Cool News
Sam Raimi Slices Into A TV Version Of Terry Goodkind’s SWORD OF TRUTH Books!!
I am – Hercules!!


“Hercules”/”Xena” producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are returning to the fantasy syndication market with the weekly series “Wizard’s First Rule,” based on Terry Goodkind’s “The Sword of Truth” books
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From The Hollywood Reporter:
"Sword" follows the extraordinary transformation of woodsman Richard Cypher into a magical leader who joins with a mysterious woman to stop a bloodthirsty tyrant.
Find all of the Reporter’s reporting on the matter here.


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Can't wait. Would also love a Drizzt animated series a la Batman.
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...cause that's what happens in the book....and it gets old real real fast. Goodkind is a one ntrick pony, he shoulda quit while he was ahead.
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as long as we're talking a serious budget. Herc and Zena were ok for the day but I want to see this done right.
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I can't believe that they can make this a network show and still stay somewhat faithful to the book. It's an extremely violent series not to mention, like SG7 said, that the female characters find themselves getting gangraped every other chapter. HBO might be able to pull it off. I just can't see this translating to a good network series.
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...that would be perfect in serial format is the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories. Sam should go for them instead. Humour, kick arse action, and great characters!
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They had been in talks for years. A bit gloomy till the last few pages of the 12th (and final) book. At least Goodkind finished his series. *Glares at James Oliver Rigney, Jr., aka Robert Jordan*
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Darkhorse Comics has the rights to the Leiber stuff, and announced they are in development.
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I hope that is true. I have been hanging for a Lankmar show since I first saw Hercules and realised it was shite.
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And fuck you, Dragulf, the man dictated the final book in WoT on his death bed. Show at least SOME respect.
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I hate that overdone theme.
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THAT'S what I'm waiting on. George R.R. Martin said on his website that things are moving forward, but they're still looking for investors. Guess HBO can't pay for the whole thing by themselves.
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Not only does it feature women being raped, as mentioned above, but also young boys are raped by a character in the 1st book. It also has a lot to do with prophecies, and i fookin hate that. why, oh why, did i read the first 6 books of the series i will never know
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These books are cheesy at best. These would do best on Sci-Fi with a Mansquito type budget.
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so the series can only be better..
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I'm only interested in syndicated fantasy if it's about female empowerment.
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You do know that Robert Jordan died last fall right? And that Brandon Sanderson is finishing the last book (with the blessing and help of RJ's wife/editor)? It's due to hit the bookstores Fal 2009.
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All people are stupid, according to Tairey Badkind (except him, of course and those who worship him as Aryn Rand's successor).
I have no interest in Tairy Badkind's book being translaed onto any size screen. The first book was average run of the mill, though the author claims he doesn't write fantasy. Because, you know, fantasy is just made up storeis with dragons, magic, and woodsmen becoming supreme beings. Wait a minute.... -
He was also slated to direct The Wee Free Men as well, but that's gone *poof* out of his lineup of stuff. Raimi seems to get drawn into being interested enough in stuff that he says he's going to do it and then he gets involved in something else for longer than he probably thinks (Spiderman 3, for example) it will take.
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Now that is the book I would like to see as a mini series.
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Had heard great things about it, but man, that was a drag.
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And I second Abin Sur. Where's the Song of Ice and Fire HBO show?
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but if he'd stopped writing excessive pointless shit into his novels a few years ago, he might have finished Wheel of Time while he was still alive.
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I never understood why people read his crap. I got about halfway through the first book and just couldn't take it anymore. I would much rather reread A Song of Ice and Fire for my fantasy fix... hell, I'd rather reread the longwinded, often boring Wheel of Time books.
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Seriously. He's absolutely intolerable. I've read just about every fantasy series since Tolkien, and his is the only one I have ever literally tossed in the trash halfway through the second book. I kept waiting for the books to improve given all the "fans" he has - they don't.
All I can imagine is that he spends 4 hours per day on Amazon posting reviews of his own books, because there's no way that many people can like that crap. -
Goodkind preaches simplistic nonsense with one dimensional characters and the whole thing feels like it was written by a six year old.
And then , just when you think it might be something for yuor kids to read instead of you, a piece of arbitrary nastiness is thrown in.
Unbelievably poor, but this guy does have an audience out there who lap up his nonsense. -
I hope that Raimi doesn't cheese it up as much as he did with Herc and Xena. They had potential to be great shows (if you could get past Herc's American accent and pop culture references). If he plays it much more straight this time, I'm confident it'll work.Sam, I'm still waiting for Evil Dead IV-VI, man! So, don't get too busy while Bruce gets too old! (Sorry, Mr. Campbell)
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Finally! A return to the hour-long saturday afternoon fantasy series. I can't wait for it to premier. Hope Joseph LoDuca does the music for this series as well.
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is the fact that he swears he's never read Tolkien or Jordan. Does he think we're that stupid because Atlas Shrugged isn't everybody's favorite book??? The character Samuel is a cardboard cutout of Gollum! And the hierarchies of priestesses who use white and black magic? Can we say White and Black Ajah?
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oh well... not like there is anything better to watch, anywho.
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The Sword of Truth series is about as bargain-basement as you get when it comes to fantasy. There isn't an original idea in them, and the fantasy world is very generic and not very detailed. Like others have said, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or Conan would make better TV given the episodic nature of the tales (and I mean Conan in his original incarnation, not as portrayed in the lousy 90s TV series). The Elric books also would be great and offer a lot of story possibilities, given the character often crosses to parallel worlds. A Song of Ice and Fire is really too epic for the small screen, and I'm convinced Martin is going to die before he finishes the series. Outside of Martin there isn't much to choose from when it comes to fantasy these days -- every author tries to be Tolkien, who wasn't much of a writer himself. Robert Jordan wasn't a great writer, but his books would provide a nice setting for a TV series. China Melville's works would make for great TV. Just don't give us any Terry "I'm a hack" Brooks or shitty D&D novels.
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This is from the people who cursed us with Hercules and Xena. They can have Goodkind... I would hate to see them destroy more reputable works.
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... isn't a bad choice, although I wonder how the viewing public would react to a child-raping leper as the main protagonist.
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Ice & Fire is more mature than Wheel of Time with the endless spanking, braid tugging and battles of the sexes. Ice & Fire is also more realistic than the Sword of Truth with everyone stopping to listen to Richard's monologues about the 'nobility of man' when they could be using that time to take him by surprise because he's running his mouth. I don't relish the fact that Jordan is gone, and I do think Dragulf was out of line or just plain ignorant making a remark like that. But Wheel of Time is a deeply, deeply, deeply flawed series. I doubt it will be remembered in fifty years the way LOTR is today. Martin writes real characters, real situations, real politics, even the supernatural in his books seem to have the ring of truth. But any fantasy novel that would have a system of magic in which you wave your hand and some invisible force field shit throws someone against the wall, freezes them in place or traps their mouth shut is insulting even to comic book storytelling.
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Is a fucking woefully written Fantasy series. Every book ends with Richard pulling some previously-unknown magic trick out of his arse that does exactly what he needs it to do to defeat the baddies.
Personally, I want to see a TV series based on Stephen Donaldson's Gap series... now THAT would be some dark stuff. -
...I'd much rather see China Mieville's weird visions on the big screen. And while Ice and Fire may be big, the story is all about the characters and the only way to service them all in depth would be 20hr seasons not 2-3 hour movies. You should try the Price of Nothing series (if you haven't already) by R Scott Bakker. Though too much of the narrative is internal for it to work on screen, I think.
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I love me them Fraggles, living in the catacombs, eating erect a sets and taking advice from trash heaps. That stuff is the stuff! Wheel of Time never ends, I just found out from you guys that he is dead and I hafta say: Does this mean it ends? Cuz I sure as shit hope so. How about Dark Tower!
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I thought started out okay, but reminded me a lot of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. But I though what the heck, the heroic fantasy sub-genre revisits and recycles a lot of ideas/plots. The first three books I thought were fine, and then either his editor got sick of Goodkind's verbal diarhea or up and quick because editing the books were just too mind numbing because o' man, the books really headed downhill. Long winded boring stretches of long boring treks and asides. Just crap writing. I've kept reading them because I can speed read through one in a few hours and still get the main gist of the story. It's not a far stretch to believe that the TV series may be better than its source material.
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I bet the Sword of Truth was first realized as a trilogy and because they sold well, Goodkind was compelled by DAW (?) or whoever the publisher is to keep writing and the 4th book was when things really started stinking... although some people here thought it stunk before then, fair enough. Personally for some decent fantasy, I've been enjoying the Dresden Files books, the sci-fi channel series did it no kind justice. Try Carol Berg's "Blood and Flesh" and "Breath and Bone" books.
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Wasn't the greatest thing I've ever read, but it didn't have faggy hobbits, or dwarves and elves. And it wasn't written by Anne McCaffery or Mercedes Lackey. Was alright for what it was. But it's no Song of Ice and Fire (which is slowly becoming no Song of Ice and Fire itself). I'll wait for HBO to air that. Though a Black Company series on cable would be kind of spiffy...
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Because it's already been tried. The closest anyone has ever come to representing accurately Howard's vision was the original Conan the Barbarian movie. Since then, nothing has gotten it right, not Conan the Adventurer, not the series with Ralf Moeller where Conan had a merry band of fellow adventurers, not the cartoon with the talking bird. NOTHING!
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is a great way to stretch 3 or 4, a maximum 6 books into 12 err oops 11 ... It's my opinion, if you don't agree, that's fine. The last Sword of Truth books were stretched to make $$ sure, look at the similar covers.
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That series you're talking about didn't have any respect, or knowledge, of the source material. It tried to be a rip-off of the lousy Xena and Hercules series instead (which these two idiots making Sword of Truth gave us). A good series can be done that sticks to the material -- for an example, look at the Dark Horse Conan comics.
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Jan 30, 2008 10:17:45 AM CST
I was hoping for an intelligent talkback, my mistake
by stereotypical evil archer
Somewhere there is an intelligent conversation about fantasy literature (maybe thats a fantasy).
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(Unlike some of you, apparently) I thoroughly enjoyed the first 10 books. I was very disappointed though with the last one. It really did feel like he ripped through it just to get it over with, and the ending was just over the top "they lived happily ever after". Perhaps he was just sick of the series, but it left a bad taste. Probably will think twice before picking up another book by him.
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Those of you who pointed out the violence are quite right. How could it be faithful to the series without the rape and violence, especially the violence towards women? Every time I thought he'd gone about as far as he could go, he put his female characters through even worse things.
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House On the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson, Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock, Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel, Lucky Wander Boy by D.B. Weiss, The Planiverse by A.K. Dewdney, Time Camera by Terence Lee, Amerika by Franz Kafka, In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan, The White Dominican by Gustav Meyrink
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The Bear Comes Home by Rafi Zabor, The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker, The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King (with the events in Gunslinger compressed into the first twenty five minutes), The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, Game Players of Titan by Philip K. Dick, The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, Junky by William S. Burroughs, Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz, Demonic Congress by Aishling Morgan, The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati, Not To Mention Camels by R.A. Lafferty, Zorba the Greek by Nikola Kazantzakis (again). I urge everyone to read all these books I've mentioned. Isn't it refreshing to know that there are actually books out there that you won't see on someone's condensed, mainstream Amazon reading lists?
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And another vote for Thomas Covenant. Goodkind is a hack. He's the L. Ron Hubbard of fantasy.
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Faith of the Fallen is his one work I would consider a perennial classic. It really is a transcendent piece of art. Everything else is just rape and Ayn Rand worship.
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...yeah, most fans are aware that he died. And condolences to his family. We are also aware that the series derailed pretty heavily around the book where all that happens is some shawls get knitted for 1000 fucking pages. All the women in his books were either dainty flower door mats or man hating rug munchers. The men were either total door mats or misogynistic wankers. There was no gray for Jordan and it got old real fast. I think I have the fiorst five or six books. I gave up after that. I concur on Martins Song of Fire and Ice: it is very good and very brutal. I hope he doesn;t die before he can finish it. He and old fat guy too. They tend to keel over.
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We don't need a fucking D&D toesucker tv show. That is all.
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It was that boring and bad. I also quit reading _Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell_ after sixteen of the dullest pages ever written by anyone.
For good fantasy, I'd recommend Replay by Ken Grimwood, Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock and Monument by Ian Graham. -
The first books were good but then came all that long dialogue that sounded like the Bush administration talking.
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Kalhan makes a guy cut off his own nuts and eat them, then smashes his brains out with a mace. How exactly do they plan on showing that scene on tv?
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is the definition of trite. They should do the black company or Steven Erikson
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People keep talking about women getting raped...yeah, that never happens in the first book. The book does talk about someone who was raped like 18 years ago, who never shows up in the story...but talking about rape is fine for TV. Same with the character who likes boys, the book never described any of that, and it wasn't even directly mentioned "what" he does with them. No, the problem scenes will be the ones near the end that deal with extreme torture. And I'm sure with a little talent they can edit those down just fine.
As for A Song of Ice and Fire, I could never get into that series - it was way too political, too boring. I tried like three times to get to something interesting in the first book, never could make myself finish it. -
It's hard to know what to get into with Modern Fantasy, these days. There is a definite sameness amongst it all.
I'd echo the sentiments that Song of Ice and Fire is at the top of the heap with regards to modern fantasy, and I'd put Robin Hobb just below that. I loved the Liveship Traders.
I think, though, that the fantasy with best TV crossover potential would definitely be Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser. -
Chronicles of Amber by Zelazney. You know it's true.
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As much as I liked all 3 of those series I found the NS mix of cold war/horror/fantasy more to my liking(4th time thru them). Although there is a movie planned I think it work would better as a series like on one of the Pay channels. More gore the better haha
Now as far as SoT I gave up after Pillers so I dont really know if it would turn out well.SoIaF is pretty hard to keep track of(think LOST)and WoT would frankly bore ppl to death. But there needs to be a fantasy series out there imo doesnt matter which one. I'd watch it w/e it is -
Umm, Demmin Nass tells Kahlan to wiggle her bottom as he's about to rape her at the end. What the hell are you talking about?
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Hell yeah. I'm there. Great series with incredible visual potential.
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First of all, contrary to popular rumor, women are not gang-raped every other chapter. Some nut who never actually read the books started that little rumor. There is a rape scene in the first book, but it's the male protagonist who is raped (after being tortured). But there is a lot of violence (against bother men and women) throughout the entire series. You just don't get the nuts coming out of the woodwork to bitch about violence against men - such as the scene where a child molester has his nuts cut off by the female lead right before she bashes his skull in.
As for Martin, I read some of his cliched tripe. I couldn't get rid of the book quickly enough. There was a real stink-fest.
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But she isn't raped. There is violence against men and women both in the story. A lot of it. But these are people who are living in a violent world. The only character raped during the course of the story is Richard when Denna takes him as her "mate".
Where are the cries of "Oh, Goodkind has men raped every other chapter"?
It's also important to note that Goodkind isn't advocating violence except that which is needed for self-defense and to deter aggression. -
What Denna did was HOT! I pictured myself in Richard's position that entire portion of the novel. I'll say it again: HOT!
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