Starz getting on Fantasy Bandwagon

[Jonias Snow]

Well for fans of fantasy, medieval storytelling, next year will be the Holy Grail of television. Starz not wanting to be outdone by HBO (Games), Showtime (Borgias), Syfy (Wheel) and lest we forget Merlin and Seeker will introduce its own continueing series about Arthur, you know the one with the sword and his compadres who like to sit round this table drinking and chatting. I believe the working title is Camelot, how original.

Good news for N. Ireland though, they will shoot the series there (guess they will just use Thrones sets), maybe HBO is going in jointly with Starz on the sets. You know a little twink there and a little twank there, so the viewers won't notice they used the same sets.

I almost forgot to mention the silver screen as fantasy will be jumping at you in 3D or 2D, depending on how cheap your local theatre is. Two versions of Excalibur, a new Conan film, Thor, and I believe a medieval version of Vlad the historical one mixed with fantasy and horror, produced by Brad Pitt and then there is Mad Mel's viking movie.

The fans over in the UK get an early dose with Bean's Black Death this summer, we here in America might have to wait till early next year to see it. I have read several reviews from British Tabloids and they loved it, basically 3 out of 4 stars, can't wait. Then there's Robin Hood this summer and Centurion and Legion of the Ninth in the fall to wet our appetites in anticipation for the Coming of Winter.

I have the feeling the next decade is going to take a bite out of the budget of fantasy fans.

[nightwisp1956]

Thank you for all that information! I love it! I guess I better start saving some extra money then to partake of all these great, fun movies and stuff. I will inform my son of these movies, too, as he is a fan of fantasy. After all, he is the person who introduced me to ASOIAF books!

[red snow]

Too. Much. Fantasy. Can't contain excitement.

Great to hear that the Camelot show is still going ahead - as it's the one that was been bandied around showtime by the "Tudors" creators. Hopefully it will be a little bit better (or not require a season to become decent) than Tudors and we can have some fun rivalry between AGOT and Camelot - it will be the Babylon 5 and Deep space 9 of the 10s! I'm fairly sure there was another tv company developing a king arthur show too but it escapes me at the moment. Seems crazy to do both at the same time unless one of them is more celtic style or, god-forbidden, modern interpretation.

Any more snippets on two versions of Excalibur films, please? As you can see I'm a bit of a King Arthur fan.

Never heard of Borgias but it's an excellent title, i'll have to do some digging.

Wheel of time: If it's by syfy, who have an exemplary track record of being utterly shit at every attempt at fantasy, then I won't be holding my breath.

Maybe that Prince of Nothing mini-series will see the light of day if these shows do well? It would be the Fanntasy equivalent of "oz" (the prison drama) in terms of nasty.

[Ran]

One of the Excalibur projects had the treatment written by Warren Ellis, with Guy Ritchie currently bandied about as directing. This site has some more information. Ellis doesn't like the name Excalibur very much, and prefers to call it untitled.

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

Out of all of these recent fantasy projects, this one has me the most excited (outside of thrones). I love the athurian legends, and it would be awesome to see a proper series about them (merlin doesn't count).

Not too sure what i feel about Ritchie being bandied about as the director though.

[Myrddin]

Sounds like I'd better increase my DVD Blu-Ray budget for the coming years. :thumbsup:

ETA:

Syfy (Wheel)

Don't tell me Syfy is doing Wheel of Time?

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

Nothing has been comfirmed yet i think, just talk. Can't imagine syfy setting the globe alight with wheel anyway tbh.

[Werthead]

I can find no information at all on SyFy doing Wheel of Time. Interesting to know where this guess came from. Considering their budgetary constraints, it seems unlikely, and that Showtime, AMC, Starz or possibly even a post-GoT HBO would be better fits.

The current, official word from the rights-holders is that Universal is developing The Eye of the World as a cinematic movie, and if it is successful others would follow. The Red Eagle people on Dragonmount have been pretty bullish in saying this is going to be a film project, not a TV one, even though a film project makes no sense (seriously, are they really going to make a 14-movie series? I don't think so).

[oneeye]

The Camelot one sounds good.

[williamjm]

I can find no information at all on SyFy doing Wheel of Time. Interesting to know where this guess came from. Considering their budgetary constraints, it seems unlikely, and that Showtime, AMC, Starz or possibly even a post-GoT HBO would be better fits.

Wheel of Time might be a better fit for one of the big networks than something like Game of Thrones would be, since they wouldn't have to tone down the material nearly as much and 22-episode seasons would suit WoT since there's so much material. On the other hand if it was made by Fox or whoever they'd probably make a horrible mess of it so perhaps better that they don't.

The current, official word from the rights-holders is that Universal is developing The Eye of the World as a cinematic movie, and if it is successful others would follow. The Red Eagle people on Dragonmount have been pretty bullish in saying this is going to be a film project, not a TV one, even though a film project makes no sense (seriously, are they really going to make a 14-movie series? I don't think so).

I don't understand how they could do a film series either unless they're just going to completely rip up and discard most of the series (which they might do, I suppose).

[nightwisp1956]

The THOR movie already has been cast: Chris Hemsworth as Thor, with Natalie Portman, Samuel Jackson, Stellan Skarsgard,Anthony Hopkins. Good star power there, anyway.

From what I have read, the Vlad movie is going to be more historical-based drama than fantasy, and about 1/3 is going to be his childhood and teen years. About how he came to be, in other words. And, several actors names were batted about to play the bloodthirsty leader: Colin Farrell, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale among them. This could be a really epic movie if Hollywood doesn't screw it up by choosing the wrong actor to play the leading role. :rolleyes:

[Imagica]

Er, isn't Thor a superhero or something? Why are you calling it fantasy?

This could be a really epic movie if Hollywood doesn't screw it up by choosing the wrong actor to play the leading role.

Ugh, I hope they won't choose Farrell.

[Acid Rainbow]

It'll be pretty interesting to see a movie based on the historical Dracula, but I have a feeling they'll screw this up and turn him into a cheesy "brooding anti-hero".

I'm really looking forward to the ASOIAF series of course. Legend of the Seeker was a piece of shit, but that Camelot series might be good. Haven't read Wheel of Time and I'm not planning to, so I don't know what to expect from a series based on it.

[Humble Asskicker]

I'm so sick of Camelot being done and redone, over and over again. It's like a damn Star Trek nightmare. It never ends. They could get it right with each new installment, though they usually don't, and more importantly, why keep feeding us this same old story?

Excalibur said everything that needs to be said, and did it, uniquely, well.

Someone do the Song of Roland. Or Sigfried. Either would be nice.