"The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant" Heads For Movies

[Khephra]

Covenant Heads For Movies

Revelstone Entertainment and the Mark Gordon Co. are teaming up to produce a feature-film version of Stephen Donaldson's fantasy book series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Revelstone has optioned the rights to the first six books in the series, which Band of Brothers writer John Orloff will adapt, the trade paper reported. Mark Gordon is producing, with Revelstone's Peter Winther and Randy Simon. Lawrence Inglee will oversee the project on behalf of the Mark Gordon Co., the trade paper reported.

more............

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-main.html?2004-12/17/10.00.film

Clifford D. Simak's SF novel "Way Station" as well.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

1. Should have done Mordant's Need

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant are...difficult to read (gross understatement) and will probably be even more difficult to translate onto film.
Mordant's Need was much more vibrant, had characters I enjoyed reading about (as opposed to Thomas "I can't use the white gold ring because I'll destroy the Arch of Tiiiiiime!" Covenant) and had a most satisfying end to the series.
It will be interesting to see what the final product will be.

[lazarus]

2. I agree

I had the whole book cast at one point. Richard Harris as King Joyse, Peter O'Toole as Havelock, Patrick Stewart as Castellan Lebbick...

I don't think the Chronicles will make good films at all, sadly. Too much of the books was internal dialogue and debate, just like the Dune books (hence the problem translating those).

If they can do it big, Peter Jackson/WETA sort of big, maybe.

How in the world are they going to do this, though? They've optioned all six books? That's at least six films. No way you can squeeze those down.

And they'll likely have to change the rape, or they'll lose the whole audience right there.

[radric]

3. Don't see how the books will transfer to film..

very well myself. I'd much rather see films about McCaffery's "Dragons of Pern" or Kurtz's work on the Deryni. I think they would do much better commercially.

[LWolf]

4. Wow.

I looked at your post and thought, "Not Pern, please. Please don't reduce Pern by putting it on film." I'm generally distrustful of the practice of turning literature into film, and like to hoard my favorites away from the non-reading public, lol. But then I saw the word "Deryni," and it seemed familiar. I couldn't remember a thing, so I googled it.

I've read these books. I don't know where or when, because they aren't on my shelf. (?!?) If I like a book, I always keep it. Maybe this was one of the few times when I raided my son's collection of fantasy; it usually works the other way around. ;-)

Now it's going to be irritating me until I find the books and am able to reaquaint myself.

This is a familiar feeling, although it hasn't happened in a couple of years. 3 1/2 years ago, I suffered a head injury, a frontal lobe concussion, and some memory loss. It was profound in the beginning; I couldn't remember my vocabulary. My oldest son described it well; he said all my files had been dumped in a mess on the floor. The info was still there, but I had to sort through, find it, and "refile" it. During the first few months of my recovery, I'd reach for an old familiar book that I KNEW I'd read many times, and it would be like reading it brand new; like I'd never read it before. This eventually went away; I recovered most of the memory, although I sometimes still get frustrated at not finding the word I'm looking for, and I don't have the rapacious memory I used to. My memory, outside of the moment before the accident and the week after, is just fine. It's become rare that I run into something stored in the files that I haven't remembered until just now.

Reaquaint me; are the Deryni worth the time for me to track them down?

[radric]

5. I'd say very much worth it..

because I've loved every book on the subject she has written. Bit heavy on the religious aspect at times but then it's set in a period close to a medieval time period so that would be appropriate. A lot of intrigue, action, religious debate and just plain good reading :). Now I have the urge to go back and re-read them. If you do decide to hunt down the novels I suggest Amazon's used book sellers. A cheap way to get older books that are in usually very good condition.