the way of kings as a movie

[anthonypeers]

Is that a good almost-fall-out-of-chair or a bad one?

[maxonennis]

Is that a good almost-fall-out-of-chair or a bad one?

The good kind. I was laughing in agreement.

[CragN8R]

This post contains spoilers

As far as a movei goes, Way of Kings is a bit of a mixed bag. One the one hand, a lot of the cool Shardblade fights and stormlight usage by Szeth and Kaladin would work really well. The sceen where Kaladin charges the Parshendi to save Dalinar is very cinimatic and the entire thing would work great as a word for word scene adaptation

On the other hand, Kaladin and Szeth are also very introspective and quite a few scenes are just internal head talking. Kaladin had Syl to bounce off of but this leaves Szeth either very silent or talking to himself a lot, neither of which would work in the movie. Shalan has the same problem with her more internal scenes of moral conflict.

All in all, it would be a mixed bag of good and bad. On an unrelated note, I always pictured the movie as being animated, though that is more of a personal disposition. I've always felt that Fantasy and SF were better suited to animation since their are far fewer limitations. Plus Roshar has a lot more weird locations and fauna that require a lot CG anyway

[anthonypeers]

Ack!  Now you've got me thinking of the retracting fauna from Roshar together with those spiraly retracting jungle plants from Avatar.   

[dhalagirl]

This post contains spoilers

As far as a movei goes, Way of Kings is a bit of a mixed bag. One the one hand, a lot of the cool Shardblade fights and stormlight usage by Szeth and Kaladin would work really well. The sceen where Kaladin charges the Parshendi to save Dalinar is very cinimatic and the entire thing would work great as a word for word scene adaptation

On the other hand, Kaladin and Szeth are also very introspective and quite a few scenes are just internal head talking. Kaladin had Syl to bounce off of but this leaves Szeth either very silent or talking to himself a lot, neither of which would work in the movie. Shalan has the same problem with her more internal scenes of moral conflict.

All in all, it would be a mixed bag of good and bad. On an unrelated note, I always pictured the movie as being animated, though that is more of a personal disposition. I've always felt that Fantasy and SF were better suited to animation since their are far fewer limitations. Plus Roshar has a lot more weird locations and fauna that require a lot CG anyway

That's where a good screenwriter comes in.  Besides, when you do any sort of filmed production you can't be 100% faithful to the book.  There's always something that gets cut or bridged over because it wouldn't transfer well to the screen.  That's why the book is almost always better than the movie.

[Tortellini]

I think the best visual medium for epic fantasy is television, when it's done right.  Has anyone else been blown away by the trailers for Game of Thrones on HBO?  I would love to see that same kind of treatment for, say, the Wheel of Time.

Well, epic fantasy is very, for lack of a better term, long. Any other medium that can stretch so long could work. So Tv does, but only if you get enough episodes to do it right. Graphic Novels and Audio can (and do) also work. I would love to see a Stormlight Archive graphic novel with enough room to do it right!

The problem with TV is that if it's to be done right, episodes get expensive, so there is often strong pressure to cut a lot of material. In the case of Game of Thrones, which has turned in my opinion into 90% chaff, that can be a good thing 

Side note: It called the freaking Song of Ice and Fire! Spoiler Alert, Jon and Daenerys will save the world and most everything else will be mostly irrelevant. Duh! To use the architect versus gardener analogy, Game of Thrones was an incredibly fertile ground, but it's now overgrown with a lot of weeds... /rant

[anthonypeers]

That's where a good screenwriter comes in.  Besides, when you do any sort of filmed production you can't be 100% faithful to the book.  There's always something that gets cut or bridged over because it wouldn't transfer well to the screen.  That's why the book is almost always better than the movie.

I dunno. I was quite impressed by the movie of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the way they stayed faithful to the book.  Of course, it's a much smaller book than the ones we've been talking about, which probably helped quite a bit...

[Inkthinker]

Personally I think that the miniseries model (like HBO is using, and like a frickin' billion BBC productions) is the best for adapting written works into film/television.

I'm looking forward to seeing how HBO does with its adaptation of A Game of Thrones... if it goes well, it might help to serve as a model for future adaptations of novels. Online distributors like Netflix are now showing an interest in original programming along the lines of the HBO model. And where Netflix goes Hulu (and others) tend to follow, so there's good potential in the market for more of whatever succeeds for HBO.

[Creative_Vortx]

I'm looking forward to seeing how HBO does with its adaptation of A Game of Thrones... if it goes well, it might help to serve as a model for future adaptations of novels. Online distributors like Netflix are now showing an interest in original programming along the lines of the HBO model. And where Netflix goes Hulu (and others) tend to follow, so there's good potential in the market for more of whatever succeeds for HBO.

That's exactly how I was thinking. Generally a good [successful] idea is followed almost to the T by all other competitors. Just look at technology. Microsoft vs Apple is just one company ripping off the other for ideas over n over.

I'd love to see original content from streaming companies, they already have a viewer base because of all the consoles out there in the world. Can't WAIT to be rid of DVD media [currently in the middle of converting all my dvds into a home media server so I won't have to touch the damn things].

A TV or mini-series would be the most successful for such a long epic hopefully a long running one too that doesn't get cancelled quickly [Screw you people behind Stargate: Universe! GARR!]

[Tortellini]

I agree with Inkthinker that the internet and new technologies will bring good things for fantasy fans. Think about it - the more media technology advanced in the past, the easier it has become to produce niche content (and let's face it, that's what we are). With more distribution ways, cheaper distribution over the net, and a huge new audience in international markets that are suddenly accessible, it will be even easier to make good products for a smaller audience. Which means more good TV for fantasy fans!

We even had a sci-fi channel for a while, before it started to just crossbreed animals for disaster movies... 

[CragN8R]

That's where a good screenwriter comes in.  Besides, when you do any sort of filmed production you can't be 100% faithful to the book.  There's always something that gets cut or bridged over because it wouldn't transfer well to the screen.  That's why the book is almost always better than the movie.

I agree that movies can not be 100% faithful and can in fact be better if done correctly. However, with Way of Kings, I think that the major character arcs for both Kaladin and Shalan are to introspective to adapt well to the big screen. It can certainly be done, but unless the screenwriter is REALLY good it would likely not work out compleatly

As an example, Kaladin goes through quite the emotional roller coaster during the book, with a lot of internal questioning of who he is, what he can and can't change, and if the path he is trying to follow even exists. This can be shown via external narrative but works much better internally

Still, all of my points don't change the fact that if a movie were made I would likely be in the seats on opening night, probably wearing 3-D glasses

[andygal]

I agree with CrazyN8R that WoK is rally too introspective to be converted accurately to a film or TV show. Especially a  film.

Now, a series of graphic novels, now we're talking.

[dhalagirl]

Graphic novel WOK?


Oh my......It would take an entire wall of shelves......can you imagine how many volumes it would take just for the first book?  Holy crap!

[CabbyHat]

Graphic novel WOK?


Oh my......It would take an entire wall of shelves......can you imagine how many volumes it would take just for the first book?  Holy crap!

Pardon me while I clean up my drool...

[Inkthinker]

Graphic novel WOK?


Oh my......It would take an entire wall of shelves......can you imagine how many volumes it would take just for the first book?  Holy crap!

 Action scenes tend to draw out into more pages, dialogue scenes can go by more quickly. Descriptive scenes can be handled in just a few images, or maybe even one. It also depends on how condensed the storytelling is when adapted to sequential art form... some creators tell a lot of story with every page, and some draw it out.

Though considering the first book is 1000 pages, and there's planned to be ten more... well, it'd be a lot. Keep a man busy for a few years, anyway.