‘Wheel of Time’ Novel series Going to big Screen at Universal
Comments(25)
- By drvenkman
Venkman here – It looks like Universal pictures has nabbed the rights of the late Robert Jordan’s Bestselling ‘The Wheel of Time’ books. It a seven figure deal so someone has made a lot of money.
The first movie will be from the first book in the series ‘The Eye of the World’. The trades report:
Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will produce for Red Eagle Entertainment, which published graphic novel adaptations of Jordan’s books.
“Wheel of Time” books have sold 44 million copies worldwide and spawned computer, trading-card and role-playing games; a soundtrack; comicbooks; and numerous fan sites. The four most recent installments have reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
The property has been optioned before, notably in 2000, when NBC held the rights to make a miniseries based on “The Eye of the World.”
Well its got a huge built in market. Lets hope Universal dosent upset the fans by turning it into a crappy movie. It looks like the fans dodged a bullit in 2000, I can only imagine what the TV sereis would have ended up being. If your not familiar with the books here is a liitle summary of the first book:
The Wheel of Time turns and Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth returns again. In the Third Age, an Age of Prophecy, the World and Time themselves hang in the balance. What was, what will be, and what is, may yet fall under the Shadow.”Jordan is able to take … familiar elements and make them his own, in a powerful novel of wide and complex scope. Open religious and political conflicts add a gritty realism, while the cities and courts provide plenty of drama and splendor. Women have a stronger role than in Tolkien…. Each character in this large cast remains distinct…. Their adventures are varied, and exciting…. The Eye of the World stands alone as a fantasy epic.”–Locus”Robert Jordan has created a fantasy world as tangible and credible as history. He has a fine eye for detail and a vivid sense of drama.”–Morgan Llewelyn”Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World proves that there’s still plenty of life in the ancient tradition of epic fantasy. Jordan has a powerful vision of good and evil– but what strikes me as most pleasurable about The Eye of the World is all the fascinating people moving through a rich and interesting world.”
What do you think about all this? Do you think Universal will do the books justice?
The author of the book Robert Jordan Passed away last year. He was 58 years old. There is one more book set to be released and the ending is being written by a fellow scribe Brandon Sanderson. he is using Jordan’s notes and tapes to finish the novel.
I can imagine some of the marketting slogans already:
“Prepare to be bored into a mindless stupor by the sixth installment all over again”
Wheel of Time II: the Tug of War – “How many times can Nynaeve tugs on her braid? Can she break the record set last time.”
Well, my novel series “The Wheel of Truthy Swords” would have made a better movie that this. In a nutshell, the main character Richard “Dicky” al-Stark is a young man, minding his own business, when literally the entire world whips open the door to his privy to catch him naked. Then he is captured and tortured by the evil Mord-Sedai who cut off the head of his father, who was a far more interesting character than Dicky. After 27 books, where I continuously invent new and exciting ways to delay the inevitable final scene, Dicky finally resets the Wheel of Truthy Swords and seals the Pithy One back into his double-wide trailer with orange shag carpet by leaving him a trail of cheesy poofs and slamming the door behind him. Tada!
Terbert
The books are such long-winded, rambling crap, that the movie would almost HAVE to be an improvement. This is one situation where Hollywood may actually improve upon the original!
I’ll be waiting for them on DVD!
As long as I don’t have to hear about gilt furniture, stand lamps, tapestries, embroideredd coats and what everyone else is wearing (IN LONG PAINFUL DESRIPTIONS), it should be a great movie!
Long winded is what stupid people who have trouble reading, call books with no pictures. HAHA.
I always thought this series would make for a terrible movie, if not for how complex and detailed each of the multiple story lines are. I can’t think that ANY studio or director could make even the first book into a decent movie without chopping out everything that makes the series what it is.
Most good movies are based on short stories, 30 pages or less. if you can fit ‘The eye of the world’ into even a 100-120pg script, then you have cut out 650 pages of storyline. How do they plan to make a movie or series based on 12 books that are 800 pages on average? How can you make a cohesive movie that makes sense and is true to the original when you have to cut out 90% of the story and water it down? Fuck that. I’ll re-read the series over watching Hollywood’s regurgitated crappy watered down version.
This will probably never make it to theatres, and if it does i doubt i will see it. The Wheel of Time series is one of many books that i hold dear, and i refuse to have some shithead producer ruin it. I won’t be seeing this like i won’t be seing ‘Ender’s Game’ like i havent seen Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or Narnia.
Epics are not good film material.
Can we say Lord of the Rings. As for nearly all movies made from books, it will not do the books justice. I had thought about if Rigney would have wanted his books as movies. I enjoy the descriptive nature of his writing, but its not good for movies. Like I said LotR, walking walking walking walking walking. Boring as a movie, better as books.
I am very, very sad. I was hoping these books wouldn’t be made into movies until a later time when the average movie length is much longer than it is now because if these movies are made at, say, 2 hours long, they will be horrible. Too much essential information would have to be cut out just to get down to this mark. Even if they were 3 hours, it would still be a hard press. I also hoped it would take longer so that the realism and cost effectiveness of special effects could increase, because this movie will HAVE to be loaded with special effects of all kinds to work.
I”m very, very pissed. I was hoping that these books wouldn’t be made into movies until much later when the average length of movies is much, much longer. A two hour movie will not be able to include the majority of essential information needed to convey even the first book. A three hour movie probably won’t even get the job done. I was also hoping that the quality and cost effectiveness of special effects would be better when this movie was created because a large part of the books would require special effects when made into a film.
Not that it counts, because no one important will read this.
But it’s important to exercise my write of opinion and speech.
The Wheel of Time Novels shouldn’t be made into a movie, not only because it would destroy the complexity of the characters and thus the plot, its too long and no sane director could properly cover something this long.
We all know that WoT is longer than LoTR Triliogy (10x longer) it would be a nutcase to make a movie. I appreciate the fact that there is a big enough fanbase to make the movie but lets just leave the story in our hands.
A huge fan of WoT(except the detailing of dresses n stuff). but it makes me sad tht the movies wont do just to the novel. the fact remains tht the novels have so complex multiple story line which is almost impossible to put in a movie, but i do hope tht a godd director n company decide to take this project seriously(which requires them to be WoT fans
). nywayz cant say much unless it happens. lets keep our fingers crossed. n looking forward to the WoT games too. hope they’re also good.
I cant believe you trashy mofos degrading the wheel of time. You all are loony.
Don’t BURN MY FAVORITE BOOK OR I WILL KILL YOU AND FEED YOU YOUR HEART!
This could be one of the best Fantasy movies ever made if done well, i hope it will be done well.
Bloody Buttered Onions! I have been waitin for this one!!!!!
While I can hope for the best,…I will wait and see before passing judgement on a movie that might come out or change hands once again (can we say Wonder Woman movie). The one thing to think about,…is that the people that have it now, will have a script off of their graphic adaption,….that was adapted from the books. So check out the graphic novels to see where they are headed. If they are lucky, they might get some money to divide up the first book into 2 (or 3) films,…thanks to LoTR showing the way in money making installments. Will we see all the books in film….doubt it…..but as most know anyway…..the first book was a great read,….then a unique and long ride after that…..so that might be a good thing. I actually was hoping for a long running anime-based-look version Wheel of Time series.
This book is barely comparable to Lord of the Rings. That is like saying Star Trek is a spin off of Star Wars, or vice versa.
This movie could be very well done. Remember that in a movie you can express multiple things in just 10 seconds than you can in ten seconds of reading. I agree that there are very many important things… But the details are what counts. If you have truly read the book than you know that a lot of it is details about the enviroment, and cosmetics. This would be a really good drama if they filmed this just like Lord of the Rings. I would never complain. As long as they stick with the basics, and, I can not stress this enough, exaggerate the character development… We have a fantastic movie.
The books are not too long to be made into the movie. The books themselves are perfect scripts for the movie. A lot of Tolkiens writing wasn't even intended to be published. They were just an alternate world he created as a hobby. When he died his notes were found… So they did not detail much because he knew in his mind what they meant. Lord of the Rings is VERY bottomless in a lot of areas.
This can be a fantastic Movie.
This book can, in no way, be made fun of. It is a brilliant series. Everything was crucial in that book. The clothes reflected who they were turning into. Down to the gilding. The environment was how the characters treated themselves, or the position they are now in.
Learn how to look into this shit.
No one has mentioned what is possibly the most important fact (regardless of your personal impressions of the book) – there are currently eleven books, many of them very long, and Sanderson has almost completed the twelfth (The Gathering Storm) which will release in November of 2009, but there are still TWO MORE to go after that. Sanderson has signed contracts for the remainder of the books (tentatively titled The Shifting Winds and Tarmon Gai'don). Short of James Bond or Star Trek few movie series have come close to this number of movies. If they start making them, we'll be lucky to get two or three before they just skip to the end.
I'm excited to see how this turns out, often while I'm reading the books I try to think of a good visual representation in movie form. There are some many things that I can't find a way to illustrate, but I'll definitely watch and see how Universal does it.
By the way, I read the chronicles of Narnia, and watched the movies. I still like the movies and I still like the books. I wasn't disappointed with either, but that's not the point. The point is that just because we can't figure out how Universal is going to turn a long winded (but good) series of books into kick-ass movies, doesn't mean that they can't do it.
If it sucks at least we've still got the books.
As for the fool who posted comments about gilt furniture etc he clearly lacks any taste. It was the richness of Jordan's world that made the books so exceptional and as we have never seen the like before we will never see it agian. His passing was a sad day for all who love stories with a richness of both environment and character. Lets hope the movie(s) do the books justice.
you sir are long winded rampbling crap, now given that if these books were to be made into movies it would be an incredibly huge undertaking that if not done properly would most likely result in the entire fan base burning the studio down.
I think most of you guys have missed the whole thing here!First of all…..this series of books is fantastic(although not as good as A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin)……..but,and I stress this….if you remove long winded descriptions,imagery etc the books can be condensed to a much shorter version….Think,don't just talk!
Ok, seriously. Anyone who thinks WoT is a great series needs to go buy some more books. It is a series yes. Great is pretty debatable. I see some of the points made about descriptions, to those who are not very materialistic a lot of those descriptions would be a turn off. Story telling, the arts and artistry are what hurt that series… it is over- abundant, it tries too hard to fill pages. It is much like listening to an drunk babble, or a spoiled child whine, there comes a point where too much is simply too much. It has to be much like 30 years of the same church sermon, with repeated passages rearranged sometimes. If this would be made a movie, someone save the creators wallets, they're gonna need help. If it becomes a movie, no-one will be satisfied with the usual amounts of changes and cuts. It will have to be a movie "based- on." Cuz the vast majority of the books are thoughts, (not even solid or complete most of the time), not dialogue or action. Good luck!
Sad when people cling to a b00k because it makes them feel or appear to have taste.Such as WoT. sAd ThAt tHe CiNeMaS dO iT tO dRaIn ThOsE sAme SoRreE SaPps' pOcKetZ.
Yes, indeed the director who is brought forth to handle this project will face many challanges. Such a huge fanbase, all wondering weather he will destroy their precious world, or indeed, usher it into a new age. He has found himself one of the rare people who has the ability to use the power these books have over its fans, given to him by the creator, Jordan. I wonder will he use it well? or will he taint it, so that people cannot enjoy the books without being aware of the terrible films. Indeed, this is quite a burden for one man, and he is destined to sucumb to a inevitable madness that comes hand in hand with the power he has been given.