@Batchman: once you license your story to someone you lose all control. They pay for the rights to do what they want. There is nothing Terry Goodkind can do about what was produced. If he opens his mouth and tells people not to watch then he loses his licensing money. He also may open himself up to a lawsuit, but I am not sure about that.
I am not an Ursula K Leguin fan, but SciFi did a mini-series on one of her books and she said she hated it. She had NO control. You can't even force people to move forward once they option it. They can just sit on the option. I was on Joe Haldeman's forum recent(he is a GREAT Sci-fi writer) and he posted that he hopes Ridley Scott(he made gladiator and the first alien movie) will move forward with making The Forever War after seeing how great avatar was. He said he wants the money while he is still young. I believe the Wheel of Time was optioned in the 1990s and just got sat on.
btw, the Forever War is a GREAT Sci-Fi novel. Joe has a very short and concise writing style that is fun to read. Te book is great and has some very ironic and funny parts.
What I think movie industry people want to do is to buy up an option, which is a small investment to them, then make another small investment to turn it into a script and then look at the script, the market, who they can get to direct and decide to move forward. They seem to option far more books than ever get made into movies or TV shows.
It is stilnot guaranteed that George RR Martins HBO series will go beyond the pilot. A decision will be madein march.