Sci-Fi News and Reviews
"Wheel of Time" Movie
With all of the prep for the Labor Day holiday and the upcoming TV season, I almost missed this story. Universal Pictures has acquired the film rights to one of my favorite epic fantasy series, "The Wheel of Time"!
According to the article, Red Eagle Entertainment (who published graphic novel adaptations of the series) will be producing the movies. They have a seven-figure deal that includes the rights to all twelve books in the series, including the soon-to-be published twelveth book. Author Robert Jordan passed away while writing the final book in the series. But, he left copious notes, and author Brandon Sanderson has completed the novel, which will be available in Fall 2009.
Obviously, I am happy about the news. I absolutely love the "Wheel of Time" series. However, I do have mixed feelings about a movie adaptation.
First of all, there is no way that they can produce twelve movies. Just look at "Harry Potter" - even with just seven books and movies, the actors have aged. Twelve movies will just take too long to make to keep the same actors.
The second reservation that I have concerns the complexity of the novels. Jordan has literally hundreds of characters in these novels. The modern film audience is not usually expected to keep up with more than a handful of main protagonists - and these novels have fully functional, separate storylines, each with its own hero. The task of adapting these novels is gigantic.
Finally, it seems that Robert Jordan did not care for the Red Eagle Entertainment folks. Here's a quote from what is reportedly Jordan's last blog post:
I hear things now and then floating out in the air. For instance, I hear that word was floating about ComicsCon in San Diego that I am displeased with Red Eagle. Too true. Too very true. ...Red Eagle thought they could tell me they spit in the soup, or pee in it, if they wanted to and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop them. You can’t apologize your way out of that with me, not that they tried. There isn’t enough money in the world to buy your way out of it with me. Not that they tried that either. So they get no further help from me. Once they are completely out of the picture, we’ll see what happens.
My initial excitement has been tempered. My prediction: I bet Red Eagle attempts to make this an animated movie series - which would not be good, considering Jordan's previous comments. I think an HBO-style mini-series would be the only true way to do the series justice.
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UPDATE:
Per the comments below, here is a picture of Peter Stormore, who has been rumored to be cast as Lan:
Posted by Fred on August 21, 2008 10:24 AM
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True statement there - it *will* be Universal that determines the eventual format of the final film, whether it be live, animated or straight to DVD.
I'm just a betting man - and due to the length of the series, I have a tough time seeing how they would pull off a live-action feature film.
-- Posted by: Fred at August 21, 2008 1:40 PMThe only possible way to attempt to do the series would be to take two books a year as a television series. But even at that rate it would be a 6 year series, and it would be pretty hard to get Television Studio/Network to get behind a series of that length. (Like with Babylon 5, the crew went year to year no knowing if it would be renewed until the last minute).
-- Posted by: Ted at August 31, 2008 8:54 PMSmall correction. Sanderson hasn't finished the book yet. He's a little over 50% done by stats on his blog.
In either case, I'd rather they not have a movie. I'd have to not see it to avoid ruining the great things I feel about this book series.
-- Posted by: jared parsons at September 1, 2008 1:47 AM**BREAKING NEWS** Peter Stormare has signed on to play al’Lan Mandragoran
-- Posted by: olaf svenson at September 8, 2008 12:25 PMhmmm... i always picture out borderlanders to be like mangolian(genghis khan) or japanese type kinda guys.. you know with the top knot and everything
-- Posted by: babar at September 9, 2008 12:45 AMwell i have to say that i will be EXTREMELY disappointed if peter stormare plays the part of Lan. firstly, he's a little bit too old in my opinion. secondly, he seems like he's always skulking and evil looking. he'd be better off playing Fain if you ask me. (thought he'd need to lose some weight :p )
-- Posted by: panadasregroup at September 13, 2008 3:57 AMNO NO NO Peter Stormore will not be a good Lan. I just started the series in june because they are my husbands fav series so I thought I would give them a try and am in love and decided by the first book I wanted to make a movie out of the books. I really hope that it doesn't stray too much from the books I hate when movies do that but I would love to see these characters on the big screen all of them though I understand the difficulties of it. They can always just center the storyline around the main characters from the first book for the most part with a few side stories like Lan and Nynaeve's story it has to have that.
-- Posted by: Elizabeth Smith at September 17, 2008 4:56 AMThis entire series can be in any format, a movie here, a mini-series there, a cartoon/anime over there. It could almost follow the Matrix series except this would be good. Another could be the Star Wars format. I personally would like it in a HBO series with 2-3 books per season, each book bearing about 13-16 episodes. Then finally a movie being The New Spring.
This is what I am truly afraid of when they convert this story, Jordan has passed on and with him the knowledge and in-depth look of each country, people, culture and accents. We all have our own ideals and what we can take from the text, but there was only one man that knew for sure all those things.With this knowledge lost who will control the making of this film, some money grubbing executive, a director with a voice and style that are not Jordans, crazed fans who will not comprise taking a lengthy series and compressing it. The future for this series looks bleak and I truly hope that it is made so we can enjoy it.
well at the very least, if they do make the movie. they should have Brandon Sanderson advising. he might be the closest to knowing Robert Jordon's vision, and they should use 20 year olds and so on actors for the younger characters. They don’t change much over time, but just enough to give them the feel of changing with each new hardship. Just a thought
mayby a silly one though
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You have to be kidding. First, Robert Jordon made that comment after Red Eagle the "publisher" of New Spring comics got into a rift with the Dabel Bros, The rights holder and producer of New Spring. Red Eagle stopped the publication and the rights the Dabel's had ran out. The publication could not be continued. Jordon was just frustrated,rightfully so!
-- Posted by: Fred at August 21, 2008 11:15 AMSecondly, Red Eagle will not make the decision regarding the project being a feature film,animation or TV series series....Universal will!