the way of kings as a movie

[the Monik Ieron]

i know it would be really hard to pull off twok as a movie since so much of it is in the characters heads and thoughts. not to mention how long it is and how much work it would take to get all the scenery right, plot elements and the right actors for each character, but just imagine how cool Roshar would would on the big sreen AND the action, oh boy i can can just picture the prologue. Sseth son son Valanno truthless of Shinover in his whit assasins clothing lashing everthing doing insane stunts fighting a sharbearer. and dont forget when Kaladin leaps over the chasm and say the oath. the fight with the chasmfiend, and Kaladin taking down the sharbearer in the border skirmish.

[Argent]

The Way of Kings has been a very vivid book, full of imagery that would look beyond awesome on screen. I mean, take a step back and think about the world - it's a planet where storms are capable of destroying entire civilizations!

Not to mention that the entire magic system is both relatively low on special effects, and saturated with potential.

[anthonypeers]

I think The Way of Kings would make an awesome movie, except for one thing.  It's way too long to fit into a movie properly and the quality would suffer from that much as the Harry Potter stories have, especially the later ones.

What I'm really worried about are the persistent rumors of plans for a Runelords movie.  Too many plot points are dependent on people having insane levels of Glamour that can be easily imagined but could never be believably represented in a visual medium.

[the Monik Ieron]

(sigh) if only

[maxonennis]

I think The Way of Kings would make an awesome movie, except for one thing.  It's way too long to fit into a movie properly and the quality would suffer from that much as the Harry Potter stories have, especially the later ones.

  The early Harry Potter movies were horrible because they followed the books too closely. The screen writing improved dramatically after the second film.

[anthonypeers]

I think The Way of Kings would make an awesome movie, except for one thing.  It's way too long to fit into a movie properly and the quality would suffer from that much as the Harry Potter stories have, especially the later ones.

  The early Harry Potter movies were horrible because they followed the books too closely. The screen writing improved dramatically after the second film.

I would have to disagree strongly with that. I distinctly remember walking out of the third movie thinking "what in the world was that?!?"  And the fourth one was not Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire by any means; it was "Harry Potter In The Triwizard Tournament."  There was so much more relevant material in the story that they simply didn't have space to put into the movie, and it really suffered for it.

[maxonennis]

Anthonypeers, you probably read the books before you watched the movies. Everyone I've talked to who watched the movies and didn't read the books hates or simply got bored during the first two while the third movie (which, IMO, was the best of them all) on were well received by those who never read the books.

Books and movies aren't directly adaptable. They are entirely different mediums and even a 50,000 word novel filmed to be 100% true to the book would be at least two and a half hours long (far longer than the average movie goer wants to sit through). In order to make good movies out of the Harry Potter franchise they had to heavily rewrite the plots to make it conform to the different medium.

In the end you have to chose rather you want to make a movie completely true to the book, or make the best movie you possibly can. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was very true to the book and not a very well received movie by those who didn't read the books, while The Jungle Book was absolutely nothing like the novel but was a great success by those who've never read it.

[Zlurpo]

I feel that the HP movies were in part ruined (not that I don't like them.  I just think they could have been much better) because they started the movies before the books were over.  The same thing would happen with TWoK.  There's too much that may or may not be important, and some of that would get cut out.  So sadly, until the series is over it would be silly.

Elantris, on the other hand, would be great now...

[dhalagirl]

I think The Way of Kings would make an awesome movie, except for one thing.  It's way too long to fit into a movie properly and the quality would suffer from that much as the Harry Potter stories have, especially the later ones.

What I'm really worried about are the persistent rumors of plans for a Runelords movie.  Too many plot points are dependent on people having insane levels of Glamour that can be easily imagined but could never be believably represented in a visual medium.

Right now you don't have to worry about Runelords.  Dave has been asked to do a treatment for the movie.  If the studio accepts it then it's all shiny.  If not, then you can start worrying.

[Juan Dolor]

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.

[Miyabi]

I think WoK would be more suited for a TV show than a movie.  If you look at it when you read it it is in chunks about different characters.  I think a TV show would be amazing.

[dhalagirl]

Yeah, either a 3-4 installment mini series (per book) or a weekly series would be way better.  You can cover more in a series than you can in a movie.

[Miyabi]

I like the mini-series idea, though I think 4-5.  That would give you like 3.5-4 hours of show for a really long book.

[anthonypeers]

I'm a little bit worried when I hear that, simply because of Legend of the Seeker.  The only good thing that can be said about that show was that it was not as bad as the books, if for no other reason than that it stretches the bounds of possibility to take The Sword of Truth and make it any worse!  But if someone was to make a TV adaptation of stories that are actually worth reading, such as The Stormlight Archive, I'd hope that it was done by a better team than that.

[maxonennis]

I'm a little bit worried when I hear that, simply because of Legend of the Seeker.  The only good thing that can be said about that show was that it was not as bad as the books, if for no other reason than that it stretches the bounds of possibility to take The Sword of Truth and make it any worse!  But if someone was to make a TV adaptation of stories that are actually worth reading, such as The Stormlight Archive, I'd hope that it was done by a better team than that.

I almost fell out of my chair when I read this.