Best way to adapt Thomas Covenant to the screen.

[Leeroy]

Movie only...a huge, money filled bag with the best props team, artists, director, script writers...the ONLY way for it to be done. Could you imagine LOTR in a mini series? Or a TV movie? NO WAY...only a huge, gigantic budget with everything would do justice to the books. And yes, I agree with 1 book per film.

So who's with me?!

Cheers!

[The Somberlain]

I voted for movie originally, but I'm leaning slightly towards animated. I watched Princess Mononoke for the second time, and the first time in a while, the other day. And it conveys that majesty and inherent beauty in nature brilliantly. And it's perfect for a low budget, yet stays 'epic'. On top of that, I think it might allow scenes like the rape to be a little more palatable, purely because it's animated. Taking the example of Princess Mononoke again - it's not the same as rape, but it has some fairly graphic violence in it - yet it gets a PG rating. If some of the same scenes had been filmed using live action and special effects, it'd be a much higher rating.

[Nerdanel]

Once again, I suggest you take a look at Star Wreck and download the film for free to see what can be done on near-zero budget. (Hint: a lot. Computer effects have really become a lot more achievable.) Even then, I think TC should be made with some budget, just not a mega budget. There are several degrees between Hollywood blockbuster and Fantasy Bedtime Hour and I don't think we always need to absolutely have the very latest effects and a lot of them. That kind of thinking didn't help the Star Wars prequels at all. In fact I think the original Star Wars with the non-updated special effects (the one you never see anywhere anymore) was better looking than the updated one, since the effects integrated into a common now-slightly-retro style instead of calling attention to themselves.

[sherlock_525]

I gotta go with the mini-series or amimated. Just because of the problems of trying to portray the health-sight. And Lord Foul. I think if you offered this to a director most would get suked into the huge giant special effects snafu that other movies have fallen into (Battlefield Earth anybody?) or it would be hyped as some kind of LoTR knockoff. Which would make me scream and cry and hate all of the critics even more than I already do. Don't get me wrong I would sit in front of a movie screen for 48 hour straight to see this amazing series on screen but to keep the most people entertained you would lose some of the specialness of these characters. And that is something that I would do without instead of seeing something that made me want to kill massive groups of people. (maybe I should see a shrink?...nah just read about Havelock and thank my lucky stars )

[Ur Dead]

In previous thread I had suggested it be a mini series by cable. None of the three US networks would give it the quality that a special group can..

Each book could be from 5m to 6 hours in length with the series running from 2 to 3 shows. That would put 2 Chronicles from 15 to 18 hours and 6 to 9 shows.
Nice thing about it that if the entire 1st Chronicle was shown it would be setup to play directly from book to book.

The last one would probably be longer or shorter, depending on the book.
Runes would be shorter but FR could be 8 hours just to cover all the chapters.

It also would make a great DVD set.
(or IMAX if you got the building)

[ninjaboy]

I would love to see it done as a seperate, big budget film for each book, but honestly don't think that would ever actually happen..

And the second best option would be Animated.. But I'm thinking not Just animated - Anime!
Hell Yeah!

[emotional leper]

Best way to adapt TC to the screen?

New Age Impressionist Dance Montages.

[Cail]

Midget Kabuki theater set to Norwegian Death Metal.

[emotional leper]

Midget Kabuki theater set to Norwegian Death Metal.

How about Dethklok instead? They've got a couple of Swedes, right?