Piers Anthony’s Xanth Novels to Become Feature Film and TV Series

Hand of Evil · Apr 12, 2017

Piers Anthony’s Xanth Novels to Become Feature Film and TV Series

Piers Anthony’s Xanth Novels to Become Feature Film and TV Series

Westeros, Shannara, Fillory, Temerant… and now Xanth. According to Variety, Piers Anthony’s long-running fantasy saga set in the eponymous land of Xanth, filled with magicians and mythological creatures, may be joining the ranks of other fantasy series adapted for the big and/or small screens. Producer Steven Paul’s (Ghost in the Shell, Ghost Rider) SP Entertainment Group is launching development of the Xanth novels into both a feature film and a television series.

The Xanth series began in 1977 with A Spell for Chameleon, which established what to expect from the dozens of books that followed: A fantastical land where every inhabitant possesses some measure of “talent,” or magic… except for poor Bink, whose magic has not manifested. Exiled to Mundania, he must discover how to harness his magic; his journeys bring him into contact with a strange woman named Chameleon (who possesses beauty and intelligence in inversely shifting ways depending on the time of the month) and the evil magician Trent, who seeks to invade Xanth.

So—magic (or the consequences for lack thereof), spells, snarky humor, and, judging from the cover, a wicked-looking manticore. Anthony had originally planned the series as a trilogy, but fan demand spurred him on to write for the last forty years. The 41st novel, Ghost Writer in the Sky, will be published in April 2017.

Paul has not yet announced which book(s) would make up the film and which the TV series, nor if the structure will match the multimedia adaptations of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicle or Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, with the main action happening in the film and supplementary stories branching off through the TV series. Variety reports that “plans are under way to announce creative talent as well as distribution and financing plans in connection with the project.”

Ralif Redhammer · Apr 13, 2017

I’m a little surprised at this – Xanth has some pretty problematic elements. At the same time, plenty of people grew up reading the series, and there’s no lack of source material.

ccs · Apr 13, 2017

I've somehow never read any of that series.
What are those problematic elements?

tardigrade · Apr 13, 2017

ccs said:
I've somehow never read any of that series.
What are those problematic elements?

The AV Club gave a fairly comprehensive introduction to the problems with the first book a few years back:
http://www.avclub.com/article/revisiting-the-sad-misogynistic-fantasy-of-xanth-104382

Dannyalcatraz · Apr 13, 2017

This looks like it's still a ways off from being a done deal. Worth paying attention to, though.

I wonder what channel I don't get will eventually broadcast it?

Mishihari Lord · Apr 13, 2017

Hopefully if it's made, they'll base it on the first couple of books and ignore the rest. Xanth went like most Piers Anthony series, and there were a lot, the first couple of books were really good, and the rest were crap. I've always thought that he must have had the later books in each series ghostwritten. It would also explain how he got so many books done in such a short time. I gave up reading him a long time ago because of the squicky stuff.

PS After re-reading the above it looks like 'm saying Anthony is a bad writer. I want to correct that. He's a really good writer, but not everything he writes is good, and I find some of the subject matter objectionable.