Lionsgate are developing an ambitious, multi-media approach to adapting The Kingkiller Chronicle. They are simultaneously developing a movie trilogy which will directly adapt the three novels - The Name of the Wind (2007), The Wise Man's Fear (2011) and The Doors of Stone (forthcoming) - and a prequel TV series which will explore the adventures of Kvothe's parents. The TV series is in development at Showtime.
Lindsey Beer has written the script for the film, but the real reason things are moving is down to Lin-Manuel Miranda. Having achieved superstar status thanks to his Broadway musical Hamilton, Miranda has made the Kingkiller project his next priority. He is working on the music for both the TV series and films, including the in-universe songs, and is executive producing. With Hollywood keen to tap his talent, interest in this project has sky-rocketed.
The financial success of the novels has certainly helped: Patrick Rothfuss is the biggest-selling debut fantasy author of the 21st Century. The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man's Fear and spin-off novella The Slow Regard of Silent Things have sold well over 10 million copies between them in just over a decade.
However, work on the project may be dependent on Rothfuss releasing the third novel in the series: despite claiming the trilogy was complete over a decade ago and releasing pictures of the apparent manuscript for The Doors of Stone in 2013, the book is still has no release date set.
Sam Raimi is an interesting choice to helm the movie: although his reputation was made in gory horror movies (such as the cult Evil Dead trilogy, its remake and the ongoing Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series), Raimi achieved his greatest success with his three Spider-Man movies starring Tobey Maguire. He also directed Oz the Great and Powerful in 2013 and has been looking for another feature film project since then.
I have a feeling this property is going to be a disaster. Any adaptation faithful to the books will devolve into male wish fulfillment. While the books carefully explore several characters and narrow sections of lore, the world itself is left too vague to provide much flavor.
ReplyDeleteThe TV show can kind of do whatever it wants, I guess, but I'm not sure how you can make a prequel side story feel like part of the universe when the books are entirely focused on how awesome and attractive Kvoth was.
Every now and then I see people complain about Kingkiller because it's all about how "Kvothe is a Mary Sue, he's too good at everything! Etc."
ReplyDeleteThe whole point of the story is that Kvothe IS really good at basically everything. He's a legendary figure that's accomplished a ton of amazing, miraculous things. And yet, he still has failings. Look at where he is now, as Kote, outside of the frame story. How did he get to this state? Did he fail massively at something? Is he lying about a lot of his past exploits? This is the stuff that makes the story really interesting.
Also, I HATE the Mary Sue argument. It's probably my least favorite term that gets thrown around in SFF. Yeah, sometimes characters are really competent. So what? I don't want to read about flawed, damaged people all the time. And I feel like it's very rare that a character called a Mary Sue is truly deserving of being called one. It's a ridiculously overused criticism.
Raimi would be a mistake considering he took Sword of Truth and made it into Hercules the Legendary Journeys.
ReplyDeleteExcept that LEGEND OF THE SEEKER wasn't a tenth as good or as much fun as HERCULES: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS.
ReplyDeleteNot that I overly care one way or another at this point, but how about this....
ReplyDeleteAdapt source material once it's actually completed.