Tad Williams' Otherland has been optioned by the producers of The Witcher and The Wheel of Time

[Jiriki]

Exciting news for fans of Otherland, as it's been optioned for a series:

Quote

EXCLUSIVE: Platige Image (The Witcher) and Mount Devil, together with The Wheel of Time’s executive producer Mike Weber, are in the works on a TV series based on Otherland, the 4-book series by Tad Williams.

Otherland (the books and its TV adaptation) is described as “an epic cyberpunk-fantasy adventure.” The summary reads, “The world as we know it has an additional layer here – hyper-realistic VR arenas that have become a new place for fun, work, education but also debauchery, crime and abuse. The mysterious Otherland, supposedly another layer of the network, becomes a mere starting point for a multi-realm adventure.

 

[Ser Not Appearing]

Will be interesting to see where this ends up. Neither The Witcher or The Wheel of Time were nearly as close to great as I might have hoped but both were enjoyable enough.

[Jiriki]

2 minutes ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

Will be interesting to see where this ends up. Neither The Witcher or The Wheel of Time were nearly as close to great as I might have hoped but both were enjoyable enough.

I have enjoyed WOT TV series more than the books, but to me, The Witcher felt odd. Hard to say what felt off, but maybe it was the time jumps. JMHO.

[Argonath Diver]

Wow, that's interesting. I have said before it'd be completely impossible to adapt for live action. So many different worlds, the budget would be colossal. And the payoff, while worth it, would take like 8 seasons of slog. I love that series but man that sounds like a vast undertaking. 

[Jiriki]

1 hour ago, Argonath Diver said:

Wow, that's interesting. I have said before it'd be completely impossible to adapt for live action. So many different worlds, the budget would be colossal. And the payoff, while worth it, would take like 8 seasons of slog. I love that series but man that sounds like a vast undertaking. 

I kind of want to see this show just for the Kitchen Sink simulation (though my favorite world is the Endless House, a simulation I'm reminded every time I visit the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose).

[Argonath Diver]

I think buried in this forum is a conversation about this. I think Otherland could be a stunning adaptation, if animated similarly to the Spideyverse films, or the Arcane series. There are just so many wild environments that a proper live action rendition would be absurdly expensive. The Kitchen Sink world, the chesspiece world, the terrifying experimental amalgamation Kansas world stuff, Mr Sellars organic hacking stuff - it's just not feasible for live action. In my perfect world it would be animated like Arcane and last, like, 50+ total hours of footage all told between 6 or so "seasons". The last season would be absolutely fucking bonkers, too.

Again I think it's one of the most unfilmable series ever. I'm surprised and nervous about the news.

[Jiriki]

22 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

I think buried in this forum is a conversation about this. I think Otherland could be a stunning adaptation, if animated similarly to the Spideyverse films, or the Arcane series. There are just so many wild environments that a proper live action rendition would be absurdly expensive. The Kitchen Sink world, the chesspiece world, the terrifying experimental amalgamation Kansas world stuff, Mr Sellars organic hacking stuff - it's just not feasible for live action. In my perfect world it would be animated like Arcane and last, like, 50+ total hours of footage all told between 6 or so "seasons". The last season would be absolutely fucking bonkers, too.

Again I think it's one of the most unfilmable series ever. I'm surprised and nervous about the news.

I see your point about Mr. Sellars' "organic hacking"... how does that even translate to the screen? I don't even know how it could be visually represented. Most of the audience won't be able to understand plant-based high-tech surveillance.

I think the Kansas/Oz simulation could be stripped down to the most important pieces because everyone knows that simulation... or a less horrific version of it, at least. The Kitchen Sink simulation can look about as cheap as Toy Story, and not break the budget.

But, as you say, there are things in Otherland which I don't think can even be translated well into film. How, for example, do you represent recurring themes such as the fat/thin "twins" (that I've always believed are references to Gormenghast's Swelter and Flay)? How do you make the viewers understand that some of these characters recur much like (the later masterpiece) Cloud Atlas? Could so much "unfilmable" stuff be crammed into a TV show and still have the show make sense to the average viewer?

I think the film adaptation of Cloud Atlas and Blade Runner may be the best way to try to present the material in Otherland.

One thing I'd love to see is the creators taking Michael Whelan's beautiful, shiny cover art and incorporating it into the CGI of the show. The "golden shadow" message; Paul Jonas drowning in the river, a feather floating tantalizingly overhead; etc.

I think they'd need to cut back on the gray world of book 4. That story could be told in less time, no one wants to spend an entire season in a featureless world, and frankly, no one wants to see a guy who looks like The Simpsons' Mr. Burns naked for that many episodes.