As if reading about Joe Abercrombie trying his hand at a trilogy for younger readers wasn’t exciting enough, Deadline has today announced that 20th Century Fox (you know, those big movie people) have decided to press ahead with a Kingkiller Chronicles television series.
Personally, I think this is just the start of popular fantasy novels being turned into television series – and rightly so. I think, in the past, the lack of technology, the belief that a fantasy series could not attract a mass audience, and numerous flops of those that were attempted held studios back from investing big in adaptations of our favourite novels. But with Game of Thrones kicking arse all over the world, it makes sense that other popular series will get the nod as well.
So far all we know is that the show will begin with Name of the Wind and follow up with the next two books of the series. Will it be one series? Will it be three series, will it be more? We don’t know, but it’s all very exciting!
My single hesitation is that knowing how much of a perfectionist Rothfuss is (from reading interviews and such), I would expect he’d want to be very, very involved in it and, if so, that could only delay book three even further, right?
Wondering how the series will be adapted? Well, it seems brief, but in my opinion the summary of the series gives away quite a lot about Deadlines’s take on the upcoming show:
New Regency Productions and 20th Century Fox Television have optioned Patrick Rothfuss’ fantasy trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle to develop into a drama series. Eric Heisserer (Hours, The Thing) is attached to adapt the series and will exec produce. Arnon Milchan, Andrew Plotkin, Brad Weston and Robert Lawrence (Die Hard With A Vengeance) also serve as exec producers.
Set in a compelling world where the sharpest minds can master magic, The Kingkiller Chronicles tells the story of Kvothe, a streetwise young man who hopes to one day hunt down the mysterious group that murdered his family.
To me, it sounds like they are going for dark. Seeing as how popular GoT has been, why wouldn’t they? The words ‘revenge’, ‘sharpest minds’ and ‘streetwise’ certainly back this up. In the books, the ‘mysterious group’ that killed Kvothes family actually takes a backseat. However it seems that the television show thinks this is one of the most important aspects of the show.
Notice too that there is no mention of the university, which is at first surprising. Perhaps this is a sign that the studio will be trying to keep away from the Harry Potter label that would certainly come with any mention of a school for wizards!
I honestly can’t wait to see what they do with the series. What do you guys think?
