannot penetrate it. The people of Ireland, the division between north and south no longer mattering, are under constant attack. Every teenager is "Called", summoned to another realm where they do battle with the Aes Sidhe, the ancient rulers of Ireland before they were banished in a great war. The Sidhe have a day in their realm (three minutes in ours) to hunt down and kill the child, otherwise the victime escapes. Sometimes the Sidhe spare the victim, to return them home mutilated or "changed" in some horrific fashion. Most of the time, the Sidhe kill the victim.

 

Nessa has survived her Call, despite her deformed legs. Refusing to believe she could survive without betraying the Nation, Nessa's government imprisons her and subjects her to torture and interrogation. As Nessa tries to find a way of escaping, the last barriers between Ireland and the Grey Land begin to fail, and the invasion begins in earnest...

 

The Call was one of the genre highlights of 2016, a striking mash-up of Koushun Takami's Battle Royale, Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies and the TV series Skins, but elevated by O'Guilin's signature dark wit and his sure grasp of Irish mythology. The Invasion (formerly entitled The Cauldron) is the continuation of this story.

Picking up quickly where The Call left off, the concluding part of the tale (this is a duology with the overall title The Grey Land; no trilogies here) follows three separate narratives: Nessa's misadventures in prison as a suspected enemy of the state; Anto as a soldier on the front lines of the invasion itself and Aoife back in the school, helping pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the Sidhe's failed attack. These narratives develop in swift parallel, the relentless pace picking up as each group of characters finds themselves in jeopardy, but also moving towards finding a resolution to the crisis. This results in rapid-fire chapters as we switch between groups (with occasional, brief switches to other characters) and get a more thorough understanding of how the war is proceeding.

 

The Call was a dark novel, but The Invasion is darker and more gruesome still, despite ostensibly being a YA book. There's also frank discussions of sexuality and a lot of earthy humour. The Invasion gives its young target audience a lot of credit for their maturity and their intelligence.

 

If there is a complaint, it may be that the book ends a touch abruptly. Things build to a major climax and we get that, with the revelations expanding on what we learned earlier in the novel (or in the preceding one) but the story does feel like it moves from midpoint to endgame in the space of just a chapter or two. Or it might just be that O'Guilin does such a great job of keeping the narrative ticking that it all being over is disappointing. Still, brave to the author for keeping this story constrained and tight rather than expanding things to a trilogy (which, given the first book's success, must have been tempting).

 

The Invasion (****) is available in the UK and USA now.

 

Edit: I had a few people ask about this when the first book came out, so will reiterate it here: the term "Aes Sidhe" is the original Irish term ("Aos Si" is a more recent form) for a mythological species of fairies or elves who originally ruled Ireland before being defeated by men. The Book of Conquests (also The Book of Invasions or The Book of the Taking of Ireland) is an account of this conflict, dating back to the 11th Century but based on considerably older oral traditions.

 

Needless to say, the term massively predates the term "Aes Sedai", which Robert Jordan borrowed from the Irish for his Wheel of Time sequence beginning in 1990. O'Guilin is simply using the original term from Irish mythology.

Amazon just picked up a Conan TV show, which suggests that they may be open to helming more than one fantasy show at a time. Although of course now that means they need to be willing to work on three simultaneously for WoT to have a shot.

@Werthead

Quote

 

 What’s your take on Rafe being picked to rewrite the Uncharted movie? Good, bad or means nothing in regards to WoT?

 

At this stage, largely irrelevant. Until Sony confirm their partnership with a network (or go it alone), there's probably not much for him to do on WoT (I assume a pilot script was written ages ago). Benioff and Weiss did this on GoT, after writing the pilot script they broke off and did other things for a while (like working on the Halo movie that never got made) until HBO greenlit GoT and they snapped back to that. They even wrote some movie treatments and other things whilst working on GoT, and have started development work on another HBO series.

Uncharted has also been in development for years with multiple writers and script drafts attached, so this will be less of a writing from scratch job than another pass at a pre-existing draft. Much less time-consuming. Depending on your workload, a scriptwriter could do it in a week or two.

Quote

 

In other words: it's a joke-adaptation.

 

Because they can't stop the actors ageing? That's going to be a problem for WoT. In fact, even moreso. It's possible to very likely that the show will have 18 month gaps between seasons assuming a high production quality. Assuming 7 seasons, it'll possibly take 10-11 years to get the show done. So any actors they start with in their late teens or early twenties will be in the late twenties or early thirties by the time it's done. There's no realistic way around that.

Quote

 

But I really don't understand this new 'development'. Without a studio/network, how can he do anything? He cannot plan anything without knowing the finacial backgrounds etc. And why now? What's he done so far? Is he working totally alone? Or there's a team? Judging by the condition of the books he went to a bookstore and bought a stripped book a few days ago and that's it...

 

Sony have been talking about making their shows themselves and then selling the finished product to networks, rather than teaming with a network in the first place. That would make sense as they nearly did that for the Dark Tower TV series, so WoT would be a logical way of handling the situation. I know Sony felt burned on their experiences working alongside AMC on Breaking Bad which led them to that idea, but then again their experience on Better Call Saul has been a lot better so they might have retreated from the idea. But certainly as part of the process of selling the show to a network, they'll need completed scripts, a series bible, an outline for the series overall, notes on the characters etc.

The books I believe are his original paperbacks from the early 1990s. I think it's his way of showing he's been a WoT fan for twenty plus years and is old-skool (i.e. he didn't hear about the books five minutes before he was asked to helm he project).

His experience so far has been in network TV: My Own Worst Enemy, Chuck, Hemlock Grove and, most recently, Agents of SHIELD (fortunately since it stopped being unwatchable). Not an outstanding CV but not an embarrassing one either.

That information seems in line with what we know. Sony are taking the project seriously - far more seriously than Dark Tower, thankfully - but they have not joined forces with a studio/network production partner yet, so that is the biggest problem to be overcome.

My understanding is that, frustratingly, Sony were very close to signing a deal with Amazon but Amazon then asked for a delay. During that time the Lord of the Rings prequel project came up and Amazon went with that instead. Them making Wheel of Time as well as LotR is unlikely, as I understand it, so the WoT project went back out to the networks. This has caused problems because a lot of the other studios have signed up other fantasy projects in the meantime.

So to recap, HBO are out because of GoT and the spin-off project; Showtime are out because of the Kingkiller Chronicle prequel project; Netflix are probably out because of The Witcher; AMC likely won't provide a big enough budget; Starz are less likely to commit because of their immense expenditure on American Gods and Outlander; Paramount/Spike already have Shannara; Amazon have the Lord of the Rings series; SyFy don't have enough money (they had to cancel Dark Matter to afford Nightflyers) and so forth.

There are some interesting options on the table. Apple TV really need a big flagship project to spearhead their invasion of the TV space and don't have one yet. Netflix may feel that the relative small scale of The Witcher means they have scope and time for a bigger project as well. FX are a pretty good possibility, especially now they've been bought by Disney. Disney could also decide that WoT is a good match for Hulu or their new adult streaming service launching in 2019 (with a new Marvel show and the first-ever Star Wars live action TV series). Starz may decide to plump for a third big series, especially with American Gods' future in doubt. We may also see CBS All Access getting in on the act. They have deep pockets but they also need more content for the streaming service: Star Trek Discovery is popular but one show isn't going to keep interest going.

Another interesting piece of information: Sony have been quietly developing a TV series based on Joe Abercrombie's First Law fantasy series. First Law is much darker and grimmer than WoT, so this may be a sign that Sony are interested in developing multiple fantasy projects with different focuses. But there must be a concern that if First Law moves forward, their focus may shift to that. I don't believe that's likely, as WoT was far more expensive (eight figures for the rights) and has a far higher global profile, but it may be something worth bearing in mind.

On the plus side, WoT showrunner Rafe Judkins has tweeted that he is working on the books for the adaptation, which may be a sign that something is going on behind the scenes.

Quote

One more thing. I was sent a few pictures of GOT this afternoon, and I had to ask the sender that who are these people, because I had no idea that 30+ years old actors are playing the teens.

There were no 30+ actors playing the teens. The oldest age difference I believe were Kit Harington and Richard Madden, who were both 23, playing 14-year-olds who'd been canonically aged up to around 18 in the show. Of course, the show has been on the air for 7 years so Harington is 30 now, but they explain that in the show by having the series cover a lot longer period of time than the books.

House of cards got cancelled for other reasons too. There’s a vacuum at Netflix, they might look to do WoT frugally, no?

This was the last season of House of Cards anyway, they'd not quite pulled the trigger on it because they've been talking about doing a spin-off and were apparently debating on whether to make it a whole new show or continue it under the same name. This is why the current round of controversy is a slight headache for Netflix rather the major catastrophe it would have been two seasons back.

I don't think you can do WoT frugally, at least not do so and do it any justice. It doesn't need $100 million a season from the off, but you can't do it for much less than the $6 million an episode that GoT started with back in 2011, and if you look at the first season now it's painfully obvious how much less money they had. 

My thoughts on what the Lord of the Rings TV series from Amazon means for Wheel of Time.

In short, Amazon was really the best shot for a WoT TV show. If Amazon is going with the better name recognition of Tolkien, it leaves WoT without a really obvious home. I don't believe that AMC will be capable of giving the show the budget it needs, HBO turned down Tolkien because of their commitment to the GoT franchise so they're never going to touch another fantasy series for many years to come, and Showtime have signed up to do the Rothfuss prequel TV show instead. Starz and Hulu I think are a long shot. Netflix might be the only card left on the table, but they've got themselves into some debt issues and are looking for a lot of cheaper shows going forwards (cancelling Sense8 and House of Cards due to their expense) with only one or two expensive tentpoles, which going forwards will be Stranger Things and maybe Altered Carbon (depending on how the first season does).

I doubt HBO.  But there are other pay-networks that might want into the Fantasy genre.  Starz, Showtime, etc...  Its not all HBO.

 

But, then AMC does a pretty good job with its shows, too.  Just no major networks, please.

 

Werthead, they could do Trollocs with practical effects, rather than CGI.  That would cut the budget considerably.

It will not be HBO. HBO are not interested in competing with themselves and they are lining up a GoT spinoff show to replace GoT once it is done.

I agree on the prosthetics approach. It would be simpler and look better. The Draghkar and Darkhounds will need to be CGI already, making the Trollocs non-CGI will make life easier for everyone. Plus the prosthetic orcs in the LotR trilogy are far superior to the CG orcs in The Hobbit movies.

ANyhoo, same deal, take a niche kinda book series, glam it up for tv and hope it draws new fans.

 

 

Outlander was big, but not "the biggest-selling series in its genre for 50 years" big, which is what WoT is.

They can't even get the title of the first book right. So I'm not holding my breath on the rest of it. And no, I don't excuse such a 'typo'.

That was Variety who made that mistake, not the original press release from Sony. Variety are a trade website, they're not involved in making the show.

That is great. But LOTR is in print only because of the films. There was nothing in the 90's, and what was available was expensive. At least where I lived. 

LotR has been in continuous print since 1954. It would easily still be in print without the films. In the 1990s there was even a big boom in sales of LotR, driven by the explosion in popularity of the rest of the genre, before the movies came out. LotR has sold over 400 million copies and about 50-60 million of that came after the films.

REE are absolutely 100% involved in the Creative production of the show

 

 

This is a pretty illogical statement. Red Eagle were a rights-handling firm set up to buy the rights from RJ and sell them on for a credit and a profit to recoup their initial investment. If everything had gone according to plan and there'd never been any acrimony with Team Jordan or the fanbase, Red Eagle would still not be expected to have any creative input on a TV show or movie. That's not how rights-handling companies operate and it's certainly not how movie or TV studios work. They will put their own team in charge, unless maybe the rights-handling company had lots of TV creatives with experience in the industry already (which REE don't).

There seems to be a tug of war over the narrative here which is a bit pointless. Red Eagle have done what they set out to do, retain a stake in the project and its success to their benefit. However, it sounds bad after thirteen years of them saying they'd be involved in making the show that they won't have much to do with it (even though they never were going to have much to do with it) so they're trying to say they will have creative input (which arguably they will: they'll probably have the showrunner's email address and can pipe in some ideas every now and then). However, they won't be making decisions and they won't be approving anything, and they will have zero creative control over the process.

It's silly because, actually, everyone has come out of this with something they wanted: REE get a credit and some money (and, lest we forget, they set up the original meeting with Sony back in 2014 which probably led to this deal), fans get the knowledge that REE won't be intimately involved in the project and the TV show gets made and everyone can move on.

I think it'd be decent on AMC. But they will be cutting a lot of stuff out of it. I don't see how they can afford showing much of the One Power or more than a few Trollocs on screen.

OTOH, this might be the project that convinces AMC they need to stop being so cheap and start putting some serious money into their shows, which can only be for the good. I agrees effects and money are not everything, but you can't make a show like WoT on a low budget, it'll look terrible and will put off people from watching it.

Red Eagle will on board as Producers In Name Only. They didn't win the legal battle last year, there was an out-of-court resolution. The traditional outcome in cases like this is that they would agree not to hold things up by continuing legal action in return for a slice of the pie. So they'll get a credit and a relatively nominal payment and won't be involved day-to-day (Judkins - who was a contestant on Survivor in 2005! - will be the primary writer and producer and they rarely take on board advice from rights-holding companies).

Much depends on the channel that picks this up. If it's FX, Starz, Netflix or Amazon, I think it could do very well. If it's AMC - and I'm hearing that AMC may have the best shot or first refusal but are not a lock - I would be more concerned. AMC are tightwads in how much money they spend and Wheel of Time needs 14-16 episode seasons and at least (bare minimum) $5 million per episode to start with (a lot more later on). AMC, on the other hand, have refused to give a budget increase to The Walking Dead from its already-low budget of $3.2 million for over four years despite it being one of the most popular TV shows on the planet, which is ridiculously cheap of them.

2. These shows are pure garbage. OK, we were young back then, so we watched (a few) episodes/seasons from them, but I just talked with pals (15-20 p, age 25-45) about X and Twin, and everybody agreed with my statement. And nobody talks about them; more and more people say that films and tv shows are unwatchable, or the market is oversaturated as hell ... I won't go into it.

These shows were enormously popular back then and remain so now: Fox commissioned six new episodes of The X-Files and it was the most successful new TV drama on their network last year (although only one episode was arguably really good, the rest were meh). More will follow. Showtime has spent an absolutely insane amount of money on the new Twin Peaks, to the tune of many tens of millions of dollars and convincing David Lynch (who hasn't directed a live-action project in a decade) to direct the entire thing, and are already ramping up marketing four months out. It may turn out to be rubbish, but it's certainly not the case that no-one cares about them.

The market being oversaturated, I agree. Personally I'd like to see a moratorium on all new TV shows for five years to give everyone a chance to catch up on what they want to see before unloading new stuff. But in terms of quality, TV is probably the best it's ever been, and that's backed up by the enormous viewing figures and critical reception across the board.

The market has absolutely never been as favourable for a Wheel of Time TV show right now. If it doesn't get made now, and if as is possible we see a decline or crash in a few years, the chances of it ever being made disappear.