Where are all the fantasy movies?

[Warrior Poet]

The biggest problem with fantasy novels is the scale. Really, does everything *have* to be
six volume epics? . . . We need to hunt down standalones or sequal series to pitch to producers.

I think that is an excellent observation.

I propose a movie version of City of Bones by Martha Wells. One novel (a very good one), no sequel, no recurring characters, no follow ups, no epilogues, no prequels. One nice, tight package that tells a terrific story with excellent characters.

Now, to win the Big Game lottery . . .

Warrior Poet

P.S. What's sad, is that even after winning, it would probably take all the Big Game money just to make the film

 

[Warrior Poet]

I should note that the Conan stories are mainly free of such nonsense, but his horror short stories are full of it...

Howard was a close correspondent of Lovecraft, who, though an excellent pulp horror writer, was not noted for his tolerance. Nor was, it can be said, much of the country at that time.

Warrior Poet

 

[Warrior Poet]

I think the original Dragonlance trilogy was OK.

Read them when I was 12, and thought they were fine, and had some interesting moments. Years later, flipped through the first couple of chapters and thought, "Yep, glad I read 'em at 12. They're best left there."

Robert Jordan is perhaps the biggest disappointment of recent years.

Never read him, and from your report, and what I've heard, I'm glad I haven't.

Terry Brooks is almost as astonishingly poor a writer as David Eddings; I read The Sword of Shannara in high school, marvelled at how blatantly it ripped off Lord of the Rings, read a few pages of the next book (whatever it was called) and then dropped him like a wet taco and never looked back. Because Hollywood is also fairly derivative, this is probably movie minable, but I'd almost prefer that it wasn't.

I agree with you on the first one. The second actually started to break from that rip-off a bit, but wasn't necessarily any kind of redemption. The third was interesting from the standpoint of some of the characters. O.K., one character. He wrote a "Weapons Master" character named Garret Jax who was really cool. By the end of the book I kept thinking, Dude, THIS guy's stories were the ones you should have been telling all these years. But wasn't to be. I haven't looked at Brooks since I was 14, I think.

Warrior Poet

 

[Klaus]

The biggest problem with fantasy novels is the scale. Really, does everything *have* to be
six volume epics? It makes them unfilmable without the same level of commitment that LotR
got and I think LotR was the only one that had enough name recognition for that.

We need to hunt down standalones or sequal series to pitch to producers.

VB, I agree with you on that one!

This is why I liked Three Hearts & Three Lions a lot. One book. End of story.

FWIW, Eberron's City of Towers, although first in a trilogy, does offer a self-contained story, while leaving a few hooks for the sequels. From reading it, I thought it'd make a very cool action/noir movie in a fantasy setting (as opposed to an EPIC movie). Closer to Leiber in that it's rather "low" fantasy (focused on the little people trying to get by, not on the grand scheme of things).

 

[buzz]

...almost as astonishingly poor a writer as David Eddings...

So glad someone else said this. I read the Belgariad (all six flipping books!) at the behest of a (then) girlfriend. Utterly boggles my mind that Eddings has had so much success.

If only I'd had this version back then: http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/eddings.belgariad.shtml

I managed to get through the first two Shannara books, but it was rough going. The first had some appeal to me, but the second... ugh.

But, we digress...

 

[Krug]

If you don't mind your sword and sorcery in russian....

Looks fun, but the

Spoiler

last shot would probably generate only giggles

...

 

[Desdichado]

So glad someone else said this. I read the Belgariad (all six flipping books!) at the behest of a (then) girlfriend. Utterly boggles my mind that Eddings has had so much success.

Yeah, you're busy hating Larry Elmore. I'll take up the slack and be the official David Eddings hatah.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Yeah, you're busy hating Larry Elmore. I'll take up the slack and be the official David Eddings hatah.

Maybe we can form a support group. I got so much crap from my gaming buddies for my hat of Eddings.

 

[buzz]

Yeah, you're busy hating Larry Elmore.

True, that takes up most of my time.

Maybe we can form a support group. I got so much crap from my gaming buddies for my hat of Eddings.

Try being a SW-prequel-disliker and SW-Expanded-Universe-ignorer in my group sometime.

 

[Warrior Poet]

Larry Elmore

The artist Larry Elmore? Or did he have something to do with the writing of the books (haven't read 'em)?

Warrior Poet