Wheel of time live action adaptation
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on May 8, 2018, 8:33 p.m. by Swamy
As an avid wheel of time fan I've been keeping up on the live action adaption of the series. As you may or may not be aware of they are getting closer and closer to what appears to be a tv series adaptation. What joy in my heart!
After that little fan boy let me get to the meat and potatoes of this post. What is the one scene you are just dying to see adapted to the silver screen?
For me I can't wait to see the raid on the Two Rivers while Perrin is forced to protect everyone while the white cloaks are waiting to take him. I think everything even building up to that to the conclusion would be one of the best build up and climax for the series.
And runner up would be when Matt is getting better from the dagger, trapped in the white tower and he has his duel with the quarter staff...mmmm!
What's everyone else's favorite scenes they would like to see made live?
I've been trying to find time for this series for years. Doubt it's ever going to happen. Not really a priority.
May 8, 2018 11:50 p.m.
cdkime you're not a fan of the writing?
Anyway for my money the battle with Ishamael leading up to the planting of Callandor in the Stone of Tear would be one hell of a sight!
I am however sceptical that a conversion to a TV series would be properly wrought but OH one can hope :)
May 9, 2018 6:49 a.m.
Mechanically, his writing is awful, with verbosity for the sake of verbosity. It is evident he read Tolkien, respected the incredible detail, but then did not know when to stop. It end up being overly and unecessarially repetitive. To provide some examples:
Every single time a gate is opened, he describes how there is a line in the air that rotates to reveal the world behind.
He cannot seem to stop describing the Seanchan armour as a green so dark it is almost black.
In one of the books, they go to a castle, and he feels the need to describe how each and every room they enter has narrow windows and is lined with tapestries, as is the style. This happens multiple times within the same chapter.
It is a running joke in my household to audibly sniff and pull one's hair over every minor annoyance--a set of actions Nynaeve will sometimes do three or four times on a single page.
There are countless other examples.
The next issue I have with the writing is the structuring. I do not begrudge Jordan for telling every single detail of the story (including some that could probably be glanced over, as it has little influence on the plot). What I take issue with is his tendency to get stuck in one plotline for an eternity. The worst offender, in my opinion, is When Perrin attempts to rescue his wife from captivity. For hundreds of pages, it alternates between Perrin plotting the rescue and his wife plotting her escape, with no tangible forward mementum on eithers part. These endless chapters could easily have been intermixed with other events to dissipate the monotony.
I could go on, but I think this is sufficient to state my case. Editing is an important part of writing, and Wheel of Time does not feel properly edited--hardly surprising, the editor Tor Books used for the series was Jordan's wife.
Yet this long list of flaws is far eclipsed by the even longer list of the series' triumphs. The descriptions might be excessive, but the world itself is complete and developed in a way few others are. The story might become mired in a single plotline, but you never get the impression Jordan did not know exactly what he was doing or where he was going (here's looking at you George R.R. Martin).
Despite its faults (and my own predilection toward literary snobbery), Wheel of Time is one of my favourite series ever written.
May 9, 2018 9:47 a.m.
This is the first I've heard of this, but this makes me EPICLY excited. I've been dreaming of this tv show since I first read the books. I just hope it's made by somebody like Starz or HBO or netflix. Somebody that can make good products.
As for the scenes I'm looking forward to most:
The scene in the Ivory Tower with Matt's "dice rolling in his head." When he spars with the quarterstaff is also one of my favorite scenes.
I'm dying to see Shaidar Haran, the super mydraal in ANY scene.
But most of all I probably want to see the Aeelfinn and Eaalfinn (sp?), and the realms they occupy... which actually might not even make it to the final cut.
(Off-topic: another excellent book series that would make for EPIC tv would be Brian Lumley's Necroscope books.)
May 9, 2018 12:23 p.m.
Just to provide some more information for you:
Sony will be producing the show, in conjunction with Red Eagle Entertainment (who owns the rights).
Harriet McDougal--Jordan's wife and WoT's editor--is going to be intimately involved with the project, to ensure it conforms with her late husband's vision. She seems like she's a bit of a firecracker (she is, after all, the inspiration for Nynaeve) and will do a good job at protecting the books' integrity. In fact, she was recently dragged into court for this very reason--the studio who owned the rights to WoT released a crappy pilot as an infomercial in order to prevent their rights from expiring. Ms. McDougal was outspoken in her distaste, despite contractual obligations not to speak against any production (again... 100% a Nynaeve thing to do).
Rafe Judkins (a writer for Agents of SHIELD, Chuck, and Hemlock Grove) will be the showrunner. I was not overly impressed with SHIELD's early seasons, and grew bored of Hemlock Grove before the first episode was finished, so I was initially skeptical about his involvement. However, recently he Tweeted a picture of his personal copies of WoT--the things were worn, dog-eared, and Eye of the World was missing its cover. They clearly had been well-read, with the kind of love that ultimately destroys paperback novels.
The rumour mill is saying the show will be released on Amazon. However, Amazon also just purchased the rights to make a Lord of the Rings prequel TV show, and it seems a bit odd for them to have ordered two high fantasy shows simultaneously. As such, I'm a tad skeptical of this conjecture. There's a bit of an arms race for the next "Game of Thrones" though, so Amazon might have purchased to help corner the high fantasy market (though it's a bit debatable whether there is overlap between GoT viewers and more traditional high fantasy works).
May 9, 2018 12:43 p.m. Edited.
Thanks for the info, cdkime, much appreciated! The only things ive ever seen from Amazon were community season 6 and the tick pilot, both of which let me down. Sony's involvement sounds like a good thing.
As for the quality to be expected, we're in a tv/film renaissance right now, with a ton of good shows and movies being produced all over the place. I'm mostly optimistic about this. My only real fear is that the plans will fall through. But with what you tell me of RRJ's wide, I feel a bit more confident in that as well now.
I'll be following this now as well!
May 9, 2018 1:41 p.m.
Swamy, Gattison, and BS-T - Amazon just officially confirmed they would be producing the Wheel of Time television show. Based on her announcement, Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, seems to be a fan of the works, which is always a good sign.
Harriet McDougal, Jordan's wife, was confirmed to be signed on as a "consulting producer".
A while back, Rafe Judkins posted a first excerpt from the script, saying it was a very important exert as it introduced three major characters. I appreciated the subtle joke Bela was a major character--that's the kind of nod to other superfans that gives me hope for Judkins' adaptation.
October 2, 2018 10:24 a.m.
Thanks a lot for the mention, I've not been keeping an eye out in the mean time so it's awesome to see some info!
October 2, 2018 4:44 p.m.
cdkime: Awesome!!! Thanks for the update! I followed up on this a while back and there was nothing really to share at that time. I'm glad you're still keeping good tabs on this. =)
Now I just went and read a couple articles about it, and again there's not much info to share. However, from what I see happening, I am still optimistically optimistic about this.
Consider this, though. 10 episodes for the first year, iirc. So generally a book a year, but... there's 14 books. That'd be 14 years, which would be awesome, but kind of unreasonable. I wouldn't be surprised if they simply ignore an entire massive story arc, such as Shadar Logoth and Padan Fain, "Realm of Foxes and Elves," or maybe even the entire Seanchan scenario. Just to ensure they can finish the main storyline before the characters get too old to look 18. A disappointing thought, because I feel Padan Fain is the most likely to get the axe, a la Thom Bombadil.
idc though. I'm pumped for this. =D
October 2, 2018 7:08 p.m.
And why not do this: (Referring back to the OP) NOW I'm most looking forward to seeing the scene with Rand vs. Ishamael at the Eye of the World, with Ishamel's fiery eyes, and Rand's infamous wound on his side. That's gonna be sick.
Caerwyn says... #2
I've been avidly following what little news has been made available, though I am highly skeptical--particularly in light of how bad most adaptions end up being (here's looking at you every post season three GoT season).
WoT is going to be hard--it's monstrous, has epic storytelling, unparalleled world building, and full of great, complex characters--all stymied in Jordan's terrible writing.
It's so hard to pick just one scene, so I suppose I'll just choose Lews Therin Telamon's death at the beginning. Besides being a truely epic death, it sets the stage for the entire show and should be a good indication of the production value, casting. etc.
May 8, 2018 11:08 p.m.