The Witcher on Netflix.

[Theda Baratheon]

SOmeone drew Zach McGowan as Geralt and honestly it works so well?? 

Also ive heard he’s started reading the books himself 

https://i.redd.it/cwu1z62v4pi01.jpg

[Centrist Simon Steele]

As I replay the Witcher 3, I have to hope that--despite no connection to the games--the showrunners will employ the composers of the Witcher games AND the talents of polish folk band Percival who just added such a unique element to the music in the third game. Those vocals are something else.

[Theda Baratheon]

35 minutes ago, Simon Steele said:

As I replay the Witcher 3, I have to hope that--despite no connection to the games--the showrunners will employ the composers of the Witcher games AND the talents of polish folk band Percival who just added such a unique element to the music in the third game. Those vocals are something else.

The music in that game is sooooo good. Regularly listen to the OST. 

[The Anti-Targ]

Yeah, the music of TW3 is excellent and would emotionally connect game fans with the TV series.

[Werthead]

I think the issue there is that Netflix paid Sapkowski for the rights to the books, they have not paid CD Projekt Red to use anything from the games (the CG firm who did the cut scenes from the games is involved though, but again they can't use any material from the games). That would require a separate, expensive licence.

They can certainly use the same composer, musicians etc, but they would have to ensure that none of the material they created was similar to anything in the games. It'd be too much of a fine line to really go there.

[The Anti-Targ]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

I think the issue there is that Netflix paid Sapkowski for the rights to the books, they have not paid CD Projekt Red to use anything from the games (the CG firm who did the cut scenes from the games is involved though, but again they can't use any material from the games). That would require a separate, expensive licence.

They can certainly use the same composer, musicians etc, but they would have to ensure that none of the material they created was similar to anything in the games. It'd be too much of a fine line to really go there.

Aye? I thought there was going to be a bit of a mash up of game and book content. So no characters unique to the game will appear in the TV show?

[Werthead]

5 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Aye? I thought there was going to be a bit of a mash up of game and book content. So no characters unique to the game will appear in the TV show?

Nope, not unless their deal changes.

[Theda Baratheon]

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

Nope, not unless their deal changes.

That’s a bit of a shame 

[SeanF]

On ‎8‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 1:28 AM, Werthead said:

The suggestion that "literature" (not sure I'd put literature in italics as it suggests pitting Sapkowski against the likes of Wolfe, Priest or Aldiss and, well, that's not a competition he's going to win) is always innately superior to the writing in games is amusing. Don't get me wrong, the writing in the first two Witcher games (in particular) isn't going to be troubling any novel writers anywhere, but the third game? Whole another level, and I'd be impressed if the writing in any of the later Witcher books rises to the level of, say, the Bloody Baron storyline.

The Witcher 3 represents a substantial step forwards in video games - particularly AAA, high-end ones - as an art form and in the level of writing that they can achieve, probably the biggest such step this century.

Not on the level of ASoIaF, Malazan or TSA, probably around the level of First Law, better than Kingkiller. I haven't read all the Witcher books yet, so there may be substantial improvements later on (although looking online the consensus seems to be that the two short story collections and Blood of Elves are the best and the quality drops off fairly substantially afterwards).

Grimdark in tone more than content (I don't recall any graphic sex scenes in the books, or any really horrific violence), I'd say, maybe on the level of Glen Cook.

IMHO, the best of the series is The Tower of the Swallow, the penultimate book, where Ciri emerges as the principal character.  I didn't think there was any drop off in quality after Blood of Elves, if anything, the reverse.

Overall, the series is Grimdark, but with some good comic scenes (surprisingly, for a series which features genocide, racial hatred, vivisection, mass rape, child abuse, the Black Death and torture).  The series features more the aftermath of horrific violence, rather than giving graphic accounts of it.

Witcher 3 takes place a couple of years after the events of the last book and is consistent with one possible interpretation of its ending (which is quite ambiguous).  The video games are generally a good deal more sympathetic to both Nilfgaard and the Elves than the books are.

 

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 8/21/2018 at 4:31 PM, Werthead said:

Nope, not unless their deal changes.

I think they won't attempt to buy anything character/plotwise from the games--but I wouldn't be surprised if they bought the rights to the music. I can't see a reason why they wouldn't. Unless Sapkowski threw a fit.

[Werthead]

On 8/24/2018 at 6:08 AM, Simon Steele said:

I think they won't attempt to buy anything character/plotwise from the games--but I wouldn't be surprised if they bought the rights to the music. I can't see a reason why they wouldn't. Unless Sapkowski threw a fit.

That would be unusual. Creating original music for the show means that Netflix will own it and will profit from selling soundtrack albums etc. Licensing stuff from CDPR benefits CDPR more than Netflix. Netflix may also consider having the CGI team from the games (who are already on board, but can't use any of their game material) and the music would create an expectation of a deeper crossover with the games which is not on the cards.

Whilst it's not impossible for Netflix to licence the music, I consider it unlikely.

[Theda Baratheon]

Shame  the music is SOO GOOD.

[Mark Antony]

I listen to the games soundtracks so muchh would be cool if they could get it on the show but I guess that’s unrealistic.

[Mark Antony]

They pulled Henry Cavill

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/henry-cavill-the-witcher-netflix-series-1202925521/

[Ran]

8 minutes ago, Mark Antony said:

They pulled Henry Cavill

https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/henry-cavill-the-witcher-netflix-series-1202925521/

Nice. I'm guessing he was already in negotiations when he was asked about it and fanboyed over the books while claiming to be interested.

[Corvinus85]

Wow. 

[JGP]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

Nice. I'm guessing he was already in negotiations when he was asked about it and fanboyed over the books while claiming to be interested.

I follow the showrunner on Twitter. She said that the meeting with Cavill was several months ago, before the writing dept was fully flushed out, before scripts, etc. And, she seemed to express the sentiment that since then, at least in her mind, Cavill was Geralt all along.  

[john]

That’s a shame. Not about Cavill, I’m happy enough with that,  but I liked his fanboy interview and now it seems it was probably bullshit.  Actors, eh.

Commiserations to Theda though.

[JGP]

9 minutes ago, john said:

That’s a shame. Not about Cavill, I’m happy enough with that,  but I liked his fanboy interview and now it seems it was probably bullshit.  Actors, eh.

Commiserations to Theda though.

Well, she was also saying that his background knowledge and passion for the property were evident then as well. It's possible that he came out as a strong lead but hadn't gotten any kind of confirmation until recently, I don't know. 

I was kind of hoping for Mads or Zach, personally, but I'm not turned completely off by this.   

[red snow]

2 hours ago, Ran said:

Nice. I'm guessing he was already in negotiations when he was asked about it and fanboyed over the books while claiming to be interested.

I had a feeling he was already preparing for the role from that interview but good for him bring excited about it. I thought he was great in mission impossible and that physical intimidation he had there should serve him well here.