Sword of Truth Miniseries!

Quote:

http://www.prophets-inc.com/news/

WFR to be made into TV miniseries
Posted: 7/24/06
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TOR BOOKS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Elena Stokes Russell Galen

Director of Publicity Agent

Tor Books Scovil Chichak Galen Agency

Sam Raimi gets Terry Goodkind’s bestselling Sword of Truth adventure series!

Sam Raimi, best known as the director of the hugely successful SPIDER-MAN and SPIDER-MAN II films, and his producing partner Joshua Donen, have optioned film rights for Terry Goodkind’s enormously popular bestselling SWORD OF TRUTH adventure series, published by Tor Books.

Having been approached by Hollywood a number of times over the past decade, Goodkind was never convinced that his 400,000 word bestselling novels could be successfully compressed into worthwhile feature films. In a meeting at the author’s home, the renowned director and producer instead conceived of a groundbreaking mini-series. Within two hours Goodkind was sold on the concept and negotiations commenced. Ten months later the deal was finally concluded. “It’s a dream come true to work with someone of such remarkable vision, talent, and ability,” Goodkind said. “Given Sam’s sincere love for these stories and his determination to only make great films, this mini-series will be a watershed event.”

All of Goodkind’s novels have been international bestsellers. Translated into 20 foreign languages, there are over 10 million copies in print. The SWORD OF TRUTH series began with WIZARD’S FIRST RULE in 1994. The 10th novel in the series, PHANTOM, is on sale now. The 11th and final volume is under contract and will be published in 2008.

Raimi and Donen hope to begin production of the opening mini-series, WIZARD’S FIRST RULE, within the next year, to be followed by ensuing volumes of the epic novels. The development process will begin while Raimi completes SPIDER-MAN III. Definitive word on the production will be available in early 2007.

Goodkind was represented in the negotiations by Russell Galen of the Scovil Chichak Galen Agency in New York City.

Kick-ass. I actually own two copies of the book, because I re-read it too regularly and don't want to damage my first (autographed) copy. Looking forward to this, I definitely am.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yeah. I've known about this for a while now. Having all the books in the series, you can be sure I'm looking forward to this gem. I just hope its good, and not a flop.

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Grrrr Why can't they make a mini series based off of the Eye of the World. Granted the later 1/2 of the Wheel of Time books are rather lame, to ptu it nicely, but I really want to see a miniseries based on the first few.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

It's not that they're lame it's that they're SO DAMN BIG that you lose track and forget who people are by the time they show up like 3 books later. I don't have the 3 months it would take me to re-read the series and I've forgotten it all, so I doubt I'll buy book 13 when it's finally out even though I own the first 12.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

As much as I loved the series when it first came out, one can only take so much of the same thing over and over and over. The description on the dust jacket of the most recent book made me LOL. If only I could devise a way to transfer Robert Jordans sickness into Terry Goodkind.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Oh boy... Well, the SoT series started out great (apart from the ridiculousness of the fact that names like Zeddicus Zul' Zorander and Dalton Campbell appear on the same page), but somewhere along the way the repetition of the novels' pattern started to grate on my nerves. "Look! It's impossible for them to survive this / solve that problem!" turned to "Look! At the last moment Goodkind invented the one exception of the rule the reader could never possibly hit on!" The first four entries were really good, but from Soul of Fire on the series went downhill until it turned to the utmost crap this side of a Forgotten Realms dime novel. As far as the TV adaptation is concerned, I'm not holding my breath. If Raimi finds a really likeable Richard and a Kahlan the audience immediately falls in love with, it might work, but unlike Goodkind he should know when to stop.

Zorro

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Zorro

Oh boy... Well, the SoT series started out great (apart from the ridiculousness of the fact that names like Zeddicus Zul' Zorander and Dalton Campbell appear on the same page), but somewhere along the way the repetition of the novels' pattern started to grate on my nerves. "Look! It's impossible for them to survive this / solve that problem!" turned to "Look! At the last moment Goodkind invented the one exception of the rule the reader could never possibly hit on!" The first four entries were really good, but from Soul of Fire on the series went downhill until it turned to the utmost crap this side of a Forgotten Realms dime novel. As far as the TV adaptation is concerned, I'm not holding my breath. If Raimi finds a really likeable Richard and a Kahlan the audience immediately falls in love with, it might work, but unlike Goodkind he should know when to stop.

Zorro

Absolutely. After Soul of the Fire, I could barely stomach this series. Though I'd be more likely to compare it to Robert Jordan garbage than Forgotten Realms.

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Yikes. The first two-three novels were decent, but then it becomes mediocre, and after Faith of the Fallen it becomes completely intolerable. Seriously, Pillars of Creation and Naked Empire are some of the worst books I have ever read in my life, especially the latter. I actually stopped reading the series at that point, and I'm patient enough to keep reading Wheel of Time despite all its annoying, glaring flaws. At least Jordan doesn't write propaganda.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I was - emphasise was - a huge fan of this series through the first 6 books (obviously, check the nick). After 'Soul of the Fire', however, it became a horrible, preachy mess in which Goodkind started suffering from an extreme case of diahrreah of the pen. He was always a bit rambling anyways, but the two I read (Pillars of Creation & Naked Empire) would go long stretches without anything ever happening. They were mind numbingly dull. I still thing that the entire Pillars of Creation story could easily have been told as a 20 page side-story in one of the other books.

As much as I loved the first 5 books, I haven't even bothered to check out the last two and doubt I ever will. The fact that he's a pompus asshole doesn't help matters any. Here's an excerpt from an interview he did where he tells us all how important his books are:

QUESTION: Annerinas: Will you, Mr. TG, actually ever go write a non-fiction book exploring fully your ideals and philosophy, getting it out of your system. So that it's not being presented in the next book at the expense of the actual story?

Translation: Will you please change that way you think and write, stop using your mind, stop being an individual and instead start writing books like every other hackneyed Tolkien clone on the fantasy shelves. Answer: NO
The Premise of this question and all that it entails is beneath contempt. To say that I view this notion with indignity hardly begins to cover it. What you are seeing with my novels is something unique. They are not like all the other fantasy books. A tiny group of fantasy fans happens to like things the way they are and only wants more of the same. These few do not under any circumstances; want anything to change or anything that requires thought. They want everything to stay static and simplistic. For these reasons (and others), these people do not like what I write and they never will. They even hate that my books exist, that I write things that dare to uplift and inspire.
Rather than simply reading and enjoying the many books available that they like, they spend their time railing against the one author who is different.
What I have done with my work has irrevocably changed the face of fantasy. In so doing I've raised the standards. I have not only injected thought into a tired empty genre, but, more importantly, I've transcended it showing what more it can be-and is so doing spread my readership to completely new groups who don’t like and wont ready typical fantasy. Agents and editors are screaming for more books like mine.

They can’t find any-for 3 reasons. One, copying innovation is an impossibility. Two, individually cannot be copied. They don’t grasp the essence of my work. What they end up with are authors who imitate some of the nonessential elements unique to my books, believing they must be the secret to success, much as my publishers at first believe that it was the red dragon that defined my work.

Why are editors trying to get more books like mine? Because any one of my backlist sells more copies in a month than most fantasy authors' books sell in their entire run. NAKED EMPIRE has been on the NY Times list for two months now. Far more importantly, I break genre lines and draw my ever growing sales from the much larger pool of general fiction readers who embrace my books.

The guy is a complete ass.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Gratch

QUESTION: Annerinas: Will you, Mr. TG, actually ever go write a non-fiction book exploring fully your ideals and philosophy, getting it out of your system. So that it's not being presented in the next book at the expense of the actual story?

Translation: Will you please change that way you think and write, stop using your mind, stop being an individual and instead start writing books like every other hackneyed Tolkien clone on the fantasy shelves. Answer: NO
The Premise of this question and all that it entails is beneath contempt. To say that I view this notion with indignity hardly begins to cover it. What you are seeing with my novels is something unique. They are not like all the other fantasy books. A tiny group of fantasy fans happens to like things the way they are and only wants more of the same. These few do not under any circumstances; want anything to change or anything that requires thought. They want everything to stay static and simplistic. For these reasons (and others), these people do not like what I write and they never will. They even hate that my books exist, that I write things that dare to uplift and inspire.
Rather than simply reading and enjoying the many books available that they like, they spend their time railing against the one author who is different.
What I have done with my work has irrevocably changed the face of fantasy. In so doing I've raised the standards. I have not only injected thought into a tired empty genre, but, more importantly, I've transcended it showing what more it can be-and is so doing spread my readership to completely new groups who don’t like and wont ready typical fantasy. Agents and editors are screaming for more books like mine.

They can’t find any-for 3 reasons. One, copying innovation is an impossibility. Two, individually cannot be copied. They don’t grasp the essence of my work. What they end up with are authors who imitate some of the nonessential elements unique to my books, believing they must be the secret to success, much as my publishers at first believe that it was the red dragon that defined my work.

Why are editors trying to get more books like mine? Because any one of my backlist sells more copies in a month than most fantasy authors' books sell in their entire run. NAKED EMPIRE has been on the NY Times list for two months now. Far more importantly, I break genre lines and draw my ever growing sales from the much larger pool of general fiction readers who embrace my books.

Do you have a source? The spelling mistakes make me suspicious. Not that I doubt that the man who considers himself the most outstanding person since Gandhi could have actually said that (it just takes a glance at his online shrine, uh, homepage to believe he could have said that), but I don't think this text is the genuine article, it's grammatically too flawed.

Zorro

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I saw the original years ago, and found it re-quoted on another board this morning. I'm having trouble tracking down the actual article, but I'll see if I can find it.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The spelling mistakes could probably be attributed to the webmaster of the official Goodkind site, the guy cannot spell to save his life (he's also a huge Goodkind fellator, but I'm sure this is of no surprise). Perhaps he was the one who transcribed the interview?

Anyway, it'd be nice to have a source but I am not especially shocked by this. Goodkind is a pompous jackass with delusions of grandeur. Also, I love how he thinks he's so innovative by doing exactly what Ayn Rand has done nearly fourty years before him. Or that writing political propaganda with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, full of strawmen and false dichotomies and other fallacies, within a fiction novel is especially innovative or intelligent. What a fucking douchebag.

Btw, here's a link with commentary on the interview:
http://www.inchoatus.com/Critical%20Essays/Essay--Goodkind's%20Rant.htm
It seems the original link to the interview, from the official site, is gone.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Denicalis

Absolutely. After Soul of the Fire, I could barely stomach this series. Though I'd be more likely to compare it to Robert Jordan garbage than Forgotten Realms.

I confess to only having read through Soul of the Fire myself (mostly because after getting that far school started back up and what little reading time I have gets dedicated to textbooks), so I've got to agree with you there.

I was speaking idiomatically.