Oooh, please, please, please!

[crawfish]

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news07/070117g.php


Finally someone seems to be planning an idea I've had floating around in my head for a while - take a popular series of novels utilising the same characters and turn each book into a season's worth of shows.

HBO is trying that with plans to turn George R.R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series "A Song of Fire and Ice" into a drama series by David Benioff ("Troy", "Wolverine") and D.B. Weiss ("Halo").

Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script. Shooting will take place either in Europe or New Zealand.

Variety indicates that the series will begin with the 1996 first book, "A Game of Thrones," and will turn each novel into a season's worth of episodes, Martin has nearly finished the fifth of seven installments.

The books follow the flawed characters from seven noble families and has a decidedly adult bent, with sex and violence comparable to series like "Rome" and "Deadwood".

The whole thing makes one wonder what other book series would be good to adapt in the same or similar formats - maybe Anne Rice's work or Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

supa

[OUstudent4life]

Dark Tower would take 15-20 seasons to tell :D.

[Hotel Bravo]

Dark Tower would take 15-20 seasons to tell :D.

It'd be well worth though if it was done right. I'm almost finished with book 6.

[crawfish]

Stop changing the subject! :mad:

They're thinking of making an ASOIAF series! And it's HBO, so it won't be watered down...

[OU4LIFE]

I'm afraid we'll never get to see a Dark Tower series.

but that would totally RMFO.

Craw, are the books any good?

[achiro]

You people are such goobs.:D

[crawfish]

I'm afraid we'll never get to see a Dark Tower series.

but that would totally RMFO.

Craw, are the books any good?

Martin's? They're probably the best fantasy series ever written outside of LOTR, and far more "adult". Dark, brutal, incredibly complex and impossible to predict, you can make no assumptions about direction or even who's going to live and die.

Unless you're just not into fantasy, or you're offended by scenes of graphic violence, sex and cruelty, I'd highly recommend them. Martin pulls no punches.

The only downside is only four books have been released. He's got three to go - one due this year, the others likely due in 2010 and beyond. :(

[Frozen Sooner]

I don't know that I'd go as far as crawfish is praising the books, but they are awfully good.

I'll reserve judgment on "best fantasy series outside of LOTR" until Robert Jordan finishes WOT and Martin finishes Ice and Fire. Of course, given Jordan's health problems, the first may never happen. :( Only one more to go, but I guess he has a fatal disease.

[crawfish]

I don't know that I'd go as far as crawfish is praising the books, but they are awfully good.

I'll reserve judgment on "best fantasy series outside of LOTR" until Robert Jordan finishes WOT and Martin finishes Ice and Fire. Of course, given Jordan's health problems, the first may never happen. :( Only one more to go, but I guess he has a fatal disease.

I'm gonna neg you for mentioning Martin & Jordan in the same sentence. You could cut his books in a quarter and get the same amount of information. The only other series I'd put at that level is Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books.

Fantasy, as a whole, sucks pretty bad.

[OU4LIFE]

interesting.

[Sooner_Bob]

I have no problems agreeing with crawfish . . . :D

Martin's books are great and a series on HBO would totally rawk.

[Frozen Sooner]

I'm gonna neg you for mentioning Martin & Jordan in the same sentence. You could cut his books in a quarter and get the same amount of information. The only other series I'd put at that level is Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books.

Fantasy, as a whole, sucks pretty bad.

You know, I get that complaint about Jordan's books quite a bit, but I've never understood it. Plenty happens, you just have to be paying attention. It all fits together at some point in the series.

[BudSooner]

I have nothing to add other than, anyone have tips on how to light the ice on fire to clear those pesky driveways again?? :D

[OUstudent4life]

Then again, Wheel of Time would take 40-50 seasons.

With spin offs.

I'm such a nerd.

[crawfish]

Then again, Wheel of Time would take 40-50 seasons.

With spin offs.

I'm such a nerd.

15 seasons would be nothing but Nynaeve pulling on her braid.

[Frozen Sooner]

Then again, Wheel of Time would take 40-50 seasons.

With spin offs.

I'm such a nerd.

I certainly hope they don't develop WoT as a television property. I don't think it lends itself to TV very well at all.

[OUstudent4life]

When it's all said and done, someone should go back through those books, remove all that is repeated from book to book on character quirks, etc, and republish the series.

I've gotten to the point where I can skim them, still enjoy the book, and get all of the story. I guess that's what happens when you have such a huge universe and so long between books; you have to either hope your readers remember everything, or tell it all again.

[Frozen Sooner]

15 seasons would be nothing but Nynaeve pulling on her braid.

OK, that's funny.

Of course, you realize that if they adapted WoT for either big or small screen Nynaeve would end up being a black woman with short hair, right?

[crawfish]

OK, that's funny.

Of course, you realize that if they adapted WoT for either big or small screen Nynaeve would end up being a black woman with short hair, right?

Fortunately for Lan, she'll need something else to tug.

OK, I feel sufficiently geeky now. :O

[Sooner_Bob]

Since I like the A Song of Fire of Ice series would I like WoT?

[NormanPride]

Count me in as someone that would love to see Discworld novels like this. Or some Sci-fi stuff like the RAMA series or the Ender series.

[Frozen Sooner]

Since I like the A Song of Fire of Ice series would I like WoT?

You will like WoT regardless. It's a lot better to read all at once instead of one new book every few years, and there's only one left to be released.

NP-Ender is already in production. I don't think Rama has been optioned.

[crawfish]

You will like WoT regardless. It's a lot better to read all at once instead of one new book every few years, and there's only one left to be released.

NP-Ender is already in production. I don't think Rama has been optioned.

WOT has a lot of good elements in it. I'm being a bit harsh - in the world of fantasy literature, WOT is one of the best series there is. It's not nearly as "gritty" as ASOIAF, and the series does lose some steam after book 5. I attribute that to the fact that so many characters, so many plot lines are going on it's difficult to keep up. Unlike Martin, Jordan doesn't like to keep his main characters in peril for more than a chapter or two.

Rendezvous With Rama was in pre-production back in the late 90's, with Morgan Freeman one of its stars and backers. They even released some production art. I have no idea what happened to it.

Ender's Game should be out in the next few years. The kids will be older in the movie. The screenplay is actually a cross between that book and "Ender's Shadow", the sequel taken entirely from Bean's perspective.

[Frozen Sooner]

Cool on the Rama books.

To give you my chain of thought leading to my segue here:

My grandpa was really good friends with Clarke. Had signed and personalized first editions of all of the Rama books.

Just got a load of books from the aunt-some of grandpa's old stuff.

Anyhow, included in the package of mostly old Analogs and such was a first edition of "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch" by Philip K. Dick. In pristine condition it's worth about $1500. It's pretty foxed, though-no matter, I wouldn't sell it, I just thought it was cool. Kind of a hard-to-find book.

[NormanPride]

I hope they don't Bay-ify it to death. :(

[crawfish]

Hmmm, IMDB says Rama planned for 2009?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134933/

That book would really make a fantastic movie. I hope it happens.

[Frozen Sooner]

Was originally rumored to be in production as early as the late '90s and was planned for a nationwide release at midnight on December 31st, 1999 to correspond with the move into the new millennium.

:mad:

Of all the authors' work to screw this up with...

[OUstudent4life]

I'm thinking Ender's Game may be dead in the water...it's been "in production" (read: multiple screenplay rewrites) for like 5 years now.