Sword of Truth mini series' optioned.

[KenM]

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=37350

Interesting considering who will be doing it. Now the big question, who will Bruce Cambell play?

 

[Abe.ebA]

I vote Bruce Campbell for Zed. He's not old enough, but with the magic of makeup...

Joking aside, I think Christopher Lloyd would be perfect as Zed. I do have to wonder whether Raimi will do something about the rather absurd plot point of the ban on fire from the first book (I never understood how that was supposed to work...) and whether he'll be able to get away with some of the more extreme stuff in the series. Darken Rahl's torture of the young boy, Richard's torture (on various occasions), the whole dominatrix-as-bodyguard thing, various rape scenes, cannibalism... The first book was pretty light on that sort of stuff, but I'd think it would be an issue with whatever network this airs on if he goes on with the rest of the novels.

I'm kinda surprised, really. I would have expected a Wheel of Time series long before Sword of Truth. Maybe it's just because Goodkind actually has a contracted end in sight for his books.

 

[Nightfall]

That or the fact Goodkind did finish his first.

Me I'd rather they had optioned Wheel of Time, mostly because I'd love to see the battle at Dumai's Well.

That was a kick ass scene.

 

[Christoph the Magus]

Why is THIS getting optioned when we have a great series, A Game of Thrones, written by a former TV writer who could help bring it the small screen, sitting around untouched?

 

[Nightfall]

Why is THIS getting optioned when we have a great series, A Game of Thrones, written by a former TV writer who could help bring it the small screen, sitting around untouched?

2 reasons: One is probably that it's not finished. SoT is. The other is possibly the Martin would want a lot of creative control and maybe that makes the studios nervous.

 

[Abe.ebA]

Also, Song of Ice and Fire would be much more difficult to translate into the miniseries format. Sword of Truth novels are largely self-contained. The later books have a continuing nemesis but each one deals with one major challenge being introduced and overcome. The first book in particular was written specifically to stand alone. Goodkind didn't know if he would get the opportunity to write more novels in that world, so he wrote the first one in a manner such that it could stand by itself or tie into a continuing series. None of the Ice and Fire books could be made to stand alone without substantially altering the story.

Wheel of Time has the same problem, though to a lesser extent. You could do Eye of the World as a standalone and probably a couple of other ones.

Another thing to consider is the cast. Sword of Truth has, basically, two main characters. There are a number of major supporting characters but I can only think of a handful who get any real character development and important screentime without the main characters. Aside from the issues of casting all of the dozens of major and important supporting roles in Martin's books, it'd be pretty difficult to follow. In the novels everyone is referred to by name, so once you memorize the names you're okay. On screen there might be scenes with a dozen people interacting, some of whom haven't shown up in the past 3 hours of show.

I dunno. I'd rather see Game of Thrones or Eye of the World than Wizard's First Rule but I'll still watch it and be excited. Maybe if it does well someone will be willing to invest in turning Martin or Jordan's series into full-length (rather than mini-) series. That's probably the only way you could reasonably do it. Both are far too long and involved for miniseries or movies.

 

[Nightfall]

Abe,

You make some excellent points, especially with regards to cast members.

 

[Particle_Man]

I think it will be fine as long as Raimi cuts out all references to Objectivism, S&M, and that Mary Sue character.

 

[ThirdWizard]

*gasp* You can't have Sword of Truth without S&M!

 

[Mazlo]

Hec, for that matter, you can't have the Sword of Truth series without Objectivism. The entire point of the series is a fantasy world stand-in for John Galt / Dagny.

Now you could do the first book without references to Objectivism, focusing on the conflict between Darken Rahl and Richard / Kahlan.

The later books are entirely focused on the New World / Choose-to-Think vs. Old World / Faith & Emotion and if you stripped out that stuff you'd be left with just a generic good guys vs. bad guys with little reason behind the conflict other than "the bad guys want to rule the world."

--Mazlo