Fantasy Adaptations

*Originally published on 2/17/09


A few years ago, HBO commissioned George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series to be adapted to a television series with each novel making up a season. I haven't even read the series and I think this is bloody brilliant.

Books have often been made into movies, now comics are starting to adapt these stories into a graphic medium. Turning a book series into a TV show is the next step. For an epic fantasy like Song of Ice and Fire, a television show is a perfect fit. Giving each novel a season will give the show room to flesh out and develop each character and give them the necessary screen time so that no one is shafted. Peter Jackson did an amazing job with the Lord of the Rings movies but if these novels are as in depth as people have made them out to be, I don't know if a movie series would work. Putting the show on HBO is even better as they won't have to be so fussy about the more adult aspects of these novels.

If that goes well they can go on to adapt others. Book series by lesser known authors like Terry Goodkind or Tad Williams could get picked up and given the same treatment. I only have four of his books, and I haven't read them yet, but door stoppers like that seem like good fodder for a television network looking to fill in time slots.

Another popular series is the late Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series; this would make an interesting television series as well. I've heard this guy is a bit long winded so bringing all that obsessive detail would make it easy to put to film. It would also save people the hassle of plodding through the long slow text of the latter half of the series.

Some people say that a season a novel isn't enough. I don't buy that. One factor will be how long the show itself is, obviously if these books are as heavy as people say a 1 hour show will work better than a 30 minute show. Another factor is how long the season is. If it's 22 episodes it will be a lot easier to make than if it is 13 or 14. Even with 14 half hour episodes, that's 7 hours. I find it hard to believe that you can't get a novel adapted in that amount of time. If it is 22 hour long episodes than it will be a piece of cake.

A while back TNT was talking about adapting Stephen King's and Peter Straub's novel The Talisman into a six hour miniseries, much like they did with The Stand. Also like The Stand, it will be adapted into a comic series. As that is only one book (a thick book but a single book nonetheless) it would make sense to keep that to a miniseries. Little has been said of it, I am still holding out hope that it will be made. I know I shouldn't as even if it was made, King's material and made for TV movies are not two things that go well together.

What I really want to see is HBO adapt Stephen King's Dark Tower series. There was talk of making movies based on the seven book series, but I'm of the firm belief that the books are too big for the big screen. So much would need to be cut that it would not do the books justice. However, make it into an epic, adult animated series like Spawn only with a more cohesive story (the first season was quite brilliant and it started to pick up in season three but that show really had no idea what it was doing for most of its run) and longer run time and you could have yourself something great.

Epic fantasies like these are hard to adapt to film as there is so much material with their intricate subplots and wide cast of characters. These books lend themselves perfectly to a television series. At one book per season, you're guaranteed at least 5 seasons depending on the book series you adapt. If the adaptation of Ice and Fire other networks will inevitably try to piggyback on the success and pick up any fantasy series they can get their hands on. If you do do this (heh) I hope you focus on delivering a faithful program with care and precision as people staunchly defend the books they read.