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Multiple Upcoming Games, Movies Based On Jordan's Wheel of Time 217

Today film studio Red Eagle Entertainment announced plans to establish Red Eagle Games, a studio that will produce games based on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. The games will be developed alongside movie adaptations of the series, which Red Eagle announced a few months ago. They'll be working with Universal on the films. "[Red Eagle producer Rick] Selvage said in an interview that the game company will make a series of games that will be co-launched with the movies. In addition, Red Eagle Games will make a massively multiplayer online game based on the Wheel of Time universe." Wheel of Time fan site 'Dragonmount' recently spoke with Selvage about the movie plans.
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Multiple Upcoming Games, Movies Based On Jordan's Wheel of Time

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  • by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@gm a i l . com> on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:21PM (#25739683) Journal
    I am surprised as I haven't been following this news since Jordan's death. I will say I am excited as I picked up Eye of the World for a quarter at a used bookstore in high school. I've been a huge fan ever since but have often wondered if there is any possible way a game or movie can do this series justice.

    Wheel of Time has such extensive (sometimes laboriously so) plot lines running in tandem and across multiple characters that may not cross for thousands of pages. Can this be set in film successfully? The introspection of the characters when you're seeing things from their points of view ... the political games ... the extensive dream sequences ... keeping the dream world and waygates straight ... so much they could get wrong!

    In truth, I wondered the same of George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire & Ice series recently licensed by HBO [variety.com]. I guess we'll see if they can do that series justice as well.

    As for the games, I was a bit disappointed with the 1999 version [gamespot.com] which was basically a Hexen engine playing as an Aes Sedai in one of the Ajahs. A visually pleasing game, though. I certainly hope they do better with The Wheel of Time MMOs & don't dish me another buggy clone like Lord of the Rings or Warhammer.

    Red Eagle & Universal, please don't screw this up! Disclaimer: I am a Perrin fan.
    • by sqlrob ( 173498 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:46PM (#25740033)

      I remember reading a review of the demo, apparently of someone who hadn't read the books. "Pretty fog effects. Why am I taking damage?" This was in Shadar Logoth. When I played, the reaction was slightly different - "Fog? RUN!!!!".

      This game was why I got a 3D accelerator, but it was delayed many, many times. Fun, I finished it, but nothing memorable.

    • by Verteiron ( 224042 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:52PM (#25740125) Homepage

      The single-player mode of the old WoT game was well-scripted and made good use of effects, but was not otherwise particularly memorable (except for Shadar Logoth, which was creepy as hell and scared me multiple times). The MULTI-player, though... incredible. There was an insane amount of depth to it, because everything (except balefire of course) had a counter. The "TING" sound of a Seeker or Decay locking on to me still makes me twitch. When you'd hear it, you'd start running like mad, trying to find the right shield to absorb it, or better yet, reflect it back at the caster, and all the while it was chasing you, moving faster and faster... then you found someone dropped a Legion right on top of the Unravel. GAH!

      Good times.

    • What would be interesting is if they actually utilized the idea of the recurrence of ages as a game mechanic. Somehow have events setup that players can declare themselves to be "the dragon", and if they're successful at doing something they turn out to be the real dragon, initiating a global conflict and leading into the next age.

      Somehow I doubt they'd do that though. :(
      • by Miseph ( 979059 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @07:22PM (#25741101) Journal

        Or, even better, run each Age for one year. Give a certain number of random players the potential to become the Dragon, but don't tell anyone who they are, ESPECIALLY the people who might be. Players who are in at the beginning of the Age have a better chance of being the Dragon, ta'veren (although I suppose it would also make sense if ALL players were ta'veren), or at least having some special plot role (ie. they could end up like Moirraine, finding the Dragon or other key players by virtue of their awesomeness), but players who join in partway through benefit from a world which is less of a clusterfuck in terms of nobody having any clue what the hell is happening and being able to just drop in on whatever side they like and have at the powers that be.

        Obviously, certain things would have to be put into the game to ensure a given Age goes off interestingly, like reliable ways for people to find the Dragon (or at least potential Dragons), compelling incentives to form in-game factions to support Dragons and ta'veren, and ways to ensure that the "randomly" selected players are unlikely to simply fall off of the planet's face.

        I'd also be a big fan of a full reset at the beginning of each age, perhaps with perks given to previous high-level characters, but nothing that cannot be overcome by a talented newcomer. of course, I also just get sick of the perpetual suck of not being one of the first hundred people to sign on and always getting stomped by people who will always be bigger and badder just because they've been around longer.

    • by nschubach ( 922175 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:55PM (#25740159) Journal

      I certainly hope they do better with The Wheel of Time MMOs & don't dish me another buggy clone like Lord of the Rings or Warhammer

      You can hope all you like, but it's not going to happen. I'm firmly under the belief that all MMOs for the near future will be cookie cutter clones of each other. They will all attempt to drag out the game for as long as possible with needless time sinks, poor stories, even worse level curves, maps made for the quick jaunt in and out, porting all over the land, and prefab classes with prefab progression.

      Hate to be a cynic... but it's what I've seen going through 20 (or more) different MMOs looking for one that's different. So far it's been a waste of time and money. I'd be very surprised to see one in the near future that actually tries to break the common mold.

      • Ultima Online 3

    • by butalearner ( 1235200 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:24PM (#25740489)

      Honestly, if they try to turn the book's events into a game, it will probably tank, as per usual. RJ was painfully meticulous in his description of events in the book, and developing a game within such strict limitations will not succeed, at least not with the fans who've read the series on multiple occasions.

      What they should really do is set a game earlier than what is described in detail in the books, say when one of the false dragons was around. That way there is plenty of conflict, but the game designers have much more leeway on the events and story in the game.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by ultranova ( 717540 )

        What they should really do is set a game earlier than what is described in detail in the books, say when one of the false dragons was around. That way there is plenty of conflict, but the game designers have much more leeway on the events and story in the game.

        Or set it during the War of Power. You must lead your unit during the war; then, when the Dark One is imprisoned and the Breaking of the World begins, it becomes a desperate race to safe as much of the civilization as possible before it's destroyed b

    • by IdahoEv ( 195056 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:32PM (#25740579) Homepage

      Because "doing it justice" would mean somehow designing a game where the the more you play, the further away end gets!

      That would require some impressive new technology, to say the least...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        That would require some impressive new technology, to say the least...

        It's not new, there's been several ventures into this arena. See this article [wikipedia.org] for more information.

  • by negRo_slim ( 636783 ) <mils_orgen@hotmail.com> on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:23PM (#25739713) Homepage

    Red Eagle Games will make a massively multiplayer online game based on the Wheel of Time universe.

    Because if there's anything the PC gaming market really needs, it's another MMO.

    • Because if there's anything the PC gaming market really needs, it's another MMO.

      Because if there's anything the entertainment market really needs, it's finding and raping every good idea which hasn't already been milked and strangled to death. At least we can look forward to a few Twin Peaks sequels!

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ShakaUVM ( 157947 )

        >>we can look forward to a few Twin Peaks sequels!

        Or a Twin Peaks MMORPG.

        Hmm.

        Couldn't be any more horrendous than the current crops of MMORPGs.

        IMO, what made the old school MUDs better than MMORPGs is that players (when they hit a certain level) were oftentimes allowed to make new dungeons. So as your playerbase went up, so did the amount of content available. It's an idea that I'd love to see get transferred to one of the major MMOs.

    • by PotatoFarmer ( 1250696 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:13PM (#25740341)
      On the other hand, can you think of any other book series so perfectly suited to the MMO genre? At least the developers can claim that the endless grinding through repetitive content, thousands of minor characters nobody cares about, and people constantly coming back after being killed is true to the source material.
    • by raehl ( 609729 ) <raehl311.yahoo@com> on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:32PM (#25740581) Homepage

      At least late-game repetitive time-sinks will be source-material accurate.

  • Jordan is barely even cold, the 13th book hasn't been published yet, and everyone is already clambering to get wrist deep into his creative work and exploit it.

    FREAKING AWESOME. I will joyously see every movie about the series no matter what kind of steaming pile they are. I'll probably buy most of the games too. Probably not the MMORPG though...

    • by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:31PM (#25739837) Journal

      "Jordan is barely even cold, the 13th book hasn't been published yet, and everyone is already clambering to get wrist deep into his creative work and exploit it."

      Good thing we don't have life plus 70 years so the heirs could defend his "property".

      • by Surt ( 22457 )

        Well, his heirs poisoned him precisely so that they could exploit his legacy. As soon as the final book was outlined, there really wasn't any need to keep him alive, he was just a burden on the family's potential income.

    • From IMDB [imdb.com].

      Miracle Max: Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do.
      Inigo Montoya: What's that?
      Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change

      Well, so much for hoping he was mostly dead. Didn't take them long to start trying to shake that money tree... Although, I think the movies were in the works for some time before he passed.

    • by decipher_saint ( 72686 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:56PM (#25740167)

      FREAKING AWESOME. I will joyously see every movie about the series no matter what kind of steaming pile they are. I'll probably buy most of the games too. Probably not the MMORPG though...

      That's the kind of thinking that leads to a wisecracking CG animated Jamaican sidekick to a newly midichlorian fuelled Rand al'Thor.

    • by jjohnson ( 62583 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:54PM (#25740837) Homepage

      Oh please. By the fifth book, Jordan was already wrist deep in skullfucking his own creative property by recycling storylines and padding word counts with endless descriptions of wardrobe. They're doing nothing but carrying on a tradition Jordan started himself.

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      UM, he was all abut exploiting the work for money, this is exactly what he would have done.

      It's the Zelazny estate that gave the big FU to the creator.

  • Featuring (Score:5, Funny)

    by Arramol ( 894707 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:24PM (#25739741)
    Featuring exciting braid-pulling and skirt-smoothing mini-games!
  • How Many Movies?!?! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by aplato ( 1347805 )
    I wonder how many movies there are going to be? Hopefully I'm still alive when the last one comes out(if they ever wrap the series).
    • by butalearner ( 1235200 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:39PM (#25739921)
      Considering that books 6-10 describe what happens over a span of about 3 days, there won't need to be nearly so many movies.
      • Hmm.. 3 days.. Well, that is 72 hours. Can make quite a few movies to cover 72 hours.

        There is a lot that goes on in those 3 days, and if the movies are going ot be any good, they need to cover all of the details.
        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by _Sprocket_ ( 42527 )

          Hmm.. 3 days.. Well, that is 72 hours. Can make quite a few movies to cover 72 hours.

          An epic fantasy shot in the style of 24. I do not know if I should be horrified or intrigued.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Hm... The Lord of the Rings turned into three movies (one for each book). So in that case ca. 3 hours movie out of 300 pages of the book.

      In comparison the Wheel of Time consists of 12 books (13th coming sometime?) each with roughly 600-1000 pages IIRC.

      So if 100pages = 1hour, we'll get (600-1000) * 12 / 100 = 72-120 hours of movies?

      Or roughly the Lord of the Rings movies times twelve...

      • Ohh how I wish 100 pages = 1 hours. Each book being a 6-12 hours movie! at least they would have the time to do it right and not cut it to shreds.

        Hell, I'd be happy if every book was at 3 hours movie. I'm afraid they are going ot cut it down to 2 hours a book, or worse, combine multiple books into one movie!
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        There are 11 books, 12th on the way. Everybody here seems to think there are 13. There are not. There are TWELVE. (This is bugging the hell out of me). The "New Spring" book is a prequel and is not part of the series, it was even written out of order.
        • by Surt ( 22457 )

          It is a prequel, and says it is part of the wheel of time series right on the cover. Thus, the series comprises 12 books, soon 13, and I'm sure in the not to distant future, dozens of disastrously bad sequels and prequels by Herbert and Anderson.

          • Could argue semantics all week if we tried, but for the record my copy of "New Spring" has "A Wheel of Time Novel" on the cover. The 11 books (which, incidentally, have numbers on them) are written as "Book X of The Wheel of Time".
          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by ShakaUVM ( 157947 )

            >>disastrously bad sequels and prequels by Herbert and Anderson.

            You mean Sanderson?

            Obviously AMoL isn't out yet, but every book he's written to date has been bloody brilliant.

            He's not Jordan, sure. He might not use Jordan's attention to ridiculously unimportant detail, or Jordan's reuse of every plot thread multiple times, or Jordan's complete inability to handle plot and multiple viewpoints, but... oh wait, yeah. They'll probably actually be pretty good.

      • by Phrogman ( 80473 )

        Ah but if they remove all the references to the female character who constantly pulls on her braids we can condense it down into just about 25 hrs of film.

        I can't remember her name. But the memory of the author telling us she was fiddling with her hair every 10 sentences has remained forever in my mind as the poster child for how not to assign a recognizable characteristic to a character, then abuse it far too often.

        I read the first few books and honestly wanted to like them but they were just so badly writ

    • by ronwolf ( 141966 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:44PM (#25739997)

      You're kidding right? Most of those later books can be compressed into about 14 paragraphs.

      • True, because the rest of the book was "PREVIOUSLY, ON WHEEL OF TIME!"

        I quit reading when the Winter of Whatever came out because I just didn't care anymore. I then got rid of all my books except "Eye of the World," the best in the series. Jordan should have planned and mapped out his series ahead of time, with a definitive end in mind, a la JK Rowling. Instead, his series went down the same road as Dune.

    • by Random BedHead Ed ( 602081 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:44PM (#25740003) Homepage Journal

      I wonder how many movies there are going to be? Hopefully I'm still alive when the last one comes out(if they ever wrap the series).

      They'll probably start out with a clear story arc and a plan to make six or seven very good films that wow audiences, then just belt out a few extra ones that focus largely on minor characters that viewers don't care about while ignoring the compelling story that got everyone interested in the first place. Universal will then go out of business when there's only one movie left to make, and Paramount will take over and expect us all to believe their conclusion is a valid part of the series.

      (If you can't decide whether to mod this funny, mod it insightful or just stomp off and cry into your pile of dead-end hardcovers, you must be a disgruntled Robert Jordan fan.)

      • Well as I did have mod points for this I still decided to respond..

        You are right in that the story seemed to stop for a while. However on the whole I really enjoyed it. I have read the complete series up to book 9 9 times. I basically read the whole series every time a book came out. But the last time so little was done between cleansing saidin and the marrying of Matt, Perrins story line closing somewhat that I did not read them all again. I am anxiously awaiting Brandon Sanderson's take on the final book.

      • by filthpickle ( 1199927 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:18PM (#25740409)
        Thanks for the laugh.

        I made it thru Crown of Swords...but mainly because of being too stubborn to admit to myself that I was getting sick of it. Had to do a cross country road trip several years later and got the audiobook for Winters Heart thinking I would catch up that way...

        Somewhere in Kansas in the middle of the night I decided that it was so tedious and boring that I threw it out the window in disgust. I admit that it might have had something to do with driving thru Kansas...you can't do that alone and stay sane.

        I think I reached a point where I just DESPISED every female character in that book.
        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Nasarius ( 593729 )

          I think I reached a point where I just DESPISED every female character in that book.

          That's exactly how I felt. I always got the impression that Jordan was trying to write strong female characters, but didn't have the slightest clue how one would actually behave. Instead of coming across as strong or sympathetic, they were just fucking obnoxious. And all *exactly* the same. Cadsuane (had to look up the name on Wiki) was the last straw.

          Oh, and the bizarre sexual fantasy feeling to it: women spanking each

          • Oh, and the bizarre sexual fantasy feeling to it: women spanking each other, humiliating men, and happily coexisting in a polygamous relationship.

            That bothered me for a bit too, and I still find it a bit annoying - but logically, what the men in that world are facing is not so different than women face in the male-dominated real world.

            And I would hardly say they're happily coexisting - rather, they don't /entirely/ like it, but also don't /entirely/ have a choice about it.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:35PM (#25739883)

    Seriously..? I started reading the Wheel of Time many years ago, and while the first book was pretty good, subsequent books became increasingly self indulgent, whiney, and so meandering that the story barely advanced. By about book 5, most of the characters were so un-likeable that I could not longer relate to/empathize with them. This has to be one of the most dissapointing series that I have ever read.

    CAPTCH: bleeder, as in "you miserable..."

    • by be951 ( 772934 )

      I'm with you there. Brilliantly conceived world, decent characters (to start out), but then Jordan started telling the same story over and over, and letting the characters blend together.

      Although I've rarely laugh so hard from reading something as I did going through some of the Wheel of Time humor/parody sites.

  • It struck me as a pretty run-of-the-mill first-person shooter, with a few moderately novel weapons choices.

    Link [wikipedia.org].

  • Wheel of Time [wikipedia.org] Mod me +1 bijillion insightful because I posted a wiki link.

    But seriously, would it have killed the poster to have added a Wikipedia link to the Wheel of Time article?

    • by moderatorrater ( 1095745 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:59PM (#25740195)
      Wiki links are only useful when there's a chance that somebody reading the article hasn't heard of the series. I can talk to non-nerds and they still know what the series is, even if they don't know much about it.

      I guess what I'm getting at is that you'll have to turn in your nerd card.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:44PM (#25740005)

    Unfortunately the game is impossible to finish, because it dynamically generates more and more new mini-games, side quests, and bosses as the player gets closer to the end.

  • All they need to do is cross WoW with something that failed, for that perfect combination of incredibly tedious bulkiness and frustrating incompletion!

  • how? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by skam240 ( 789197 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:46PM (#25740027)

    How on earth are they going to condense down as much material as is in one of those books (let alone the whole series) into a movie without leaving out half the story? The Lord of the Rings books are half the size of Jordan's and each of those movies were over three hours long and still left some good stuff out.

    • How on earth are they going to condense down as much material as is in one of those books

      It wouldn't be hard with Book Five. Just toss out all the "Harumph! Men!" parts that repeatedly describe Nynaeve's sexism.

      Damn, this one is getting a bit tough to slog through. Of course, most men would think that about Book Five..

      Gah! Now I'm doing it!

    • Re:how? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by xstonedogx ( 814876 ) <xstonedogx@gmail.com> on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:18PM (#25740405)

      Easy.

      Jordan goes on and on about setting. Not a problem for film.
      Jordan repeats himself over and over regarding character interactions. Easily condensed.
      Jordan constantly writes about his characters pulling their braids, smoothing their skirts, etc. They can all do those things at the same time while the story is moving along.
      Jordan has described the internal processes of wielding the One Power a million times. In film they'll just replace it with a fancy CGI or call it "metachlorians" (credit a poster above).
      Jordan thinks any character ever seen in a book needs a name. They can save about 5 hours just by not naming all their extras.
      The last four or so books in the series will probably fit on a single page of the script.
      And finally, Jordan didn't finish. There's a good 30 minutes out of the film right there.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Chris Burke ( 6130 )

        Jordan thinks any character ever seen in a book needs a name. They can save about 5 hours just by not naming all their extras.
        The last four or so books in the series will probably fit on a single page of the script.
        And finally, Jordan didn't finish. There's a good 30 minutes out of the film right there.

        Haha. I can see it now. They get all the right people with all the right motivations working on it. They create a movie that is tight, well-paced, dramatic, exciting, all while being faithful to the source

    • by raehl ( 609729 )

      If they just introduce each character once, that'll compress out 70% of the material right there.

    • by renoX ( 11677 )

      That much material???
      Each book could probably be reduced to a quarter of its size if the author had used a 'normal' writing style.

    • A massive portion of the books is in descriptions of places, people, and events - stuff like that is incredibly wordy and uses up a lot of pages, but is where the old "picture is worth a thousand words" line is most true. Take Egwene and Perrin meeting up with the Tinkers and traveling with them in The Eye of the World; there's a lot of book there, but it could be adequately described in well under 5 minutes of film. This is also true of the dream sequences, fight scenes, and so forth.

      Dialog is the opposite

      • by geekoid ( 135745 )

        Wonder like "I wonder when he will get to something"
        And excitement like after 100 pages, something happened, wheee

        The characters backgrounds could be summed up in about 30 seconds of film.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Bensam123 ( 1340765 )

      I'd settle for nothing less then three movies per book, but we all know that's not going to happen.

      Honestly I wish this series was picked up by a animation studio in Japan. There are just some things you can't do without it becomming a series and there is more then enough material there to actually have a couple hundred meaningful episodes. There also are just somethings you can't produce in real life. Good anime bridges the gap between stories, art, and a visual picture.

  • by srothroc ( 733160 ) on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @05:47PM (#25740043) Homepage
    Isn't Red Eagle the company that was producing the Wheel of Time comic but ended up stopping because of financial reasons? I'd hesistate to invest money in playing a MMO funded by them unless I knew it was going to be around for a while.
  • I'm so glad I enjoyed these books in Audio format. No telling how I would have ever pronounced all those words... But considering the shear number of hours (must exceed 300 hours), I don't know how a movie can do it.
  • I loved the books when the series started. At the time they were the best I'd ever read. And then...

    Book after book after book seemed to be an excuse to drag out the story line. What appeared to be solid progress towards a story climax in book N, was largely undone or obviated in book N+1.

    Jordan could have made a several-book series that would be nearly as popular with fantasy buffs as Tolkein's stuff. But he blew it, and left me (and I'm sure many others) feeling like we'd been milked.

    So now I'm soured

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      I personally feel that he made a wonderfully detailed world that had more going on in it then every character focused on one single point. I'd rather have one really good series then several smaller series with much less defined worlds.
      • by cbhacking ( 979169 ) <been_out_cruisin ... nospAM.yahoo.com> on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @07:05PM (#25740917) Homepage Journal

        My feelings exactly. Take the world that WoT is most often compared to, LotR. There are certainly lots of parallels - Middle Earth is huge, there are lots of different nations with their own history, traditions, culture, and appearance, and the author crafted each with an incredible attention to detail. However, reading through the books (never mind watching the movies) in LotR doesn't give NEARLY as much a feel of the setting as WoT does. In WoT I can imagine the parts of the cities, the look of the farms, and the speech of the people - even for specific settings that were never visited. Without reading a lot of the LotR background, I've found this not nearly as easy to do. It's just not as immersive.

        There's a lot more to this comparison, but I think I'll stop here.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by fatboyslack ( 634391 )

          Yes but LotR added a lot of that story in notes, appendices and additional books that weren't part of the main story.

          I read all 11 books ... and I'll probably read the 12th but since I read the 11th I've read all of GRR Martin's 'A song of fire and ice' series which completely blows away any other fantasy series I've read before or since and WoT really suffers in comparison.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          LotR doesn't give NEARLY as much a feel of the setting as WoT

          well...I think that Tolkien was leaving it up to your imagination....because he could have told you several thousand more pages....but didn't want to.

      • I think you're the fast WoT fan to post in this thread. Kudos to you.

  • ...is that they can edit the first story into a good movie and not feel the need to make grand changes to the story line. While I understand there will be some need to compress some things and to leave quite a bit out (what I mean by editing) making grand changes to basic tenets of the world that was created will just make a crappy movie, and ruin any chance they have at making more money off the franchise and kill any enjoyment the fans may get out of seeing this tale told through another medium.

    If they c

  • As long as they don't "animize" it like they did the new Dragon of the Lance animation movie. BLECH!

  • George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series has just been given the "production order" [livejournal.com] by HBO which had optioned it awhile back. It's just for a pilot but if it does well, they may do a season a book, which would be great for such a huge series.

    If you've read Wheel of Time, you should try Song of Ice and Fire. Different writing style, more developed and interesting characters. (I'm biased...I barely got through the first WoT book, but loved the SoIaF series).

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      If you've read Wheel of Time, you should try Song of Ice and Fire.

      couldn't agree more. If you've read WoT in total or part (esp in part) and not SoIaF you should really pick it up.

      my favorite thing about that series is how he leaves all the pieces in play...you can't just assume that someone won't die because they are a main char.

  • Please, please, please...don't let this turn into another abomination like "Legend of the Seeker." The Sword of Truth series is among my favorite, but the "TV adaptation" has butchered them so badly.

    Every single plot device used for the climax of the first book has been thrown out the window in the first two episodes. They have basically stripped the entire story and every character down to just their names and written something from scratch for TV.

  • Others have already mentioned George R.R. Martin's series being developed but let's not forget that Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is already on broadcast television as Legend of the Seeker [legendoftheseeker.com], which takes place in a fantasy land that bears a strong resemblance to New Zealand.

    This is being done by the Herc/Xena guys, btw, so if you tune in expect top quality. ;)

  • Stretched out to 400 hours.

  • I think WOT would lend itself to be an excellent series rather than a movie. There's just too much going on to give it justice in a 2 hour movie. How else can we enjoy all the great machinations everyone was doing? sri
  • As you can imagine, with nearly 10,000 pages of very complex storytelling and with more than 1,700 named characters, THE WHEEL OF TIME is an extremely challenging story to adapt to a feature-length film. Quite frankly, the project was too challenging for some studios, because of the size of the literary work, its depth, the required budget, etc. The WHEEL OF TIME is an epic on the scale of STAR WARS!

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