Wheel of Time 5: The Lion In Winter [book spoilers]

[SpaceChampion]

Olivia Williams seen filming on set with Shohreh Aghdashloo, so most probably cast as Queen Morgase Trakand.

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by SpaceChampion

[Ran]

Ah, I love Olivia Williams.

[Werthead]

I still rate Olivia Williams for spoofing the hell out of her Sixth Sense appearance just a few months after the movie came out (and well before Pegg, Frost and Wright were as mega-famous as they became).

 

[Mexal]

I’m a big fan of Olivia Williams. That works for me.

[fionwe1987]

Great casting. Here's hoping Morgase's storyline gets improved for the show. I was not a fan of how RJ handled her in the books. 

[Arakasi]

It’s astounding how many A list actors they’ve gotten for this show. I do think partly they’ve realized with post Covid landscape and cost of special effects that they can’t really reproduce the immense scope of the novels. So they’re going to lean into the characters.

[fionwe1987]

I wonder if it may also be what Rosamund Pike said in an interview, that a lot of female actors are seeing a chance for meaty roles in a world and story where the female perspective is centered. That's gotta be somewhat novel, I'd imagine. 

[Werthead]

I think it might also be more that Rosamund probably knows a lot of these actresses and her star firepower is enough to get many of them to sign up.

[Arakasi]

So 3 prequel movies set in the age of legends. So it’s good the show and universe is getting more money and investment but they need to keep pushing the main series too. I guess overal this is good because it shows Amazon is committed but it does seem to stink of the over saturation other franchises have fallen prey to recently. So overall slightly positive for me but some concerns on splitting focus.

[Myrddin]

This bodes well for the OG show continuing to the end, I guess. As long as the prequels don't screw the darkpooch. 

[Caligula_K3]

Not sure I really needed the prequel movies, as much as I've loved the Foresaken actors so far.

I ran late on watching Season 2, but I really liked it and thought it was a huge improvement over the first. Not everything worked (Lan moping, some of the Perrin stuff, Lan moping), but in general they did a much better job defining the Two Rivers characters. The Seanchean were appropriately horrifying, and most importantly, they made the Foresaken into great villains. Every scene with Ishamael and Lanfear was excellent. My only hope is that they bring the Ishamael actor back for the main show when he gets reincarnated - he was so good.

I'm very excited for Season 3, especially with all these great actors being hired.

[Werthead]

On 12/14/2023 at 5:04 PM, Arakasi said:

So 3 prequel movies set in the age of legends. So it’s good the show and universe is getting more money and investment but they need to keep pushing the main series too. I guess overal this is good because it shows Amazon is committed but it does seem to stink of the over saturation other franchises have fallen prey to recently. So overall slightly positive for me but some concerns on splitting focus.

Amazon has nothing to do with the movies. This is Iwot - a rebranded Red Eagle - doing their own thing within a very narrow parameter of rights they control.

They seem to have hired a director without actually getting a funding deal from a studio or streamer, which is...bold of them. Also precedented: they previously contracted Obsidian to make a Wheel of Time video game without actually having a funding agreement (they seemed to not realise that a WoT video game from a reliable producer like Obsidian would cost ~$20 million at the bare minimum), then shot down Electronic Arts when they offered to fund the game in return for IP rights, despite that being 100% standard procedure in development.

[Corvinus85]

Ah yes the leeches that won't go away. Will Billy Zane return as Ishamael?

[Poobah]

Yeah kinda reads like another "hold on to the rights" project that's likely to fizzle out.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Poobah

[IlyaP]

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

They seem to have hired a director without actually getting a funding deal from a studio or streamer, which is...bold of them. Also precedented: they previously contracted Obsidian to make a Wheel of Time video game without actually having a funding agreement (they seemed to not realise that a WoT video game from a reliable producer like Obsidian would cost ~$20 million at the bare minimum), then shot down Electronic Arts when they offered to fund the game in return for IP rights, despite that being 100% standard procedure in development.

I'm sorry, what? Obsidian almost made a Wheel of Time game? 

Can...can we please get them back on the phone? I really really really want Obsidian to make a WoT RPG. 

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, IlyaP said:

I'm sorry, what? Obsidian almost made a Wheel of Time game? 

Can...can we please get them back on the phone? I really really really want Obsidian to make a WoT RPG. 

Yeah, that was a weird one. Red Eagle went to Obsidian and asked if they'd want to make a WoT RPG. They said sure, but obviously they'd need funding. Red Eagle didn't have that money to hand and went to Electronic Arts. EA said sure they'd fund development, but in return they'd want the full video game IP rights to the franchise, which would be standard, with some kind of reversion clause (so if the RPG did poorly, EA could walk away and x years later the rights would return to Red Eagle). For some reason this was unacceptable to Red Eagle, so they said no. So we could have had an Obsidian-made, EA-funded WoT game probably back around 2016-17 or so, but Red Eagle couldn't deliver the deal.

For a rights-handling company, Red Eagle have done a spectacularly and consistently poor job of handling the rights, even to their own advantage.

[SpaceChampion]

How did these clowns ever talk Harriet into signing over the rights??

[Derfel Cadarn]

13 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

How did these clowns ever talk Harriet into signing over the rights??

I think it was Robert Jordan who sold the rights. 

[Pellert]

I don’t know how to post pictures (is it possible?) or link something from an IG post, but the WoT instagram have just now posted a picture behind the scenes pic of the Emondsfield Five, where Mat has only one eye. 
 

Don’t know what to make of that… Are they just scrapping the return to Tower of Ghenjei and wraps up that full arc in one visit..? Hmm..

[SpaceChampion]

I couldn't find the instagram post but here is the photo on twitter

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by SpaceChampion