The Prince Of Nothing series is optioned for TV!

[lokisnow]

2 hours ago, SerPaladin said:

I think they could use the philosophy as the driving force in the narrative, alongside the crusade. True Detective dropped its share of inscrutable musings from the McConaughey, and people at that up. Not only did they eat it up, it was a cottage industry trying to figure it out. Kellhus will be on T-Shirts. With sayings that confuse the normals and make them uncomfortable. C'naiur will be a meme.

Narrative is across multiple locations and threads. Big set-piece battle scenes. Just enough magic and super-saiyan over the top stuff to get us nerds. Could be huge, but no one should expect GOT. GOT is a cultural phenomenon. But it would be bigger than, say, Deadwood or Boardwalk Empire.

In the early seasons of GOT when it was going head to head with Boardwalk Empire, most neutral observers claimed quite reasonably that with about 40% of Boardwalk Empire's viewership, Game of Thrones would never be as big a show as Boardwalk Empire.

[Spring Bass]

Maybe they could make Conphas a woman in this one, like Bakker's editor suggested. 

It's almost a pity that Jim Caviezel is ten years too old and a devout Catholic, because after Passion of the Christ I'd love to cast him as Kellhus. Can you imagine the reaction? 

Maybe we should have some fun, do some fantasy casting. If money were no object, who would play whom? 

[karaddin]

Making Conphas a woman and leaving in the rape would be one way to actually make it worse imo, but if you made Conphas a woman and dropped that element it could be made to work. I'd probably drop the mum incest too though.

If you wanted to get subversive you could make Kellhus a woman though.

Its hard to pick dream casting because there aren't that many non white actors even given a chance in hollywood, so the options are less in the spotlight. Skarsgard has the look that I picture for Kellhus, although I'm not sure he could do the right kind of cold. Hemsworth is another tall, good looking and blonde actor who could certainly bring charismatic Kellhus, but I'm not sure he has other modes of AK either. Actually a bit older could work for him, Paul Bettany might be a bit old but I think he could bring some of the more disturbing elements of AK. Or perhaps age him up for Big Moe. 

Really don't have images for anyone else, other than Nayu needs to be huge and intense and actually a fantastic actor. I think the closest I've got to a mental image for Esme would be Kandyse McClure (Dualla on Battlestar Galactica) who isn't actually remotely the right ethnicity. The Ketyai I think you should try go for all Arabic, both 'our side' and Kian since they're all Ketyai, or mixed Middle Eastern (Turkish/Persian/Arabic etc) for everyone.

[red snow]

1 hour ago, karaddin said:

 

If you wanted to get subversive you could make Kellhus a woman though.

 

That idea definitely makes for an intriguing mind game of an alt-scenario. I guess at a minimum Kellhus would have to hide her femininity from the masses until she was firmly entrenched as a messiah. The whole circumfix could be down to them discovering her gender (or at least a big part of it).

I agree Skarsgard definitely looks the part for Kellhus

Akka always comes across as some kind of Paul Giamatti type. Definitely someone who can do a beard - Titus Welliver would now be at the right age to do Akka now. Sort of need someone who can do sad/pained eyes.

Conphas and Cnaiur are tricky but I think Conphas would be a great role for someone. Probably need the hateability factor  (along the lines of Joffrey) for Conphas. I could see the temptation for casting Cnaiur would be some big brute but I think he needs some acting chops too. I'm sure the lazy option would be Jason Mamoa but that is lazy and not going to work. It won't stop him being mentioned a lot though.

 The female cast is tricky and probably boils down to an actor who beleives in the role.

[Callan S.]

14 hours ago, SerPaladin said:

 C'naiur will be a meme.

Breaker of horses and meme

[DaveSumm]

In my head Kellhus is a kind of fusion between Hemsworth and this guy (Brian Thompson, who generally looks evil and doesn't say a lot in various things, X-Files amongst them), maybe with a bit of Mads Mikkelson thrown in. It's a damn tricky bit of casting, you need someone handsome who everyone likes......except you, and you can't quite figure out why.

[Papirolle]

James Purefoy is Conphas of course .

Daniel Day-Lewis could be Kellhus!

He has the range to play all the different facades Kellhus wears. He could probably play anyone, even the emperor's mother.

 

 

[Corvinus85]

3 hours ago, red snow said:

That idea definitely makes for an intriguing mind game of an alt-scenario. I guess at a minimum Kellhus would have to hide her femininity from the masses until she was firmly entrenched as a messiah. The whole circumfix could be down to them discovering her gender (or at least a big part of it).

I agree Skarsgard definitely looks the part for Kellhus

Akka always comes across as some kind of Paul Giamatti type. Definitely someone who can do a beard - Titus Welliver would now be at the right age to do Akka now. Sort of need someone who can do sad/pained eyes.

Conphas and Cnaiur are tricky but I think Conphas would be a great role for someone. Probably need the hateability factor  (along the lines of Joffrey) for Conphas. I could see the temptation for casting Cnaiur would be some big brute but I think he needs some acting chops too. I'm sure the lazy option would be Jason Mamoa but that is lazy and not going to work. It won't stop him being mentioned a lot though.

 The female cast is tricky and probably boils down to an actor who beleives in the role.

If they were to cast a white guy for Cnaiur then Ray Stevenson is the guy to do it. To be honest, I'm not sure if Cnaiur is supposed to be white or central Asian looking on account of the cultural inspiration for his people. If they want to cast an Asian guy then Rick Yune (Kaidu on Marco Polo) could be a good choice.

I have a firm picture of Akka in my mind, and I cannot think of any actor that fits that image. Of course, I wouldn't mind if they cast Alexander Siddig for the role. He should be in this in some capacity (and receive better treatment than on GoT) 

[Sarcellus]

8 hours ago, Electric Bass said:

Maybe they could make Conphas a woman in this one, like Bakker's editor suggested.

 

6 hours ago, karaddin said:

Making Conphas a woman and leaving in the rape would be one way to actually make it worse imo, but if you made Conphas a woman and dropped that element it could be made to work. I'd probably drop the mum incest too though.

If you wanted to get subversive you could make Kellhus a woman though

What about Fem-Martemus?

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Corvinus said:

If they were to cast a white guy for Cnaiur then Ray Stevenson is the guy to do it. To be honest, I'm not sure if Cnaiur is supposed to be white or central Asian looking on account of the cultural inspiration for his people. If they want to cast an Asian guy then Rick Yune (Kaidu on Marco Polo) could be a good choice.

I have a firm picture of Akka in my mind, and I cannot think of any actor that fits that image. Of course, I wouldn't mind if they cast Alexander Siddig for the role. He should be in this in some capacity (and receive better treatment than on GoT) 

Ray Stephenson or the guy from "Banshee".

I also can't recall the ethnicity of the Scylendi either. I think the name made me think "viking" or "north eastern europe" for some odd reason but their behaviour and steppe life-style should really conjure up images of mongolians.

A show like this may have one "big name" but will probably largely consist of Australian actors if it's something Starz! gets a hold of.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

30 minutes ago, red snow said:

Ray Stephenson or the guy from "Banshee".

I also can't recall the ethnicity of the Scylendi either. I think the name made me think "viking" or "north eastern europe" for some odd reason but their behaviour and steppe life-style should really conjure up images of mongolians.

A show like this may have one "big name" but will probably largely consist of Australian actors if it's something Starz! gets a hold of.

There's a bit of race and culture dissonance everywhere in the series.

For example, while the modern Norsirai are meant to evoke Vikings and Normans, the Ancient Norsirai are more like the Ancient Near East, with Babylonian and Assyrian type names and architecture.

[Consigliere]

39 minutes ago, red snow said:

I also can't recall the ethnicity of the Scylendi either.

The Scylvendi are described as being dark haired, pale blue-eyed and fair skinned. IIRC, Bakker posted on the Three Seas Forum a while back that his inspiration for the Scylvendi are the Scythians and Sarmatians.

[jurble]

Cnaiur and the Scylvendi are European-looking steppe barbarians.  There's Asian-looking steppe barbarians on the other side of the Three Seas, but none of them make an appearance until the second trilogy - even then it's a bit role - Xonghis, the Imperial Tracker in the Skin Eaters and a prince in the Great Ordeal.

And in terms of appearance Azhar Khan as Mobley in Mr. Robot matches Achmian more or less as he's described in the first trilogy (fat, bearded and brown), though he's too young.

[red snow]

4 hours ago, White Walker Texas Ranger said:

There's a bit of race and culture dissonance everywhere in the series.

For example, while the modern Norsirai are meant to evoke Vikings and Normans, the Ancient Norsirai are more like the Ancient Near East, with Babylonian and Assyrian type names and architecture.

I guess there's no reason why that world would have the same ethnic groups in different regions. Darker skin is a slight advantage in sunnier environments but maybe the people of Earwa already had clothes, hats and parasols down before moving out it into it.

4 hours ago, Consigliere said:

The Scylvendi are described as being dark haired, pale blue-eyed and fair skinned. IIRC, Bakker posted on the Three Seas Forum a while back that his inspiration for the Scylvendi are the Scythians and Sarmatians.

I was actually wondering today whether there was maybe a connection between Scythians and Scylvendi.

 

3 hours ago, Damned with the Wind said:

Cnaiur and the Scylvendi are European-looking steppe barbarians.  There's Asian-looking steppe barbarians on the other side of the Three Seas, but none of them make an appearance until the second trilogy - even then it's a bit role - Xonghis, the Imperial Tracker in the Skin Eaters and a prince in the Great Ordeal.

And in terms of appearance Azhar Khan as Mobley in Mr. Robot matches Achmian more or less as he's described in the first trilogy (fat, bearded and brown), though he's too young.

He might be the correct age by the time the show gets made

[Spring Bass]

Never mind. 

[Kalbear]

I still think that Akka being genderbent makes more sense. Make the Mandate hated not just because they have the Gnosis, but because they are all women and the only school that takes women.  That makes them a bit like the Aes Sedai, but not quite given that there are other magicians out there who aren't women. (Plus there's nothing that says the  Mandate has to be only women, only that they'll take whomever they can get). 

It makes Akka and Esmi's relationship more interesting, makes Akka and Kellhus' relationship more interesting, and makes more explicit some of the themes about women's utility and usefulness along with the resentment while still providing a woman who has some actual agency in her life.

[lokisnow]

heh, akka or conphas changed to a woman I am a big fan of. The producers should absolutely level up a bunch of characters to female.

Love the idea of an egalitarian mandate. If akka stays male, make him super resentful of women in the mandate and blame them for his downfall. 

Let's cut to the chase and eliminate xerius by combining him with conphas.

My dream cast six years ago was Chiwetel Ejiofor as akka, and Michael fassbender as kellhus, but they're probably too big for the show now :/ I wonder if they could get lupita nyongo for esmenet, though, that would be awesome.

 

[Callan S.]

Jeez, some thematic mutilation going on already

I guess it shows the original material was on to a real topic

[lokisnow]

47 minutes ago, Callan S. said:

Jeez, some thematic mutilation going on already

I guess it shows the original material was on to a real topic

Pretty sure it's only genital mutilation in recent posts. Granted it is easy to confuse foreskin for themes, the two are very similar to one another. 

 

[red snow]

6 hours ago, Kalbear said:

I still think that Akka being genderbent makes more sense. Make the Mandate hated not just because they have the Gnosis, but because they are all women and the only school that takes women.  That makes them a bit like the Aes Sedai, but not quite given that there are other magicians out there who aren't women. (Plus there's nothing that says the  Mandate has to be only women, only that they'll take whomever they can get). 

It makes Akka and Esmi's relationship more interesting, makes Akka and Kellhus' relationship more interesting, and makes more explicit some of the themes about women's utility and usefulness along with the resentment while still providing a woman who has some actual agency in her life.

I almost wonder if that's something Bakker wished he'd done in hindsight given he has essentially created such a group in the aspect-emperor series. Still, I agree it would have been more interesting to have the Mandate exclusively female where they were the only ones who had the dreams. Plus, it'd make their job even harder - why would any of the males ruling the world listen to a woman talking about an apocalypse. Would have also been nice to have the men double hating the mandate yet being terrified of their power. I guess women of that world would be more tempted to try damnation when they are pretty low on the order to begin with. In exchange for having some power.

It would have also been nice for it to have formed without the express permission of a man. While we could still argue it's the man's dreams that drive the Mandate - it'd still be better than them being handed it on a plate by Kellhus.