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WHEEL OF TIME officially optioned for television


Werthead

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EDIT: See here for the news. The below is a reference to the terrible self-funded Red Eagle pilot from 2015.

 

 

I kid you not.

 

Before we proceed any further, behold:

 

The following is a statement from Harriet McDougal Rigney, Robert Jordan's wife and editor, regarding the FXX show "The Wheel of Time: Winter Dragon" that aired last night:

Quote

"This morning brought startling news. A “pilot” for a Wheel of Time series, the "pilot" being called Winter Dragon, had appeared at 1:30 in the morning, East Coast time, on FXX TV, a channel somewhere in the 700s (founded to concentrate on comedy, according to the Washington Post).

It was made without my knowledge or cooperation. I never saw the script. No one associated with Bandersnatch Group, the successor-in-interest to James O. Rigney, was aware of this.
Bandersnatch has an existing contract with Universal Pictures that grants television rights to them until this Wednesday, February 11 – at which point these rights revert to Bandersnatch.
I see no mention of Universal in the “pilot”. Nor, I repeat, was Bandersnatch, or Robert Jordan’s estate, informed of this in any way.
I am dumbfounded by this occurrence, and am taking steps to prevent its reoccurrence."

 

So, this is a move by Red Eagle to try to retain the TV rights, a move which I suspect is going to massively backfire. There are several companies very interested in a Wheel of Time TV series right now (if Kingkiller can get optioned and Shannara can actually somehow get made, WoT has certainly got a massive shot at success) who are ready to take an interest when Red Eagle's option runs out.

 

So this smacks of desperation.

 

Although Billy Zane as Ishamael is the kind of completely off-the-wall bananas casting decision I could almost respect.

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How could anyone think this was a remotely good idea? The WOT is already unfilmable, and even in the context of a long running show requires a significant amount of content to be cut to not bog said tv series down. But casting Billy Zane, of all potential actors, to be in the lead role was monumentally absurd.


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Holy crap that was bad. Personally, I've always thought that WoT would do better as an animated series. Much easier to get the scope of it right and depict the use of the power. For this story to work on screen, the FX budget would have to be huge in order for it not to look cheesy, and I really doubt that this story could generate and maintain the numbers to make that a plausible reality.


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Holy crap that was bad. Personally, I've always thought that WoT would do better as an animated series. Much easier to get the scope of it right and depict the use of the power. For this story to work on screen, the FX budget would have to be huge in order for it not to look cheesy, and I really doubt that this story could generate and maintain the numbers to make that a plausible reality.

A Japanese company did talk to Jordan circa 2003 about the series, but they only wanted to adapt the first 3 books and turn the fall of the Stone of Tear into the actual Last Battle. Jordan told them no.

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Holy crap that was bad. Personally, I've always thought that WoT would do better as an animated series. Much easier to get the scope of it right and depict the use of the power. For this story to work on screen, the FX budget would have to be huge in order for it not to look cheesy, and I really doubt that this story could generate and maintain the numbers to make that a plausible reality.

I agree. The landscapes in WoT are perfect for an animated adaptation. It can have a distinctive look without costing the earth in CGI work.

Plus, then you can spend the money on hiring good voice actors.

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The comparison that came to my mind was that it is like a horrible traffic accident. You don't wanna look, but you're going to anyways.

Thankfully, I was able to curtail that instinct. I watched the stupid Wheel as a film-wheel thing with narration for like a minute, then violently hit the little x on the open tab.

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Thankfully, I was able to curtail that instinct. I watched the stupid Wheel as a film-wheel thing with narration for like a minute, then violently hit the little x on the open tab.

Then you are a stronger man than I. I saw the way it was gonna go, but I just couldn't stop.

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