SEEKER cancelled plus BLAKE'S 7 remake and WHEEL OF TIME movie news

Legend of the Seeker, the ABC first-run syndication series based on Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series of novels, has been cancelled after two seasons. The series ran into trouble when the Tribune Network pulled out of funding for a proposed third year. ABC spent some time shopping the project to other stations and networks, but a lack of interest has seen the series cancelled. The series has proven controversial, with die-hard book fans unhappy with the significant changes to the novels' storylines and premise, although the series has also picked up its own loyal following.


A remake of the BBC's classic Blake's 7 space opera series, which ran for four successful seasons between 1978 and 1981, has been in development for several years at Sky. The production company has confirmed the project remains viable, with discussions currently underway on the show's format (ongoing series or mini-series). The original series - pretty much Star Wars meets Nineteen Eighty-Four - was set roughly a thousand years in the future and depicted a small band of freedom fighters struggling against a ruthlessly totalitarian government with the help of an advanced alien spacecraft they salvage. The original series was a big influence on J. Michael Stracznyski and Joss Whedon and some inspirations from Blake's 7 can be seen on their series Babylon 5 and Firefly, including the use of serialised storylines, ensemble casts and extreme ruthlessness towards characters. A properly-handled remake could be excellent, providing they get the right actors to play the critical roles of Avon and Servalan.


The would-be producers of the Wheel of Time movies have commented on Dragonmount that their likewise long-bereft-of-news project remains in development at Universal, and even suggested a possible release date of The Eye of the World movie for 2012. Given that they're still in the scripting stage with no screenwriter publicly announced, no director officially attached to the project and no official green light from the studio, we can safely say this isn't going to be happening. Even 2013 would be ambitious if they got the green light tomorrow. The plan for the film adaptation appears to be to make one film per book (which means losing 50% or more of the plot of each book, something that fans don't seem to have picked up on much as yet) for the first three, and then combine elements from the later books to make the later films. Curiously, Red Eagle don't even appear to have an outline for how many films that this will take (which I'd have thought would have been question #1 from any prospective studio), although we can safely say it won't be 14, or even half that.


Further news on these projects as it appears.