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The Kingkiller Chronicles Finds Its Writer


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'Kingkiller Chronicle' Finds Its Writer (Exclusive)

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Lindsey Beer, one of the writers who is working on Transformers 5, has been tapped to adapt the first book of Patrick Rothfuss’ best-selling fantasy trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle for Lionsgate.

Robert Lawrence, whose credits include 1995 classic Clueless as well as the Robert Redford-James Gandolfini drama The Last Castle, is producing.

Lionsgate has a multi-pronged plan on adapting the epic fantasy book and simultaneous developing movies, television series and video games.

Kingkiller chronicles the life and times of Kvothe, a magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard his world has ever seen.

The first book, The Name of the Wind, was published in 2007 and since then, a second novel as well as three novellas have sold more that 10 million copies.

Beer is emerging not only as a rising writer, but with a focus on geek-oriented material she also is a rare female voice in what is normally a male-dominated field. On top of working on Transformers, for example, she also wrote drafts of Legendary’s Pacific Rim 2.

Beer is currently writing the Barbie movie for Sony and producers Walter Parkes and Amy Pascal, and Paramount is moving forward with her reimagining of the acclaimed children’s novel The Little Princess, which Platinum Dunes is producing. 

 

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This project is doomed to fail. Adapting the KKC's would be hellish anyway, but throwing in a "multipronged approach" (read we want to copy the MCU, SW and DC in the world of the KKC's) and a writer whose working on a Barbie movie, Transformers and Pacific Rimjob 2 means we'll never see anything even remotely decent coming out of this. 

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2 hours ago, Veltigar said:

This project is doomed to fail. Adapting the KKC's would be hellish anyway, but throwing in a "multipronged approach" (read we want to copy the MCU, SW and DC in the world of the KKC's) and a writer whose working on a Barbie movie, Transformers and Pacific Rimjob 2 means we'll never see anything even remotely decent coming out of this. 

I hate when I have to agree with your gloomy predictions :)

But, seriously, giving this to someone who made the name from Transformers. For cry loud sake...

6 minutes ago, baxus said:

I guess the best we can hope for is "it's so bad it's good" :lol:

Well, I am all for another "Legend of the Seeker". Just not "The Shannara Chronicles" :)

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Nevermind the fact the TV/Film/computer game will no doubt overtake the books too.

Maybe they can put all the school stuff into a TV show? But then that doesn't really leave much for the films. A film charting his life prior to arriving at the school? Then a TV show about the school? With a film for his sex ninja escapades? There's not really enough "present day" material for either. Keep them as bookends? A bit like how the conan films start with him on his throne you could have Kvothe sitting in a room with the vioceover "there are three kinds of silence" at the beginnning of film/tv.

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I think it's do-able in film form, with a few nods to The Princess Bride. Current Kvothe needs to set the story up with a lot of self-aggrandizing, unreliable-narrator whimsy. Not sure how they'd handle the aging - probably a pre-teen Kvothe actor, a young-faced 20-something as the 'main' Kvothe, and either that fellow aged, or most likely a third actor doing the narration and Current Kvothe.

I don't think they could go to Deadpool levels of fourth wall jokes, but some sort of meta-commentary from Current Kvothe through lots of narration would probably need to be all over. That's the only way I can see the character from being a really corny Gary Stu. The viewers would need to get the feeling that these scenes might be a bit of storytelling - think Big Fish with swords and sorcery. And that doesn't tackle how they'd keep all the mystery of his background (who is X character, really) without falling into something like the Da Vinci code, when the little puzzles and secrets from the novel are basically written out on a white-board for the audience.

Do-able, sure, with a very difficult to nail screenplay, a really tough production, a need for a strong director, and challenging casting.

So, yeah, it would probably be a disaster.

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1 hour ago, RedEyedGhost said:

Now if only they could find the writer for the last book... <_<

:lol: I wanted to say you won the thread...

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:



I reckon GRRM could do it once he's done with aSoIaF.

But then polish floored me with his reply :rofl::bowdown:

3 hours ago, Risto said:

I hate when I have to agree with your gloomy predictions :)

But, seriously, giving this to someone who made the name from Transformers. For cry loud sake...

Lionsgate has low, low standards but even for them this seems to particularly poor judgement :( 

3 hours ago, baxus said:

I guess the best we can hope for is "it's so bad it's good" :lol:

I hope Rothfuss manages to wrangle a nice bit of cash from it. That would be a good thing :) 

 

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Yeah I am also not sure I really understand them going for a multi-pronged approach in adapting it. (Y'know, besides ££££££'s). Doesn't seem the sort of thing that really lends itself to that. 

Anyway, not really sounding too promising on the writing/production front

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34 minutes ago, Veltigar said:

:lol: I wanted to say you won the thread...

But then polish floored me with his reply :rofl::bowdown:

Lionsgate has low, low standards but even for them this seems to particularly poor judgement :( 

I hope Rothfuss manages to wrangle a nice bit of cash from it. That would be a good thing :) 

 

The last thing Rothfuss needs is a reason not to work.

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3 hours ago, Direwolves are totally sweet said:

I think it's do-able in film form, with a few nods to The Princess Bride. Current Kvothe needs to set the story up with a lot of self-aggrandizing, unreliable-narrator whimsy. Not sure how they'd handle the aging - probably a pre-teen Kvothe actor, a young-faced 20-something as the 'main' Kvothe, and either that fellow aged, or most likely a third actor doing the narration and Current Kvothe.

I disagree they'd need 3. Obviously they'd need a different actor for Kvothe as a child, but Innkeeper Kvothe is only a few years older than University Kvothe, I don't think his exact age is mentioned but he seems to be in his mid-late twenties at most.

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Yeah, it would be extremely surprising if this turned out even remotely okay. I feel bad for those who find GoT disappointing, because they're left with no watchable fantasy tv shows, unless you like things very light and campy.

What's available out there? Shannara Chronicles, Xena and Hercules, Legend of the Seeker, Dresden Files, Shadowhunter, Sleepy Hallow, The Magicians, Camelot...and Buffy and Angel (yes, these two are very campy dumb shows, and no, they are not deep because occasionally that campiness gets serious and addresses "real" issues. Though I will grant that they are the cream of the crop of the dumb campy fantasy tv shows). These shows are all pretty bad, conventional, and networky.

I can think of a couple of good miniseries - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel...nevermind, that's the only one I can think of.

Anyway, from the looks of it, Kingkiller is going to join the ranks of fantasy done wrong. It's too bad that fantasy is so tricky to pull off on tv.

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1 hour ago, Mexal said:

To be fair, we haven't seen Transformers 5 yet...

I'd love it if Transformers 5 turned out to be a masterpiece. It seems highly unlikely - they've done a good job of being consistently worse but maybe they've hit rock bottom and 5 can at least strive for being the "best" one.

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