WoT Film - good idea/bad idea?

[Talysia]

Given that a lot of fantasy books are being considered for the big screen, I suppose it wouldn't be long before the Wheel of Time series comes up for consideration. I have one question, though - would a WoT film be a good idea?

Granted that there are a lot of books, they could certainly have a long running series of films, and there's the possibility that a fair bit could be condensed without losing too much of the story. However, there are still the same issues with overrunning storylines and far too many characters and POVs.

With that (and possibly more) in mind, what do you think about a WoT film?

[Blade Master]

I thought they were already doin one?

[Talysia]

They are? Well, that's news to me. I had no idea...

Does anyone else have any info?

[YoYo]

There are 12 books, if they made a movie, it'd be a total disaster I think. The series is complicated, has many important moments and characters, and, personally, I think that the long fantasy series (if not all of them) should be left as they are, without making any movies. Besides, just think how much they'd have to pay the actors

[pyan]

If they can't make a complete film of LotR, with three books, how on earth can they be expected to make WoT into a film that manages all the characters and events in twelve books!

[Talysia]

I hope they wouldn't put it all into one film! It was bad enough with LotR. They couldn't get cinemagoers to sit still for that long, even for the diehard fans of the series! They might be able to get away with a miniseries, though.

I know I couldn't sit through it - but there are quite a few I know who would.

[Winters_Sorrow]

It'd be quite difficult even if it just stuck to the 3 main leads. It might be good though - get rid of the whole Egwene subplot and Faile and it might come in under 6 hours!

I don't think it'd make that good a series though, it's a bit too generic. The Trollocs would probably end up like Uruk-Hai and the Myrddraal would be Nazgul (whadya mean they already are!!)

[thinbalion]

From what I recall I think Red Eagle Entertainment had bought the rights to produce a movie of some kind based on the books... I don't think that more details were ever made available. The same company was partially responsible for the short lived comic book (based on New Spring) that lasted something like 5-6 issues.

A movie adaptation that stays true to the complexity of Robert Jordan's creation is impossible in my opinion. More likely a series, that's right a series, would probably do the job better. I'm thinking something like one season is two of the books combined, three at the most. That would put it at something like 4-6 seasons. Before LOTR that would have been impossible, but people nowadays seem more open to Fantasy worlds... If done well it could garner good enough ratings to work.

The only problem is that it would take a considerable leap of faith from whoever decides to produce it and air it. But frankly speaking that would be the only way of doing the story justice.

-Thinbalion

[Commonmind]

Well, if A Song of Ice and Fire becomes a successful series, there may be a chance we'll see other popular epics make it onto the small-screen. The only unfortunate factor to consider here is whether or not Jordan would give it his thumbs up; he can be a bit of a despot when it comes to his material (and with good reason, of course).

[Cydon]

Wow. That (movie) would be a very difficult undertaking.

[Talysia]

Reading through some of these posts, I'm getting the distinct feeling that the general consensus on a WoT film is that it wouldn't be a good idea!

[Cydon]

We just don't want the books to be ruined...

[Talysia]

So very true. A little bit of harmless speculation is all, and you'd be surprised at some of the sites out there that actually want a WoT film. They were all fans, though. I wanted to see what the response to this question would be like from a more moderate audience.

[Rosemary]

I really can't think how a movie could bring justice to WOT. Even if there was only three books from the series chosen, there would still have to be so many details to be left out.
Perhaps as a series it might work although I have a feeling that many fans of WOT, like myself, would not go and see the movie. I can't help thinking that it would be so disappointing.
I've always found that if the movie is seen first and then read the books, that works out much better. There would be no pre-conceived ideas of what the characters might look like for a start.

[spiralx]

Until you can produce photo-realistic CGI for next to nothing, then there's no point in trying to adapt TWoT as a film or even TV series. Any film would have to be butchered - I'm not even sure you could produce a coherent film out of the later books with all of their separate plot threads - and there's just too much to do as a TV series, where you've generally got a 7 season limit at most.

The CGI thing will happen in the next 15 years anyway though