[TV] The Wheel of Time

[jvbastel]

I'm not sure if posts about not yet ongoing series are OK but I wanted to share this, so here goes:

The popular Wheel of Time Fantasy epic will be turned into a TV series. There had been problems with the rights to the IP but they seem to have been settled, and a major studio will be adapting the story to television.

The announcement can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/103674399065634804648/posts

I'm both excited and scared. I love the series, and hope it will be given the respect it deserves. Netflix or HBO doing a Wheel of Time adaption would be a dream!

[Lillpapps]

I'm definitely watching this. Not expecting too much though.

[Gallahadd]

Sweet! I thought you were talking about that godawful pilot from before! An actually decent studio doing this could be excellent.

If they throw the kind of money at it that HBO throws at GoT, but stays closer to the source material, this could be legendary.

[Wilderness]

I love WoT and will definitely be checking it out. But I think it will be very hard to pull off, and I'm not optimistic that it will turn out well.

[Waynhim]

Stopped reading them after the 3rd book or something, grew bored with that order of priestesses getting more and more content in the books.

My bet it'll be just as bad as the one based on The Sword of Truth series, (which books are better IMO).

[Kretan]

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/characte...Lanfear/simple

My Main ^

So needless to say I'm excited

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Stopped reading them after the 3rd book or something, grew bored with that order of priestesses getting more and more content in the books.

My bet it'll be just as bad as the one based on The Sword of Truth series, (which books are better IMO).

I think there is a very strong love/hate relationship for Jordan's writing style. In my eyes, the beginning of the series was strong, the middle kind of dragged, and the ending was fantastic. Some people love the level of detail he wrote to, but I definitely understand if people couldn't stand it haha. I always loved the way he wrote because while the build up to the endings of books were long, when you got to the climax of the book, it was just fantastic how everything fell in to place. That was why I loved it.

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I love WoT and will definitely be checking it out. But I think it will be very hard to pull off, and I'm not optimistic that it will turn out well.

I think that one thing we have to remember is that different media has different styles, and that the TV series would likely take a very different story telling route. In the end, the series is trying to recreate the story rather than the exact method in which it was delivered through the books.

I am more worried about how prevalent magic is in the series translating to a tv series...Game of thrones doesn't suffer this fate because most of it is straight up sword fighting.

I was intrigued by an adaptation of this series to movies just for the high budget special effects.....but I fear the series would have but very different to get that.

[dwightyo39]

They need Melissa Mcbride to play Cadsuane.

[Wilderness]

I think there is a very strong love/hate relationship for Jordan's writing style. In my eyes, the beginning of the series was strong, the middle kind of dragged, and the ending was fantastic. Some people love the level of detail he wrote to, but I definitely understand if people couldn't stand it haha. I always loved the way he wrote because while the build up to the endings of books were long, when you got to the climax of the book, it was just fantastic how everything fell in to place. That was why I loved it.

Yeah, I do think people go pretty strongly towards either love or hate - not many people are going to read a series that long, while thinking the whole way "eh, this is alright". If you start feeling that way you're probably going just give up along the way. I'm kind of in that boat with the Malazan books that were recently highly recommended by several people. I'm only early in book 2 but book 1 wasn't that interesting to me and looking ahead and 14 more books after this one makes me not want to keep going. I might switch to audiobook for a while just to listen when I have nothing else to do and see if it draws me in or if I give up.

Back to WoT: Personally, while the middle did drag a little bit, one of the things that I do really like about the world he created was the level of detail in that world and how all of its characters interact with each other and that world, so while things slowed down and kind of dove into that detail a little too much in the middle, I still enjoyed it. Obviously the beginning and the end were both awesome.

I think that one thing we have to remember is that different media has different styles, and that the TV series would likely take a very different story telling route. In the end, the series is trying to recreate the story rather than the exact method in which it was delivered through the books.

I am more worried about how prevalent magic is in the series translating to a tv series...Game of thrones doesn't suffer this fate because most of it is straight up sword fighting.

I was intrigued by an adaptation of this series to movies just for the high budget special effects.....but I fear the series would have but very different to get that.

Sure, I agree with that. I don't expect a TV series to capture everything in the books - and even those of us who love the books are probably aware that there are things that could be cut out of a TV show without harming the main stories at all. But its still going to be difficult to pull off. Because Jordan was so detailed and descriptive of the world he created, I think we all have a pretty good idea in our heads about what it should look like. I think GoT has done a very good job doing that there, but its not an easy task and of course they have a big budget backing them. Even then they are still limited in the battles and effects that they can pull off because that stuff gets real costly real quick. Once you get past the first few couple of books channeling becomes more and more prevalent and a larger part of the overall story. I'm not sure how you can capture that sort of thing on TV - obviously you can see the effects, having people throwing fire around, drying out their clothes, and anything else. But a lot of the interesting parts of channeling is the weave, how the different elements interact, etc. I think a lot of that will get lost because it will be difficult/impossible to actually show to the level of detail described in the books.

They have a tough challenge ahead of them - making a good show from the material has a high degree of difficulty. Even then they could make a very good show that could still be disappointing to a lot of fans. I hope that I'd recognize if it is a good show despite it not being what the books are, but I do love WoT so I guess we'll see. I'll probably be watching every episode even if I don't like it though lol

[dwightyo39]

I think the book series could have told the same story with 9 books.

[Simplex]

I was actually wondering how the whole thing with that pilot turned out. I wonder how many seasons it will have, provided that it's gonna be a success. Such a long story could easily run into problems with aging (and sadly also dying) actors if it lasts for too long (looking at you GoT). Admitedly, there aren't that many kids and none of them are present throughout the whole thing.

I'm also curious, what ageless faces, channeling and weaves are going to look like.

[apepi]

Stopped reading them after the 3rd book or something, grew bored with that order of priestesses getting more and more content in the books.

Pretty much, I think I stopped on the 3rd or 4th book. I am interested in watching it if they make it, but not very excited.

I would honestly would like someone to make a Stormlight Archive TV show, I feel like that could go very well, it paces so well so far.

[Gallahadd]

I would honestly would like someone to make a Stormlight Archive TV show, I feel like that could go very well, it paces so well so far.

that could work VERY well. I think they should probably wait until the series is at least close to finished though... We don't want another GoT situation where they eventually catch up and then exceed the books.

[apepi]

that could work VERY well. I think they should probably wait until the series is at least close to finished though... We don't want another GoT situation where they eventually catch up and then exceed the books.

I think they could easily get two seasons out fo the first book and even maybe three in the second one.

[Gallahadd]

You think? Tbh, even if that was true, well call that five years. In that time he'll have put out one more book, two more years for that... He'll call it three.

The next book won't be out yet. So we hit the same problem at GoT currently has.

And that's erring very much in his favour. Assuming they could get three years out of the second two books.

[Rennadrel]

Pretty much, I think I stopped on the 3rd or 4th book. I am interested in watching it if they make it, but not very excited.

I would honestly would like someone to make a Stormlight Archive TV show, I feel like that could go very well, it paces so well so far.

Doubt that will happen any time soon, considering we have only had two books and the next isn't due out until next year.

Also, that pilot from a couple of years back was so cringe worthy. I dunno how good the books would be as a TV series, but it would need Game of Thrones level budgets in order to actually be good.

[Dasffion]

Doubt that will happen any time soon, considering we have only had two books and the next isn't due out until next year.

Also, that pilot from a couple of years back was so cringe worthy. I dunno how good the books would be as a TV series, but it would need Game of Thrones level budgets in order to actually be good.

If you're talking about the WoT pilot, that was something that the douches at Red Eagle threw together pretty much at the last minute to try and hold onto the rights. Don't judge anything by that

[apepi]

If you're talking about the WoT pilot, that was something that the douches at Red Eagle threw together pretty much at the last minute to try and hold onto the rights. Don't judge anything by that

I don't know how you fuck up a pilot episode, the beginning is pretty generic.

[Rennadrel]

I don't know how you fuck up a pilot episode, the beginning is pretty generic.

Well they fucked it up hard. It didn't even make any visual sense. I think context is going to be important in making the books into a TV show. I wonder if they will start with the prologue book New Spring.

[Dasffion]

I don't know how you fuck up a pilot episode, the beginning is pretty generic.

It was supposed to be the prologue, which isn't very generic, but yes, they fucked it up hard.

[ringpriest]

Stopped reading them after the 3rd book or something, grew bored with that order of priestesses getting more and more content in the books.

My bet it'll be just as bad as the one based on The Sword of Truth series, (which books are better IMO).

IMNSHO, The Sword of Truth is a steaming pile that stands out as not worth the time it takes to read, even as an example of bad writing - drive by recommending it to innocent forum readers borders on criminal. I read Wizard's First Rule years ago and it stuck with me as one of the worst books I have ever read, certainly the worst SF book; I would be grateful if I could completely expunge the memories of it. If you loved the Twilight books as masterworks of literature, then maybe you ought to give it a try - otherwise steer clear and read something, anything else.

But don't just take my sole opinion:
http://bestfantasybooks.com/worst-fantasy-books.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/com...worth_reading/

This amazon review captures much of what's wrong with the book (but not all of it, by any means):

Below are a few quotes from the first 200 or so pages. If they bother you, you probably won't like this book. If you see nothing wrong with the quotes below, and are not put off by the other reviews (particularly the ones mentioning the sudden appearance of pedophilia and sadomasochistic references in what starts as a fairly light-hearted novel), you'll probably enjoy the book. I did not. (Disclaimer, some of these were typed out while listening to the audio version, and I may have misplaced a comma or two).

***Remember, this is a fantasy novel, set in a world of medieval technology and magic.***

"Richard watched out of his peripheral vision with expectant elation as he held the man's blue eyes,"

"A hand almost brushed his face, and he thought he felt searing pain, but he wasn't sure."

"'Stay here!' he yelled far more angrily than required, pushing her to the ground."

"He drank, thirstily."

"Visibility was limited to a few hundred feet."

"Kahlan kept a firm grip on his arm as both of them walked ahead in a sideways fashion, watching the shadow thing."

"'The anger of the Sword of Truth be the anger of the force of teeth.'"

"'The wizard chooses his Seekers well. Fortunately for you, patience be not a prerequisite for the post.'"

"He thought she had the most delicious-looking neck he had ever seen."

"No power on earth could deny him the man's blood." (although not capitalized, Earth in the context of the phrase "No X on Earth" always refers to the planet Earth, not dirt. Example: "No power on Earth could make me like this awful writing"). This book is not set on Earth.

"'We don't dare! For all I know, we could be ten feet from the underworld!'"

"He had Kahlan take the Boundary Warden's feet. He took the heavier half."

"In the center of the clearing stood a tall woman, taller than Kahlan. Not as tall as Richard."

"Zed seemed bored. Kahlan was not amused. Richard was astounded."

...and my favorite phrase of all, which always makes me think of a Benny Hill skit:

"Richard and Kahlan stole a sidelong glance at each other. His guard went up."