Joe Abercrombie: The Collected Works (and in what order to read them) SPOILERS

[Jo498]

I like the tighter style (but there are also readers who clearly prefer the "First Law" books) but "Generations" seems a mischaracterization of "Shattered Sea". I am not sure but I think there are less than 10 years between the beginning of the first and the ending of the last book. There are two generations of important actors (like Yarvi and his mother and uncle) but they are around from the beginning and the protagonists of the 2nd and 3rd books are only a few years younger than Yarvi, I think.

[red snow]

5 hours ago, Jo498 said:

I like the tighter style (but there are also readers who clearly prefer the "First Law" books) but "Generations" seems a mischaracterization of "Shattered Sea". I am not sure but I think there are less than 10 years between the beginning of the first and the ending of the last book. There are two generations of important actors (like Yarvi and his mother and uncle) but they are around from the beginning and the protagonists of the 2nd and 3rd books are only a few years younger than Yarvi, I think.

I tried to distinguish that when making the claim. It's not that each group features characters that could be the children of the previous one but each one tends to have teens as the focus and by the next book said characters are no longer teens but adults. Eg the main POV in book 1 is an adult in book 2, while the POVs in book 2 are adults by book 3. The POVs in book 3 all regard the POVs from book 2 as grown ups. Maybe it's peer group or something but there's always that distinction throughout the series of teens, adults, older people.

[Mick of House Guinness]

In terms of possible characters in the new trilogy a nice possibility is Isern, Cummock-i-Phail's feisty-as-fuck daughter. She is mentioned in the earlier outlines included in The Heroes. She was going to be leading the hillmen in Dow's army and Calder would seduce her for her support. Don't think she is big enough to be a POV but with the north a location in the new trilogy we could see her again.

[AncalagonTheBlack]

Ok, now that even Rothfuss is getting his work adapted , why not Joe's? Does anyone know if any of his books are under option? If so,who owns them ?

[Rhom]

4 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Ok, now that even Rothfuss is getting his work adapted , why not Joe's? Does anyone know if any of his books are under option? If so,who owns them ?

Perhaps @Joe Abercrombie could tell us!

[Joe Abercrombie]

Yeah, I could definitely tell you.

[3CityApache]

Thanks man, we really appreciate it.

[MisterOJ]

He sure told us.

[BigFatCoward]

i just finished a reread of the first 3, i'm not sure the world is ready for Glokta as a TV hero.  Also, how would you cast him? Theoretically if you did make it, how would you see episode count across the series?  FL book 1 = 6 episodes, book 2 = 8 episodes, book 3 = 10 episodes, would be ideal. 

I'm sure if any of his shit had been optioned he wouldn't be hanging round here, he'd be sat at home polishing his diamond shoes. 

[Darth Richard II]

1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

i just finished a reread of the first 3, i'm not sure the world is ready for Glokta as a TV hero.  Also, how would you cast him? Theoretically if you did make it, how would you see episode count across the series?  FL book 1 = 6 episodes, book 2 = 8 episodes, book 3 = 10 episodes, would be ideal. 

I'm sure if any of his shit had been optioned he wouldn't be hanging round here, he'd be sat at home polishing his diamond shoes. 

Someone needs to tell Daniel Abraham then.

[Joe Abercrombie]

Options tend to get presented as a massive deal but they're rarely life-changing amounts of money.  It can happen, with a hot book and a lot of competition, but a book like that will often be raking it in anyway. Options are generally pretty exploratory - a fee paid by a production company so they can develop a project for 18 months or 3 years in the hope of getting it off the ground - but usually with a VERY low chance of anything coming together. A book might be optioned over and over for years and never be made. The vast majority of options will never make it to a first script, let alone beyond that. If it IS made there'll be a purchase price paid, usually on the first day of principle photography, which generally will be a much more significant amount of money. But even then the financial value to the author is often more in the publicity and additional book sales than it is necessarily in the direct fees paid. Though every case is a bit different...

[red snow]

1 hour ago, Joe Abercrombie said:

Options tend to get presented as a massive deal but they're rarely life-changing amounts of money.  It can happen, with a hot book and a lot of competition, but a book like that will often be raking it in anyway. Options are generally pretty exploratory - a fee paid by a production company so they can develop a project for 18 months or 3 years in the hope of getting it off the ground - but usually with a VERY low chance of anything coming together. A book might be optioned over and over for years and never be made. The vast majority of options will never make it to a first script, let alone beyond that. If it IS made there'll be a purchase price paid, usually on the first day of principle photography, which generally will be a much more significant amount of money. But even then the financial value to the author is often more in the publicity and additional book sales than it is necessarily in the direct fees paid. Though every case is a bit different...

As you seem to be "getting by ok" with book sales alone does this also mean you are a bit more picky about any potential deals or is that something that only comes into effect after the development phase?

Would you want to have a hands on role in a show or are you generally more relaxed about it being a different medium and not so much your own thing anymore?

I actually think the shatterred sea books could make a nice film trilogy and might be easier to adapt.

[Ded As Ned]

The diamond shoes come after season 2, when the contract is signed for seasons 3+.  You have to be realistic about these things.

[Darth Richard II]

Yeah, optioning doesn't mean much. Lock Lamora has been optioned since before the first book came out and Novik has been optioned for almost as long.

[red snow]

5 hours ago, Ded As Ned said:

The diamond shoes come after season 2, when the contract is signed for seasons 3+.  You have to be realistic about these things.

I'm guessing more money is made for the author off the increase in book sales? Didn't GRRM'S total sales of ASOIAF do something crazy like double within a year of the show launching? And he was successful beforehand. I found this chart that illustrates the effect of the show on his sales.

The money from the show is icing on the cake, I imagine.

I wouldn't say that optioning doesn't mean much (unless you are referring to chances of seeing something on a screen).  Richard Morgan said selling the option to develop Altered Carbon into a movie allowed him to pursue writing full time. Over a decade later and the film never happened but he will get the show on netflix (hopefully next year!) and he'll get a similar book sales increase. with the actors plastered on the covers no doubt

 

[williamjm]

On 07/12/2016 at 9:24 AM, red snow said:

I wouldn't say that optioning doesn't mean much (unless you are referring to chances of seeing something on a screen).  Richard Morgan said selling the option to develop Altered Carbon into a movie allowed him to pursue writing full time. Over a decade later and the film never happened but he will get the show on netflix (hopefully next year!) and he'll get a similar book sales increase. with the actors plastered on the covers no doubt

I get the impression there was a bit of a bidding war for Altered Carbon which (as Joe says above) can mean a lot more money is paid than would normally be the case for a relatively unknown author.

[Howdyphillip]

 If I were doing a project from Joe, I would start with a motion pictured based on Heroes. It is the best war novel I have ever read, and it reads cinema graphically. Someone really needs to champion that book through. I could see it making all of the money. 

[Rhom]

39 minutes ago, Howdyphillip said:

 If I were doing a project from Joe, I would start with a motion pictured based on Heroes. It is the best war novel I have ever read, and it reads cinema graphically. Someone really needs to champion that book through. I could see it making all of the money. 

Agree.

However, Best Served Cold basically reads as a fantasy Kill Bill too.   

[Maithanet]

8 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Agree.

However, Best Served Cold basically reads as a fantasy Kill Bill too.   

Yes, although you would need two movies to do it justice unless you are just going to cut out several of the people who need killing. 

[Corvinus85]

53 minutes ago, Howdyphillip said:

 If I were doing a project from Joe, I would start with a motion pictured based on Heroes. It is the best war novel I have ever read, and it reads cinema graphically. Someone really needs to champion that book through. I could see it making all of the money. 

I, too, would agree with this assessment, but if you were to start with this, that movie would need a fair amount of intro to establish the world and some of the characters.

I think the best path to adaptation for all these books would be to have Netlfix or Amazon do it, and then each book could be adapted in the format best suited: feature length film, mini series or TV-style series. I would do it in publishing order - a TV series for the trilogy with a total of about 21-27 episodes. A two-part miniseries for Best Served Cold (4 hours total), a three-part miniseries for The Heroes (4-5 hours total) and feature length film (2-3 hours) for Red Country. Also another TV series for some of the Sharp Ends characters, mainly Jarve and her "sidekick" (can't think of her name now).