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Shannara TV series in development at MTV with IRON MAN director


Werthead

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That trailer looks pretty amazing, and I am glad that they are starting with Elfstones, which was my favourite of the books.

A lot of the effects and scenery is so clearly New Zealand-based.

I was amused by them claiming that it would look distinct compared to other fantasy adaptations about 30 seconds after praising the New Zealand landscapes.

It was a good trailer, the production values look surprisingly good. I read a couple of Terry Brooks' other series but never the Shannara books so I don't have any nostalgia for them, but I'll give the TV series a try when it comes out.

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That promo looked great. I really did not expect that. I was never a big fan of the books (I remember reading the first one and just seeing a cheap LOTR knock-off), but this looks promising. It certainly has an interesting cast. If Pan's Labyrint is anything to go by, Ivana Baquero is a great talent. And I suffered through the entire first series of Arrow just because Manu Bennett was involved, so this one will hopefully be comparably easy.





I was amused by them claiming that it would look distinct compared to other fantasy adaptations about 30 seconds after praising the New Zealand landscapes.




Yeah, I had to do a double take as well after hearing that :)





I'm honestly flabbergasted at how good that looks on an MTV budget. If the rest of the show is as good as the production values we're in for a treat.




:agree:


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I haven't read any of the books, but that does look impressive, especially coming from... MTV? :shocked:



I always thought that Shannara was just a LOTR knock-off, but that shipwreck in the trailer tells me this is a post-apocalyptic world. Am I right?


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I haven't read any of the books, but that does look impressive, especially coming from... MTV? :shocked:

I always thought that Shannara was just a LOTR knock-off, but that shipwreck in the trailer tells me this is a post-apocalyptic world. Am I right?

Did you miss the Eiffel Tower in the swamp? :p

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Did you miss the Eiffel Tower in the swamp? :P

It's the Seattle tower, no?

The first Shannara book is an utterly shameless LotR knockoff but after that he starts to develop the series more- the post-apocalyptic stuff was mostly scenery in Elfstones (and I'm pretty sure it wasn't made explicit that it's our world until much later along, though I haven't read any of the books for years), but it was there.

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I haven't read any of the books, but that does look impressive, especially coming from... MTV? :shocked:

I always thought that Shannara was just a LOTR knock-off, but that shipwreck in the trailer tells me this is a post-apocalyptic world. Am I right?

Yeah, it was written in the 70's so a post-nuclear apocalypse world was as common as zombie apocalypses are now.

Brief background not really a spoiler:

The races of trolls, gnomes and dwarfs are speciated from mutant humans as the world recovered from nuclear fallout and magic returned. Elves were one of the races of faerie but isolated themselves and changed in appearance, becoming human-looking except for the ears.

I wonder if they'll actually film the Sword of Shannara as the second season, reversing the order of the books and using Wil Ohmsford in place of Shea.

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It's made clear in the first book that it's our world in the distant future, but it doesn't directly become important to the story until later. And yes, the Four Lands are effectively a heavily-altered West Coast of the United States, so the tower is more likely to be Seattle than Paris.


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I wonder if they'll actually film the Sword of Shannara as the second season, reversing the order of the books and using Wil Ohmsford in place of Shea.

I bet they are avoiding an adaptation of Sword altogether just so they don't have to deal with how uncomfortably similar it is to Lord of the Rings, because that book really is a shameless, blatant ripoff of Tolkien's books.

Anyway, I'm casually enthused about this. It looks pretty and it's fantasy, which I like. But the Shannara books do not contribute anything especially to the fantasy genre. They are neither deep nor intelligent. They are light fluff. Which is what this show will be at best. Hopefully the show doesn't take itself too seriously.

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The set of stories of that 'bridge' from our world (post apocalypse) to that of Shannara are explicitly set in the NW of the States I think. I am definitely not going to buy the books again, nor dig them out of storage, but will clearly have to check Wikipedia to refresh my memory before this airs.



I hope that the demons, and the progressive Elven retreat/defense of their city are done well on screen.



Apart from Elfstones, I can't think of any other book that would translate to screen AT ALL. Sword maybe, but Wishsong and everything that comes after - no.



Edit - the 'bridge' novels are set in Illinois and then NW States (per Wikipedia)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannara


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I am interested in John Rhys - Davies, but I don´t know if i´ll be able to watch it for a long time. I´ve tried to read "Elfstones" recently and simply couldn´t stand the style to be honest. I guess at the best we can all hope that it will be like the better stuff from Hercules / Xena stuff.


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The visuals are astounding. Baffling how great this looks.



My one concern is of course the three teen actors who will be getting the most screen time. They could be annoying and ruin the feel of an otherwise gorgeous design.


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It's the Seattle tower, no?

:blushing: Woops, you're right. I missed the SkyCity restaurant and just immediately assumed 'Eiffel Tower' when I saw the toppled metallic structure.

Oops, apparently I did. My ability to discern every detail from a trailer is quite limited. :P

Apparently, you and I are in the same boat in that regard :cheers:

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The Sword of Shannara gets into all of that doesn't it? The post apocalyptic stuff? There is a scene in the mountains when they come to some ancient fallen city of the old world and a weird monster attacks them right? I think that's right.



The reaper will be pretty cool. I think the Scions of Shannara might be pretty cool too. I imagine they'd break those books up and tell them together instead of dedicating seasons to a character's journey like the books did. Walker Boh man. He was my favorite as a kid. I got kind of tired of all the silly Ohmsfords after awhile. Pek Bek Roe Moe Jo Shea Flick PIck and the rest.


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The Sword of Shannara gets into all of that doesn't it? The post apocalyptic stuff? There is a scene in the mountains when they come to some ancient fallen city of the old world and a weird monster attacks them right? I think that's right.

The reaper will be pretty cool. I think the Scions of Shannara might be pretty cool too. I imagine they'd break those books up and tell them together instead of dedicating seasons to a character's journey like the books did. Walker Boh man. He was my favorite as a kid. I got kind of tired of all the silly Ohmsfords after awhile. Pek Bek Roe Moe Jo Shea Flick PIck and the rest.

+1 Walker Boh. Druid of Shannara was my favorite of the post-Elfstones books. The imagery of the stone city of Eldwist (which I assumed to be Seattle) stuck out to me in particular.

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+2 for Walker Boh.

However, I refuse to do a re-read, I loved them as a teen, but tired rapidly when he moved onto the jerle shannara trilogy a decade or so later. I don't think they'd stand my up to my current standards

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