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Post by the light works on Dec 2, 2015 2:01:58 GMT
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Post by Cybermortis on Dec 2, 2015 11:29:06 GMT
I heard if this as the character of Alan? (The druid) is being played by Manu Bennett. Manu was in the series Spartacus as Crixus (I think that is the right name). Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke on Arrow and played the white orc in the Hobbit films for those who don't know him.
It's interesting to note that Manu is a physically active actor, who did most if not all of his own stunts and fight scenes on Spartacus and would have done the same on Arrow if they had been willing to let him. He even ended up breaking a rib when filming Spartacus. I wonder if the adaptation might not, therefore, have some big fight scenes with the druid. Manu would certainly be a good choice if this is the case, as he's both a good enough actor to carry exposition and drama and skilled and experienced enough to do most of his own stunts and fight scenes.
Trivia; Manu got the role of Slade Wilson in part because when he went to the audition he inadvertently choked one of the assistants unconscious when performing the scene, impressing (and probably terrifying) the casting director. You can hear the story on one of Manu's panels on YouTube, he tells it a lot better than I can...along with more than a few amusing stories from other things he's done.
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Post by the light works on Dec 2, 2015 15:40:14 GMT
I heard if this as the character of Alan? (The druid) is being played by Manu Bennett. Manu was in the series Spartacus as Crixus (I think that is the right name). Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke on Arrow and played the white orc in the Hobbit films for those who don't know him. It's interesting to note that Manu is a physically active actor, who did most if not all of his own stunts and fight scenes on Spartacus and would have done the same on Arrow if they had been willing to let him. He even ended up breaking a rib when filming Spartacus. I wonder if the adaptation might not, therefore, have some big fight scenes with the druid. Manu would certainly be a good choice if this is the case, as he's both a good enough actor to carry exposition and drama and skilled and experienced enough to do most of his own stunts and fight scenes. Trivia; Manu got the role of Slade Wilson in part because when he went to the audition he inadvertently choked one of the assistants unconscious when performing the scene, impressing (and probably terrifying) the casting director. You can hear the story on one of Manu's panels on YouTube, he tells it a lot better than I can...along with more than a few amusing stories from other things he's done. Allanon (correct spelling) is a physically involved character in the stories. Bennett looks like a good choice for the role to me. the casting choice I question is John Rhys-Davies as Eventine Elessedil (the elf king) in short, I have always viewed the elves as being less physically imposing than Rhys-Davies is. in fact, when I saw Rhys-Davies' name my first expectation was that HE would play Allanon. trivia bit - a few months ago, Brooks made an appearance in my town - I found out after the fact, or I would have been interested to be in the audience. |
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Post by silverdragon on Dec 7, 2015 9:22:41 GMT
I will have to look for that when it hits UK shores.
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Post by the light works on Dec 8, 2015 2:15:53 GMT
I will have to look for that when it hits UK shores. I'll update when it comes on. |
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Post by the light works on Jan 6, 2016 5:00:22 GMT
well, mixed feelings thus far. there have been a LOT of changes from the book, but it is well filmed, and it does follow the concept of the storyline.
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Post by mrfatso on Jan 6, 2016 10:19:49 GMT
I'll keep an eye out for it, if you think it is okay.
The only problem is some US shows do not get a channel here, or even worse get shown for a season or 2 and then pulled as the cost vs view numbers does not work out.
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Post by the light works on Jan 6, 2016 14:38:52 GMT
I'll keep an eye out for it, if you think it is okay. The only problem is some US shows do not get a channel here, or even worse get shown for a season or 2 and then pulled as the cost vs view numbers does not work out. I've started rereading the book and I see why there has been a lot rewritten. Terry Brooks normal writing style shows a lot of what is going on inside the characters' heads, and that doesn't translate well to video. there have still been a few storyline changes I would not have made if I was doing the screenplay; but I suppose they were necessary to make it more cinematic. |
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Post by mrfatso on Jan 6, 2016 22:33:40 GMT
I'll keep an eye out for it, if you think it is okay. The only problem is some US shows do not get a channel here, or even worse get shown for a season or 2 and then pulled as the cost vs view numbers does not work out. I've started rereading the book and I see why there has been a lot rewritten. Terry Brooks normal writing style shows a lot of what is going on inside the characters' heads, and that doesn't translate well to video. there have still been a few storyline changes I would not have made if I was doing the screenplay; but I suppose they were necessary to make it more cinematic. That happens a lot, tnose of us that are fans of a book can become too wedded sometimes to the exact text without seeing the changes that have to be made to create a workable screen play. Conversely sometimes the changes go far, like say the Sly Stallone Dredd film, or the recent Fantastic 4 and lose the core fans and they start giving bad word of mouth , and as they will be the first to go see the film or most eager to watch the show they kill it . I will be quite intrested to see what happens when the TV show based 'Expanse' series of books is shown here. |
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Post by the light works on Jan 7, 2016 2:19:12 GMT
I've started rereading the book and I see why there has been a lot rewritten. Terry Brooks normal writing style shows a lot of what is going on inside the characters' heads, and that doesn't translate well to video. there have still been a few storyline changes I would not have made if I was doing the screenplay; but I suppose they were necessary to make it more cinematic. That happens a lot, tnose of us that are fans of a book can become too wedded sometimes to the exact text without seeing the changes that have to be made to create a workable screen play. Conversely sometimes the changes go far, like say the Sly Stallone Dredd film, or the recent Fantastic 4 and lose the core fans and they start giving bad word of mouth , and as they will be the first to go see the film or most eager to watch the show they kill it . I will be quite intrested to see what happens when the TV show based 'Expanse' series of books is shown here. I haven't read the expanse series so I can't say. |
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 7, 2016 8:43:39 GMT
As I've noted before, what works in one medium doesn't automatically work well in others. The Discworld series is a good example, in that what works well in print hasn't managed to translate well to the screen.
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Post by the light works on Feb 11, 2016 3:32:47 GMT
at this point, the changes are starting to become significant.
there is definitely an MTV influence.
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Post by Cybermortis on Feb 11, 2016 16:02:24 GMT
There are a lot of reasons for changing the source material, often due to changes in the way stories are told.
In the case of Shannara Brooks was a lawyer, and this shows in the rather dry writing in the first book along with some strange situations where characters manage to walk what according to the maps would be at least 100 miles through mountains in a couple of days. This in itself explains why they started with Elf Stones rather than Sword.
Changing the story may be an understandable idea so they can keep the characters around for longer if the series is a success. It would be confusing and expensive to have to recast all but one character for a second season. It also means that readers of the books can't predict exactly what is going to happen, or spoil things for those who haven't read the books.
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Post by the light works on Feb 11, 2016 16:18:48 GMT
There are a lot of reasons for changing the source material, often due to changes in the way stories are told. In the case of Shannara Brooks was a lawyer, and this shows in the rather dry writing in the first book along with some strange situations where characters manage to walk what according to the maps would be at least 100 miles through mountains in a couple of days. This in itself explains why they started with Elf Stones rather than Sword. Changing the story may be an understandable idea so they can keep the characters around for longer if the series is a success. It would be confusing and expensive to have to recast all but one character for a second season. It also means that readers of the books can't predict exactly what is going to happen, or spoil things for those who haven't read the books. I can understand changing the storyline to make some of the dryer parts of the story more cinematic. I can also understand changing the storyline to appeal to a target audience the original story wasn't intended for. however, if the story is changed to appeal to a different audience, the original audience may find that to be a detraction. |
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Post by silverdragon on Feb 12, 2016 8:30:24 GMT
And we do.
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Post by Cybermortis on Feb 12, 2016 9:50:47 GMT
How big is the original audience though?
Consider that the best selling comic of all time was an X-Men title from the mid 90s, with 9 million copies sold. Even if every person who bought that issue went out and saw the first X-Men film it still wouldn't have broke even. Catering to the existing fans rarely helps pay the bills, you also have to cater to the more casual audience.
In the case of the Shannara books these came out some 30 years ago and has long been overtaken in popularity by thousands of other books. It doesn't make sense to really focus on what it going to be a small existing fan base, especially when half of them will not watch it on principle anyway.
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Post by the light works on Feb 13, 2016 2:42:16 GMT
How big is the original audience though? Consider that the best selling comic of all time was an X-Men title from the mid 90s, with 9 million copies sold. Even if every person who bought that issue went out and saw the first X-Men film it still wouldn't have broke even. Catering to the existing fans rarely helps pay the bills, you also have to cater to the more casual audience. In the case of the Shannara books these came out some 30 years ago and has long been overtaken in popularity by thousands of other books. It doesn't make sense to really focus on what it going to be a small existing fan base, especially when half of them will not watch it on principle anyway. consider that it is currently MTV's top rated show. ask how many Terry Brooks fans it takes to make that difference. |
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Post by the light works on Feb 13, 2016 2:46:38 GMT
one internet source says Terry Brooks has sold around 21 million books. to set a comparison, Tolkien sold 300 million.
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Post by silverdragon on Feb 13, 2016 7:47:41 GMT
one internet source says Terry Brooks has sold around 21 million books. to set a comparison, Tolkien sold 300 million. We need to add an "And still counting" to that.... Ok, Tolkein is dead, but, someone went out of their way to stick to the storyline "as best as could be expected". Hell they even kept some of the songs in there. Someone found it important enough to not mess up what was a damn good story in the first place. And the films were sell-outs..... That someone is now quite famous for his excellent work on that film. I am using this as an example, because its a bloody good one.?.. No other reason. But if it can be that the story was good enough to sell, surely bringing it to a wider audience, in a format that may be "new" to them, that is, without all the corny love-interest and a special extra character created so Mike Myers [insert Hollywood hot property popular actor who needs the work as required] can play his usual character just to get his name on the credits, doing all that without adding the "Usual extras" to the film, its not just a run-of-the-mill and maybe something refreshingly different that the audience wants?... Anyone here fed up of the bond-james-bond set pieces that are trotted out for every film?... You know what I mean then. There are too many films that can re-use the story boards from the directors last film, and too many directors who do everything the same way. |
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Post by the light works on Feb 13, 2016 8:01:50 GMT
one internet source says Terry Brooks has sold around 21 million books. to set a comparison, Tolkien sold 300 million. We need to add an "And still counting" to that.... Ok, Tolkein is dead, but, someone went out of their way to stick to the storyline "as best as could be expected". Hell they even kept some of the songs in there. Someone found it important enough to not mess up what was a damn good story in the first place. And the films were sell-outs..... That someone is now quite famous for his excellent work on that film. I am using this as an example, because its a bloody good one.?.. No other reason. But if it can be that the story was good enough to sell, surely bringing it to a wider audience, in a format that may be "new" to them, that is, without all the corny love-interest and a special extra character created so Mike Myers [insert Hollywood hot property popular actor who needs the work as required] can play his usual character just to get his name on the credits, doing all that without adding the "Usual extras" to the film, its not just a run-of-the-mill and maybe something refreshingly different that the audience wants?... Anyone here fed up of the bond-james-bond set pieces that are trotted out for every film?... You know what I mean then. There are too many films that can re-use the story boards from the directors last film, and too many directors who do everything the same way. and then he turned around and bloated out the hobbit beyond belief. - basically doing the opposite of what he did with LOTR. but yeah - there is a definite matter of taste involved. and if you found the shannara books to be focused, you'll find the rewrites for the miniseries to be cheesy and gratuitously trashy. - or as I said - rewritten to appeal to the MTV audience that made Jersey Shore a hit. |
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