[kingnothing]

As we near the end of what I believe the most spectacular fantasy series of all time (I know it's a big call hey), I was wondering when or if the series will get the big screen treatment. I know that there has been plans to adapt the chain of dogs story line but for me I'd rather get the whole enchilada.
Now this is the question I put forth. Would the series be better suited to a tv series or a film series? There are pros and cons to both and it may well end up never happening. A film series would give it the necessary budget and technology to create the vast array of creatures and landspaces but a tv series will give it that extra few hours for each book to really be faithful to the story. I can see alot of things taken out of the story if it was made into a film. It'd be awesome still but it would lose quite a bit because the max a film would run to would be 3 hours. I mean look at MOI, that would be enough for about 3 films.
Anyway, I'm quite indecisive at the moment but I'm going with a tv series, in the distant future, when motion capture technology is affordable to be used successfully on television.

Who's with me and who opts for the film series route?

[Bauchelain the Evil]

Now, let me say that I believe that any Tv or cinema trasposition of the MBotF will be horrible and would never catch the aweomeness of this series. However I'm sure I'd be the first to go to the cinema/plant myself in front of the TV just for the sake of seeing a tv or cinema rendition of the books.
I agree that it would be impossible to have a film for each book. The only book that could be made in one film is GotM and I have my doubts even with that. I mean, LotR was 12 hours and the MBotF is way bigger than LotR. So, tv series it is.

[Garak]

HBO is doing ASoIaF as a tv series. MBotF would also be better served as a tv series. Sadly it will then lack all the philosophy and most of the stuff that makes it a cerebral reading and it might turn into a standard fantasy flick (albeit an awesome one).I'd still be first in line to see it no matter what form it takes (ok, so us fans would beat everyone senseless to get first in line )

This post has been edited by Garak: 07 April 2010 - 03:01 PM

[knight of shadows]

I would have to agree that the books are far to long to be put into a movie format so tv seems like the only option that being said I don't know if this could work either. Doing ASoIaF is going to be simpler than this because of the lack of magic and the fact that it revolves around plotting/backstabbing where MBotF is a lot more confrontational (they both have wars but MBotF is on much larger scale with a shit ton of magic and explosions thrown in) because of this I feel it would almost be impossible to recreate anything that is even remotely close to the scale of the books.

[rhulad]

I highly doubt that it'll ever be done as a movie or television series. I would think that it would be entirely too expensive to produce as a television series... and nobody wants to sit through a 10 hour movie for each book. Too much magic and awesomeness to be seen on screen.

Still, I would be first in line to see it if they did turn MBotF into a movie or tv series.

[Illuyankas]

It should be, get this, a West End musical.

[kingnothing]

I have to agree that it is highly doubtful the whole series would be made. But I'm not going to lose faith in it not being made. The big thing holding it back as tv series, apart from the large battle scenes and magic would be the various races. You would have to the jaghut, t'lan imass, k'chain maybe even the teblor all motion captured cgi. still...it's good to dream. If there's any chance I think hbo would be the ones. Plus of ASoIaF goes well you never know.

[End of Disc One]

I think it could only work as an animated series.

[kingnothing]

That's an interesting direction End....very interesting.

[Silencer]

The thing I would have against an animated series is the chances of them getting a decent graphical style, that also does not then fall into some middle ground of mediocrity due to an over-cautious approach.

[Tsundoku]

Silencer, on 08 April 2010 - 08:49 AM, said:

The thing I would have against an animated series is the chances of them getting a decent graphical style, that also does not then fall into some middle ground of mediocrity due to an over-cautious approach.

I very much agree this can only be done as an animated series. I think I said that once before ages ago when last the subject came up.

Any examples you could quote as a preferable style?

Conversely, any examples of styles you'd prefer they avoided? Eg Big eyes, small mouth anime ...

This post has been edited by Sombra: 08 April 2010 - 09:05 AM

[Garak]

Oh, I agree that the chances of this happening are pretty Nil but we can dream can't we? Btw what's this Chain of Dogs movie thing someone mentioned? More speculations/ wishful thinking or something confirmed by SE?

[Silencer]

It was quite a while ago, but it was fairly serious, iirc. A member known as Patch/Kallor/Pallor was high up in the process, but it fell through. The idea was to fund it outside of Hollywood if at all possible...not sure exactly what happened to it, but it died. Patch hasn't been seen in some time.

@Sombra - god, anything anime is out out OUT. I would (alright, I wouldn't, but..) boycott watching it if it was anime or anything close to that. XD And that's the problem I have. Anything else is too colourful/too dark, or feels like it would take itself too seriously for it to be animated. XD

[Use Of Weapons]

You just know that if Hollywood did the Chain of Dogs, they'd rewrite the ending so Coltaine made it, fucked Nether in celebration, and was played by Bruce Willis.

[Tatterdemalion]

"Yippee-I-oh-ki-yay, Pormqual!"

I day dream abou the creation of Malazan as an awesome TV series ALL THE TIME. Little to no name actors, a few chapters per episode. I imagine that I win 42 billion dollars playing slots and decide to spend 41 of it on making the most epic and bad-ass barely-watched television show of all time. It would be so cool... but alas.

As for animated, the only man for the job is clearly Genndy Tartakovsky.

[Sinisdar Toste]

Tatterdemalion, on 11 April 2010 - 04:47 PM, said:

"Yippee-I-oh-ki-yay, Pormqual!"

I day dream abou the creation of Malazan as an awesome TV series ALL THE TIME. Little to no name actors, a few chapters per episode. I imagine that I win 42 billion dollars playing slots and decide to spend 41 of it on making the most epic and bad-ass barely-watched television show of all time. It would be so cool... but alas.

As for animated, the only man for the job is clearly Genndy Tartakovsky.

just clicked your link and saw that this guy is working on a samurai jack movie!!!!

whoooohoooo! i loved samurai jack so much can't believe they're making a movie

[Karsa Orlong_Kicking Ass 24/7]

I can only see it happening if it were a big budget major TV production type thing that has 4 parts (per book) that were an hour and a half long. That way you get a cinema feel but you also have an adequate amount of time to tell the story.
I don't know if anyone else saw "Alice" but something like that could work. but of course it wouldn't live up to the book

[Battalion]

Not sure how much Shrek costs to make, but animation like that would be good. The soldiers and magic in those films are pretty good.

On a side note, in the interest of putting faces to names and such, maybe a graphic novel would work for the MbotF series. I know it would be hard and alot of plots would need to be scraped, but if one of those badass artists out there put their mind to such a project, I for one would pay big money to own one(I'd pay anything ... up to, er, at least twenty quid).

[Traveller]

I don't think there's any way of doing it that would keep fans of the series (me) happy. There are always comments on this site about the lack of specific detail regarding characters, races etc; it's hard enough to produce a picture of a single person or event from the books that does't first get met with 'well, I didn't see them like that.'

The idea of a film or tv series is good, but only because when we think about it, we all imagine it to made in the way we'd like. I personally think it could be done with animation, but it would never be the same...

..can you imagine sitting watching someone elses version on th Fall at Aren on screen, and thinking, 'this is even better than when I read it!'

I doubt it. I'm only a little cynical because this has happened with books/films for as long as I can remember, so I don't see why this would be any different.

[kingnothing]

Traveller if that was the case there wouldn't be many book and comic-book adaptations around.....

Animation looks like the way to go though coming up with the right style will be tough...maybe it should develop a whole new style of animation called malazamation??