Bugger a movie, make it a series

[El_Stupido]

I signed up to this site just to voice this quite valid opinion of mine... A movie will NOT do this body of work justice. The various chronicles of Thomas Covenant should be an HBO series.

A TV series could for instance cover all three of the first trilogy in say... 24 episodes, a much longer running time than a movie.

I believe this is the way to go.

I don't see this happening any time soon, but... well check out this article on Peter Jackson trying to bring The Temeraire to life as a TV series

www.aintitcool.com/node/43301

here's hoping he swindles that, and that it does well as it would open up the chance for Covenant.

And a TV series wouldn't have to pull the punches... it'd would be amazing!!

As an aside: just finishes Runes of the Earth having read all 6 of the previous books again. Bought Fatal Revenant just the other day and am about to start.

Love SRD. Just love his work!!

[Solar]

The Temeraire adaptation wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened. HBO are currently working on a series based on A Song of Ice and Fire (which I haven't read, though I do hope it all pans out).

[halfhanded]

Yes, an HBO or Showtime series would be the ONLY way you can do the series justice.

There is just too much complexity that would require a LOT of "watering down" for a film series.

[Vraith]

This is an idea that popped up in other threads a few times...and I agree, the best way to do it [my thought was it could be done one season per book].

IIRC, the idea WAS at some point proposed to the SF channel [now SYFY], but they turned it down...a very dumb thing, I think.

[I think the HBO "Song" thing is currently set for 10 episodes? I think...]

[Ur Dead]

Depending on the book, a mini series could be exactly the same for each book.
Eight hours for the shortest one and darn near 15 to 20 hours for others.

[wayfriend]

Well, it's certainly true that a mini-series would enable the producers to capture more of the book than a movie would. And I also totally agree that a lot of important things would have to be left out if the Chronicles were chopped down to movie size.

But you seem to have this notion that a movie or a series has a responsibility to capture as much of the book as possible. And that's just not what it's really all about when you make a movie adaptation.

A movie adaptation is first and foremost a movie. It's a movie that plaguerizes (not in a legal way, because all the contracts are signed) a book for plot and characters, because that's an expedient way to make a movie. That's it. When push comes to shove, the producers and directors will choose making a good movie, or at least a profitable movie, over reproducing a book faithfully, which is way, way, way down on the list of priorities, or may not be a priority at all. From a producers point of view, the only benefit of faithfulness to the source is getting book fans to buy movie tickets.

A movie adaptation of a book is like taking pictures of various aspects of a building, framing them, and hanging them in your living room. Some of the building's style has been carried over to your living room, but your living room can't be confused for the building.

A mini-series has a better chance of attaining the quality of "faithfulness" and/or "justice". But there's nothing about the process that's different than making the movie. It's just a change of scale. The movie makers may need to plaguerize more of the book to fill in the time, but they may have their own ideas as well. The result MIGHT be worse than a movie, in that the producers have more opportunity to depart from the book.

[sindatur]

Well, it's certainly true that a mini-series would enable the producers to capture more of the book than a movie would. And I also totally agree that a lot of important things would have to be left out if the Chronicles were chopped down to movie size.

But you seem to have this notion that a movie or a series has a responsibility to capture as much of the book as possible. And that's just not what it's really all about when you make a movie adaptation.

A movie adaptation is first and foremost a movie. It's a movie that plaguerizes (not in a legal way, because all the contracts are signed) a book for plot and characters, because that's an expedient way to make a movie. That's it. When push comes to shove, the producers and directors will choose making a good movie, or at least a profitable movie, over reproducing a book faithfully, which is way, way, way down on the list of priorities, or may not be a priority at all. From a producers point of view, the only benefit of faithfulness to the source is getting book fans to buy movie tickets.

A movie adaptation of a book is like taking pictures of various aspects of a building, framing them, and hanging them in your living room. Some of the building's style has been carried over to your living room, but your living room can't be confused for the building.

A mini-series has a better chance of attaining the quality of "faithfulness" and/or "justice". But there's nothing about the process that's different than making the movie. It's just a change of scale. The movie makers may need to plaguerize more of the book to fill in the time, but they may have their own ideas as well. The result MIGHT be worse than a movie, in that the producers have more opportunity to depart from the book.

Ouch, that's very true. They may decide plot points A, B, D, and F are all necessary, but, C, E, and G aren't or wouldn't translate to TV properly, therefore there is 1.5 hours left in the Mini-series for them to fill in what they invent. (Most likely sexing it up or giving more screen time to certain actors playing smaller parts)

[Akasri]

Ouch, that's very true. They may decide plot points A, B, D, and F are all necessary, but, C, E, and G aren't or wouldn't translate to TV properly, therefore there is 1.5 hours left in the Mini-series for them to fill in what they invent. (Most likely sexing it up or giving more screen time to certain actors playing smaller parts)

You mean we might end up with a wacky Stonedowner named Jar Jar?

"Yousa gonna use da ring now?"

[sindatur]

Ouch, that's very true. They may decide plot points A, B, D, and F are all necessary, but, C, E, and G aren't or wouldn't translate to TV properly, therefore there is 1.5 hours left in the Mini-series for them to fill in what they invent. (Most likely sexing it up or giving more screen time to certain actors playing smaller parts)

You mean we might end up with a wacky Stonedowner named Jar Jar?

"Yousa gonna use da ring now?"

Yes, precisely <Shiver>

[Rigel]

Most likely sexing it up

I actually have a hard time seeing this happen. Think about the most likely places for that to happen, and you'll see why.

[Cagliostro]

Bugger a movie or series. Make it a theme park.

[sindatur]

Most likely sexing it up

I actually have a hard time seeing this happen. Think about the most likely places for that to happen, and you'll see why.

You don't know Hollywood very well, do you, LOL. I meant sexing it up with events that never happened. Of course the actual sexual events in the Chronicles would be watered down

[wayfriend]

On a more serious note, I'd be more worried about veering away from the book in order avoid anything that feels like an LOTR ripoff.

I could completely see them rewriting the end of the Illearth War on the basis that the audience would think it was just like Fangorn Forest in the Two Towers movie.

[Rigel]

On a more serious note, I'd be more worried about veering away from the book in order avoid anything that feels like an LOTR ripoff.

I could completely see them rewriting the end of the Illearth War on the basis that the audience would think it was just like Fangorn Forest in the Two Towers movie.

That's totally unfair. Tolkien himself admitted that the Ents were a Macbeth ripoff, and nobody cared.

[wayfriend]

That's totally unfair. Tolkien himself admitted that the Ents were a Macbeth ripoff, and nobody cared.

I agree it's unfair. But then again, The LOTR movies didn't appear shortly after a record-breaking run of MacBeth: The Movie.

If it had not come out earlier, do you think anyone would release Surrogates now, so recently after Avatar has dominated the movie landscape?

[Solar]

It's recently been announced that Ron Howard will be directing an adaptation of The Dark Tower, comprising of three feature films and two television series to bridge the gaps between them. If this cross-media film/television adaptation is successful, it may be worth considering a similar approach for a hypothetical Chronicles of Thomas Covenant adaptation, as it would allow for both the enormous scope that is very difficult to achieve on TV and the attention to detail that's impossible to achieve in film.

One possible way that I could imagine it working out:

Lord Foul's Bane = Film
The Illearth War = TV series
The Power that Preserves = TV series

The Wounded Land = Film
The One Tree = TV series
White Gold Wielder = TV series

The Runes of the Earth = Film
Fatal Revenant = TV series
Against All Things Ending = TV series
The Last Dark = TV series

Or maybe it would be better to do it the other way round, with each of the three Chronicles starting out as a television series and concluding as a big-budget cinematic release.