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Most Adaptable Works of Fantasy


The Prince of Newcastle

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The Gentleman Bastard seems very doable: episodic adventures gradually sliding into a big, serialised war story.

Most of Guy Gavriel Kay's work is too big to be done as movies but too short for multi-season television. You could adapt them as an anthology series instead:

Season 1: The Sarantine Mosaic (6th Century)

Season 2: Under Heaven (8th Century)

Season 3: The Last Light of the Sun (9th Century)

Season 4: The Lions of Al-Rassan (11th Century)

Season 5: River of Stars (13th Century)

Season 6: Children of Earth and Sky (15th Century)

You could also adapt A Song for Arbonne into this structure pretty easily. Tigana could be a stand-alone feature film spin-off (since it takes place in a different world but has a higher use of magic). The Fionavar Tapestry and Ysabel would be tough to adapt but could be done as a separate series or movies (although Ysabel I think is unadaptable)?

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The Shattered Sea would be an even shorter and more straightforward narrative than First Law. No larger battles for almost two books (If I remember correctly), hardly any magic or special creatures needing computer-generated effects. Actually, it might almost be too plain for TV. But it is good story and the "elf ruins" of a 20th/21st century civilisation would make for cool sets.

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Liveship Traders is ripe for an adaptation. The Fitz stuff, I really don't see it. It's far too inert, lacking in externalised dramatic moments and is rooted in psychology rather than bigger fantasy events like battles or spectacular magic.

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There are a few I would love to see as animated series, but  fear a good deal of the material would be cut. The Wheel of Time being one. Malazan Book of the Fallen is another. WOT could lose a lot of its dead weight. MBOTF less.

The Gentleman Bastards series seems a perfect candidate for me. A smaller number of great characters, very fun stories and lower fantasy for the most part. Its success would hinge on the casting of Locke and Jean.

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Mistborn seems like it's ripe for Star Wars-style film treatment. Get it right and it could be huge. I'm not a huge fan of the novels but films could be great fun.



You couldn't adapt Malazan directly, book for book. You'd have to break the narrative into smaller chunks. I mean, for someone who'd take the plunge on it it'd be a fantastic expanded universe, but the money and organisation needed to do such a thing would be utterly ridiculous and it'll be a brave producer that takes the plunge.

 

 

 

I'd love to see an anthology series based on the Bas-Lag books (you could probably do PSS justice as a film, just about- the actual central plot thread of that book isn't especially complex and is essentially a take on Alien/Aliens, though obviously there's a lot going on around it- but not the other two, so films wouldn't do, Trio of miniseries).

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5 hours ago, Werthead said:

Liveship Traders is ripe for an adaptation. The Fitz stuff, I really don't see it. It's far too inert, lacking in externalised dramatic moments and is rooted in psychology rather than bigger fantasy events like battles or spectacular magic.

I agree Liveships is more adaptable though would probably need a pretty big budget to do it justice, especially as the series progressed. Sea travels and battles, CGI, a number of lavish sets (Bingtown itself, Jamalia, The Rain Wilds/Trehaug, Divvytown), large cast, most likely a lot of practical effects and heavy use of prosthetics and make up. I can imagine the costs mounting up pretty quickly. would be interested to see how they create the Liveships though in terms of what effects they use. Oh and the casting would be really important, especially for the likes of Kennit. I would be genuinely excited to hear it was being adapted though.

i think Fitz would work as an adaptation but would be pretty different fare. I imagine the early stuff as comparable to something like Wolf Hall maybe. As GOT is mentioned in the op, a Fitz adaptation would most likely be like a whole show of Kings Landing scenes

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6 hours ago, polishgenius said:


You couldn't adapt Malazan directly, book for book. You'd have to break the narrative into smaller chunks. I mean, for someone who'd take the plunge on it it'd be a fantastic expanded universe, but the money and organisation needed to do such a thing would be utterly ridiculous and it'll be a brave producer that takes the plunge.

 

You're right it would take a massive commitment.That's why I think animation would be the best option for it or WOT. MBOTF doesn't necessarily require one series either. It's loose enough of a structure with enough arcs to fill several series. As long as we can agree the Mhybe and younger Tiste Andii would be the arcs cut. 

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2 hours ago, Ajûrbkli said:

Why not the Elric books?  Could probably be done on a small budget even so long as most of the budget is spent on costumes and make-up.  Otherwise it would have that cheap Babylon 5/Stargate look.

An Elric movie has been in development hell for decades.

It's never going to happen, of course, but I think my own little Wise Phuul would make an OK miniseries (damn it, a man can dream...).

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5 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

An Elric movie has been in development hell for decades.

 I checked the Wikipedia article and it's the same guys who wanted to make the PoN adaption.  That shouldn't surprise me.  

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10 hours ago, Hello World said:

I think calling Shannara the best fantasy show on TV - a statement that would require instant institutionalisation in any other context - would be more of a hottake if it wasn't, right now anyway (with GoT on hiatus for two years and American Gods unlikely to return for a similar period), the only fantasy show on television.

If they mean it in the more traditional sense of comparing it to shows that are technically ongoing and haven't been cancelled yet, then clearly they are tripping balls.

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