Universal Giving 'Wheel of Time' a Spin
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Universal, Comic/Superhero/Geek
Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time is one of those sprawling, elaborate fantasy book series that is only read by enormous dorks. In other words, people like me. Yes, I've read all 11 novels (plus the prequel novella) and nearly 10,000 pages. Many fans abandoned the series after book 5 or 6, when it became apparent that the plot was in a holding pattern while the number of notable characters approached three digits. Not me. The naysayers were right, to a point, but the world Jordan created was so rich, so interesting that I simply loved going back, even if nothing much was happening. Jordan swore that book 12 would be the last, but died before he could finish it; another fantasy writer has been tapped to complete it from Jordan's extensive notes.The series has been optioned several times, with an eye toward movies or television miniseries. Nothing ever came of it -- the books are so long, the plots so intricate, the cast of characters so enormous, that each attempt hit a logistical wall. Now, Universal has staked a claim, shelling out seven figures for the rights to the series. Logically, they plan to start with the first book, The Eye of the World.
Good luck. It's hard for fans to get excited for something like this, because what we love about the series -- the vastness and incredible detail of the world Jordan creates -- is so unlikely to make it to the screen. I do hope to actually see a film adaptation at some point (I'm awfully curious to see what they'll do), but I have a feeling this might go the way of the previous attempts. If they're hoping for a Lord of the Rings-caliber franchise, the pressure will be on the eventual screenwriter to adapt the novels in a compelling and accessible way. Trust me: it'll be really, really hard.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-13-2008 @ 9:04PM
Owen said...
I think the Song of Fire and Ice project HBO is working on will come out a helluva lot better but who knows maybe the constraints of the screen will eliminate some of the excesses that I think have pretty much destroyed this series. I def look forward to seeing this in any case since you can never have enough fantasy on ths screen even if its not very good like eragon.
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8-14-2008 @ 12:50AM
LeisureSuitLarry said...
Count me in as somewhere in the continuum between skeptical and not interested. I don't think they could really make one movie out of Eye of the World without losing so much of the plot and the other elements that made this book so good.
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8-14-2008 @ 10:17AM
Kevin said...
It'll be interesting to see where they go with this. With the first book you could concievably make a 3 hour long film thats nothing but action because there is just SO much going on. Unfortunately I don't see any real way to adapt the first 5 books successfully. Each of them would have to be turned into an 8 part HBO miniseries, any less than that and you're cutting out way to many plot points. I love these books with a passion, so I hope that they do something amazing with them, but I'm not too hopeful.
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8-14-2008 @ 10:52AM
Tolu Abisola said...
As Kevin said, the only way to do this series justice is to make into some kind of HBO special.
Any less i.e. the first five books crammed into a two hour movie would be a travesty
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8-15-2008 @ 8:39PM
Cray said...
If Universal had any clue they'd milk the WHEEL OF TIME franchise for all its worth. There's no cinematic law that they need to squeeze one novel in a two and half hour film. I would suggest breaking each book up into two movies. So that's 22 movies over a span of 11 books.
I do think it be best to make it an HBO or SciFi series. They would make more money as major film release though.
I hope they don't do what FOX PICTURES did to ERAGON. Now that was travesty.
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9-14-2008 @ 7:58AM
gary said...
I want to see an animated series, only way to do it i think is to maybe make to or three animated episodes per book, and if its done right it would be amazing visually, movies would never work, the story needs to be rolled out piece by piece, if you were new to the wheel of time could you imagine going to see the 9th movie and trying to remember whet happened in the last 8?
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