It would be boring. aSoIaF adapts well because it's interesting and keeps you guessing at all turns. WoT just includes lots of pointless small plots that go nowhere that keep us guessing if they'll ever be finished or not.
I think your wrong there: WOT has plenty of those little mysteries and plot twists and character moments that would leave the audience guessing etc. A lot of the humour that gets tedious in the books would very likely be very funny handled by good actors (arms beneath breasts, sniffing and braid pulling gets old as you ead... but on screen it could be really funny if the show doesn't take itself too seriously.. a tone like the last Robin Hood BBC series would work well for WOT).
Outside the readership, a WOT show might just attract more the type of people who loved shows like Lost or even Heroes than the kind HBO hopes to attract beside GRMM's fans. Different demographics, that's all.
You still have a very good point, but I would put it differently: WOT is very episodic and has plenty of subplots that would on the surface make it extremely suitabl to a TV show (and that type of story does well on TV, in other genres). WOT's huge problem is that it's central storyline is way, way to thin to keep an audience interested for the 6-7 seasons needed to complete the series, and if you start streamlining it to do it in 3 seasons, let's say, you end up with a very generic and very formulaic Tolkien rip-off. Readers are more patient.. on average they spend few hours with a new WOT book then move on until the next one comes out. The situation would be extremely different if WOT demanded to be loyal to a weekly show for 6-7 seasons. People found the mid-series terribly slow.. imagine if those books unfolded a few chapters a week only...
The main story is just too thin to sustain a series of that length on screen (many already have this opinion of the books...)
This message last edited by DomA on 20/04/2011 at 09:20:30 PM
Wheel of Time Miniseries
18/04/2011 09:07:54 AM
- 1562 Views
Not a mini-series.
18/04/2011 11:43:32 PM
- 1040 Views
I would do it like this..
19/04/2011 05:15:31 AM
- 1074 Views
And while we're dreaming, I'd like a pony. How many 9 season shows do you know of? *NM*
19/04/2011 06:30:44 AM
- 417 Views
All the good ones.
19/04/2011 10:31:36 AM
- 961 Views
The Sopranos and Lost were hugely successful, and they were both six seasons long.
19/04/2011 06:13:06 PM
- 917 Views
Re: The Sopranos and Lost were hugely successful, and they were both six seasons long.
20/04/2011 05:49:21 PM
- 967 Views
This could still work with a 13 episode season
19/04/2011 07:04:06 AM
- 1211 Views
Based on GoT, I'm not too sure about that.
19/04/2011 01:43:36 PM
- 885 Views
Re: Based on GoT, I'm not too sure about that.
19/04/2011 05:02:34 PM
- 1050 Views
that's the best explanation of why it wouldn't work that I have ever seen
22/04/2011 04:06:03 PM
- 971 Views
One huge problem
20/04/2011 05:42:49 PM
- 1088 Views
Re: One huge problem
20/04/2011 09:18:07 PM
- 920 Views
Hmm, I think American Gods might translate well onto screen. I hadn't heard of that yet
21/04/2011 06:31:21 PM
- 1073 Views
Is this post still on the books board? How odd. *NM*
21/04/2011 10:45:09 PM
- 462 Views
I left it here because it brings up several different book series. *NM*
16/05/2011 06:06:43 PM
- 426 Views