Did you know a Wheel of Time pilot aired early this morning?

[keg in kc]

Neither did I.

Universal currently has the rights, which are (or were if this works) scheduled to return to the Bandersnatch Group (AKA Robert Jordan's estate, led by his widow Harriet McDougal) on Wednesday February 11. Two days from now...

So this appears with, as far as I know, zero fanfare on FXX shortly after midnight. It was evidently produced over a few days in the last couple of weeks.

Assuming this is what I think it was, and Universal's attempt to meet the wednesday deadline, this may be the most ****ed-up move I have ever seen to retain rights to a property.

Harriet certainly wasn't happy about it.

Originally Posted by Harriet McDougal

"This morning brought startling news. A “pilot” for a Wheel of Time series, the "pilot" being called Winter Dragon, had appeared at 1:30 in the morning, East Coast time, on FXX TV, a channel somewhere in the 700s (founded to concentrate on comedy, according to the Washington Post).

It was made without my knowledge or cooperation. I never saw the script. No one associated with Bandersnatch Group, the successor-in-interest to James O. Rigney, was aware of this.

Bandersnatch has an existing contract with Universal Pictures that grants television rights to them until this Wednesday, February 11 – at which point these rights revert to Bandersnatch.

I see no mention of Universal in the “pilot”. Nor, I repeat, was Bandersnatch, or Robert Jordan’s estate, informed of this in any way.

I am dumbfounded by this occurrence, and am taking steps to prevent its reoccurrence."

[DaFace]

As crazy as it sounds, Red Eagle is suing Harriet for slander.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr...redirect=false

This whole thing is kind of sad.

[keg in kc]

Something tells me that won't stick.

And Red Eagle is doing more damage to its image by sueing Harriet than anything Harriet said could have. They come off as doubly bush league now.

[milkman]

That was pretty pathetic.

On a related note, I finally got around to reading the final 3 books a few months ago, and I thought it was pretty damn stupid, which was disappointing.

[keg in kc]

I couldn't even make it through the last one. Which is saying something as a fan of both the series and Brandon Sanderson. I ended up reading all the Mat chapters and the very end and skipped about half the book. The last three books just never felt right to me, and the last was the worst.

[milkman]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I couldn't even make it through the last one. Which is saying something as a fan of both the series and Brandon Sanderson. I ended up reading all the Mat chapters and the very end and skipped about half the book. The last three books just never felt right to me, and the last was the worst.

Sanderson had Jordan's notes, but not his vision.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by milkman

Sanderson had Jordan's notes, but not his vision.

He has vision, his own work shows that, he just couldn't match Jordan's voice.

Out of fairness, finishing someone else's opus like that is an impossible task.

[DaFace]

I personally liked Sanderson a lot. It was definitely different than Jordan's style, but I'd honestly gotten pretty tired of Jordan's slow, detailed, not much plot movement pace toward then end, and Sanderson really picked up the pace to get the damn thing done.

[unlurking]

Just an update...

http://arstechnica.com/the-multivers...dge-tv-series/

The Wheel of Time turns… into a “cutting-edge TV series”
"Look for the official announcement coming soon from a major studio."

by Andrew Cunningham - Apr 29, 2016 1:58pm MDT
Share Tweet Email
144

Cover art for the first Wheel of Time novel.
Tor Books
After a rough false start, it looks like Robert Jordan's fantasy epic The Wheel of Time will be coming to television after all. The news was delivered on the series' Google+ page by Jordan's widow, Harriet McDougal, who owns the copyright to the novels and has controlled the franchise's direction since Jordan's death in 2007.

We have few details about the project at this point, aside from assurances that a "major studio" will have more to share soon:

Wanted to share with you exciting news about The Wheel of Time. Legal issues have been resolved. The Wheel of Time will become a cutting edge TV series! I couldn’t be more pleased. Look for the official announcement coming soon from a major studio —Harriet
Optioning The Wheel of Time makes sense, given the appetite for TV adaptations of dense, sprawling fantasy series. HBO's Game of Thrones and Starz's Outlander have both been successful, and Wheel of Time is a firmly established property that has the added benefit of actually being a finished story already.

The main Wheel of Time story spans 14 books, though it was originally planned as a 6- and then 12-book series. Jordan lived to complete the first 11 novels, and McDougal chose Brandon Sanderson to finish the series based on Jordan's notes and finished pages. Red Eagle Entertainment produced and aired an awkward "pilot" of a possible TV series aired on FXX with little fanfare in early 2015 but quickly drew McDougal's ire. Whether the poorly conceived pilot episode will have anything to do with the finished series is anyone's guess.

[DaFace]

I'm honestly worried that they'll be able to do it justice, but I'm glad that it won't be an obnoxious legal battle that is preventing someone from giving it a try.

It's gonna be tough to do all the magic stuff in a way that doesn't come across as a big cheese fest, though.

[hometeam]

I read the entire series last year, good books, as you get to the end though, lots of repetition. if they do it gritty like GoT then it could be good.

[Amnorix]

Certainly is plenty to work with there, and PLENTY of fat to cut. That 14 book series should have been about 6.

I thought Sanderson did a very commendable job wrapping it all up. Taking over someone else's work like that isn't easy, and he did an excellent job with bringing all the loose ends to conclusions and then the climactic finale.