Sword of Truth... on TV...?

[Anita Blake]

Sam Raimi wants to makes Wizard's First Rule into a TV series...

OK. When I first read WFR, I really liked it. But that was a decade ago, and then I read the more recent SOT books and.... yeah. The first Spiderman movie was pretty alright. But i heard very bad things about the third one. So we have a series made based no books that started out good and went to crap made by a guy who started out making cool stuff and then turned to crap.

I'm not sure if I should be scared or not...

[Apoc]

hmm i like both raimi and SoT...though i'm unsure bringing them together would work. I'd like raimi as an exec producer (most of the films that he took only this role turned out pretty good-30 Days of Night springs to mind) but should he be the director i'd worry a bit that it'll just be a kinda xena crossed with evil dead thing (shit that actually sounds pretty cool heh) but it'd be dumb i think, like alot of psilliness and slapstick.

Its scheduled to be a mini-series (24 hour long episodes) and looks like it'll only cover Wizards First Rule.

Raimi is executive producing the hourlong series with Robert Tapert (The Grudge), Joshua Donen (The Quick and the Dead) and "Xena: Warrior Princess" production executive Ned Nalle. Disney-ABC Domestic TV is distributing, and ABC Studios is producing.

my first thought is whether they will lighten it for a more family audience, cut down the brutal violence and of course the bit where kahlan gets beaten and almost raped by the quad...hmmm, wonder how faithul to the book they'll keep (will they draw additional storylines from the other books instead of making up their own stuff?)

i'm looking forward to aSoIaF faar more, but i will watch this i think.

[Buck]

As much as I'd like to dog pile on Raimi, I feel that the success of this series will highly depend on who is playing the parts of Kahlan and Richard. Also, the fact that ABC holds the reigns on this one trumps anything Raimi can or can't do. I foresee a train wreck.

[Apoc]

~sighs~

been looking on a lot of boards, prothets-inc (official goodkind site apparently has had the news of this raimi WFR mini series for over a year who knew? )

but yeah, everyones been throwing casting wishes on there since they heard a year ago...the favourite of many was Heath Ledger ~sighs~ i think he would of been great doubt he would have done it though but...yeah ~sighs~

So many of the casting wishes are unrealistic though Cillian murphy as darken rahl seems to be a big rumour, don't think it true, a)i think he's too young for the part and b)i think he's too big big a star for it, he would be brilliant though, big fan of his.

I like the Christopher Lloyd as Zed wish though heh and i can see that actually being possible.

Christian Bale seems to be another major casting wish to play Richard but in my mind, though bale is the sort to choose roles that interest him no matter the projects stature, i don't see him stepping down to tv after dark knight.

I personally think Josh Holloway (sawyer in lost) would be a great darken rahl. After seeing how Camilla Belle looks in 10,000 BC i think she'd be a perfect kahlan. Karl Urban has always been a favourite actor of mine and he has been cast by raimi before (he was in xena) i thnk though he'd be too old for richard but he's also a good option for darken in my mind...heh chances of Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi showing up somewhere? can't think where though heh

~shrugs~

[dark fuschia]

oooh I love Raimi, everything he does could have been directly transcribed from a war post he combines the random, light-hearted and dramatic without worrying too much about silly ideas of consistency.

[Anita Blake]

nah, it's for ABC! The casting will be a bunch of new kids, maybe some people who've had roles on other tv shows, but no big names (established actors frequently seem to cringe at the thought of a fantasy television series) who are all ridiculously good-looking. It's going to be pretty campy. I mean, Xena? Hercules? Sam Raimi? Ted Raimi will probably play Zed in old-man makeup. Or at least will have come kind of comic relief role. It would be cool if it had the kind of sleek look of Heroes, but, I don't know, I'm skeptical of ABC as a network. Not sure how they'll deal with fantasy. fantasy on TV usually tends to be so... cheap. ugh. i might tune in for an episode or two, just out of curiosity, but i doubt i'll watch it. Unless it's really good (miracles can happen!)

[OOC92]

I tried to like these books, I really did, I tried to read the first book and I just could not stomach the clicheness of it. I trust I am not insulting any poeple out there. I wanted to like it, badly, needing a meaty fantasy series. But then again I sooo tried to like Wheel of Time, but nah. Not to mention Raymond Feist, nope.

But I tried!

[Eyreplenh]

I don't think you'll be insulting anyone that much, hehe. We've all (almost) had our rants about Sword of Truth. Lucky for you you got out quick. Some people are too curious to ever let something go and end up reading and watching and listening to a whole lot of crap which again leads to long sentences and endless rants that-interlude-
Sorry 'bout that.

(You might want to keep it down about the whole Wheel of time thing though...)

[OOC92]

The only thing I REALLY dont like about the Wheel of Time, is that I find alot of its books in the bargain bin of the bookstore, but NEVER the one I need. Never a Volume 2 or 3.

[Apoc]

heh SoT has its moments, for us folks that stuck with it though we ended up hitting the Pillars of Creation which taught us that yeah...we should of stopped about three books previous.

the Malazan Books are the elite favourite amoungst quite a few here, A Song of Ice and Fire also...but WoT is loved by most as its the series that brought about 90% of us together...its not the best...but its the series we near all have in common for having an appreciation of...though we've all grumbled much at how drawn out it became. And heh as to books one, two and three of WoT, they're the favourites so its unlikely you'll find them in a bargain bin heh

[Buck]

Some trailers up on the show's site.

It actually looks pretty good. It isn't Lord of the Rings quality, but that is an unusually high bar. I find myself looking forward to seeing the 2 hour premiere at the very least. Hey, I might even read Wizard's First Rule in the meantime for shits and giggles. The first book was one of my favorites of the series.


I have a fondness for this series, if Raimi messes it up too much I'll something something.

[Anita Blake]

hmmm. Looks like it might be a decent series. I mean, if it's based off of Wizard's First Rule, then that's OK. It was the later books that started to blow in terms of quality of story, you know, when the subtext moved into the "better dead than red" anti-communist crap instead of actually trying to do something interesting with characters. I can't remember which was the last one that I read and afterwards threw down in disgust vowing to not continue reading the series.

But yes, I did like the first couple books. And the series does looks pretty fun.

edit:

nah, it's for ABC! The casting will be a bunch of new kids, maybe some people who've had roles on other tv shows, but no big names (established actors frequently seem to cringe at the thought of a fantasy television series) who are all ridiculously good-looking. It's going to be pretty campy. I mean, Xena? Hercules? Sam Raimi? Ted Raimi will probably play Zed in old-man makeup. Or at least will have come kind of comic relief role. It would be cool if it had the kind of sleek look of Heroes, but, I don't know, I'm skeptical of ABC as a network. Not sure how they'll deal with fantasy. fantasy on TV usually tends to be so... cheap. ugh. i might tune in for an episode or two, just out of curiosity, but i doubt i'll watch it. Unless it's really good (miracles can happen!)

Wow, looks like I was spot-on with several of my predictions. Ted Raimi will be guest starring, the cast is all a bunch of unknowns, and it does in fact have a kind of a sleek look. I'm awesome. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[Buck]

Why don't you just go ahead and pat yourself on the back there, while your at it.

[Anita Blake]

don't mind if I do.

[Buck]

I finally got around to watching some of this mini series. I saw the first 3 episodes tonight and with all due honesty I must say that this show is groan worthy. Overall, it barely kept my attention and even that little was forced.

It felt more like watching a clone of Xena or Hercules than something as remotely as epic as LotR. I will give them kudos for the combat cinematic, not completely breathtaking but far from boring. Specifically, Khalan's flip around parry moves looked really cool. Though she kept doing the same sort of move, and Richard was doing his leaping attack a bit much as well. I can see it getting old fairly quickly.

Mediocre acting aside, the changes to the plot seem to not make much sense. The veil is breached already, before they leave Heartland and the Book of Counted Shadows was brought to Richard by Khalan. Seeing a Garr was cool, I completely forgot about Gratch, I wonder if he makes it into the show.

I must say that this rendition of the Sword of Truth series is a bit disheartening. The series is far from perfect, but the underlying theme deserved better than this drivel. I'll give the show a bit more leeway to build its own stride, but if continues along the path I think it will, it isn't worth my time.