Prime Focus has released a press statement informing the world that it has come to an agreement with sir Terry Pratchet to make a television series based on the Night Watch of his popular Discworld series.
Personally, I love the Discworld novels and the Night Watch is my favorite group of characters so I really hope this cooperation will result in a great new fantasy TV series!
Press statement
Sir Terry Pratchett and Rod Brown, managing director of Prime Focus Productions, have announced an agreement for the unprecedented and exclusive worldwide television rights to create brand new storylines for the iconic characters of Pratchett’s phenomenally successful Discworld series.
Terry’s universal success has seen him create one of the leading fantasy fiction franchises of all time, with 70 million worldwide sales of his 38-book Discworld titles. This will rise to 39 following another book to be published in October 2011. While there have been three successful mini-series adaptations of his Discworld books made for television in the UK, this is the first time Pratchett has granted a production company the international rights to his characters and their world. The agreement will see Prime Focus Productions create a series of new stories exclusively for a television audience.
The main focus of the series will be the bustling, highly mercantile, largely untrustworthy and vibrant city of Ankh Morpork. It will follow the day-to-day activities of the men, women, trolls, dwarves, vampires and several other species who daily pound its ancient cobbles. This will of course also include Igor in the forensics department. Terry commonly refers to the City Watch police force series as “the jewels in his Discworld Crown.” These richly developed and highly compelling characters will feature in a ‘crime of the week’ episodic storyline. As each weekly adventure unfolds, viewers will be taken on a ride through Pratchett’s genius imagination, with the author overseeing the creation of the series. In this world, wild and exciting encounters with werewolves, dragons, dwarfs, trolls, golems and the classic heroes and villains are an everyday occurrence… many of whom even make outstanding crime fighters!
“I believe the globally successful Discworld franchise will readily translate to the small screen in the form of a high-end, mass appeal weekly drama series, giving the audience the anticipation and excitement of brand new Discworld stories every week through the medium of television, rather than books,” said Rod Brown, managing director of Prime Focus Productions. “It’s a huge responsibility to get this right for Terry, his legions of Discworld fans and the new followers that we’ll attract along the way. I believe they’ll be in for a treat with a high calibre writing team already attached, including Monty Python’s Terry Jones and Gavin Scott (Small Soldiers, The Borrowers). We’ve already spoken to a number of international broadcasters who’ve shown early interest and we hope to move forward very quickly to bring this exciting project to fruition.”
Sir Terry Pratchett said of the agreement: “I’m very excited and incredibly happy about this because Rod was co-head of the team that produced the very successful Sky One adaptations. My message of encouragement to him now is: don’t bugger it up!”
Source: Prime Focus Productions
After a year that has not been too special on the fantasy front, I really don’t know where to start off discussing the short term future of fantasy; there are simply too many great new things happening in the fantasy genre during 2011!
Novels that will surely be amazing, endings of series that have taken decades to create and have held millions in their grip. Blockbuster movies and a television series that can only blow our minds.
Here are my personal hightlights: the best and most anticipated fantasy titles of the year to come!
Books and Series
The novel I am looking most forward to is The Crippled God by Steven Erikson. It is the last installment of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series and should be several hundreds of pages filled with the resolution of all mysteries that Erikson has created during the series. Allthough, knowing Erikson a bit, much will probably remain unsolved.
Close second on my list, mostly because we will have to wait till the end of September before it will be released, is A Dance with Dragons, the fifth novel in George R.R. Martin‘s already legendary A Song of Ice & Fire series. Together with the first season of Game of Thrones (see below), this novel will put a huge spotlight on the fantasy genre.
Soon available (in March) is the latest book of Patrick Rothfuss called The Wise Man’s Fear. After the succes of The Name of the Wind, the anticipation for this new novel is very high.
Last book I want to mention is A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, the last installment in The Wheel of Time series. I somewhat lost interest in the series over the years but for many fans this novel will be the most anticipated of the year and it is bound to be high in the New York Times bestsellers list for a long time. It is expected for November 2011.
Movies
Several interesting fantasy movies will be released in theatres in 2011 so there is a lot to look forward to but none of them are guaranteed to be very good. The most promising one is the last movie in the Potter series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II, set to premiere in July. I am not that much of a fan of the Potter movies but the first Deathly Hallows movie was quite good so I am expecting a lot from part II.
The comedy fantasy movie Your Highness can go either way. Or it will be a hilarious ridicule of fantasy movies or it will be a annoying succession of desperately-trying-to-be-funny fantasy scenes. Your Highness will be in theatres on April 8.
Another movie I am not so sure about is Thor, with a story based on the Marvel comics. There is a good chance of this being a movie solely revolving around action scenes with the story having no depth and the characters being flat. Thor will premiere late April/ early May.
Last in this category of doubtfull movies is the remake of Conan the Barbarian. They will have to make an extremely good movie to come near the “level” of the original movie and to shake of the criticism and cynicism that fans will surely have. We will have to wait a while for Conan as it will not be in theatres until August.
One movie I am personally definitely not looking forward to is the first of the two Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn movies that will be released in November 2011.
Game of Thrones
I simply cannot say it enough: Game of Thrones is starting in 2011! On April 17, the first episode will air on HBO in the US and on Sky in the UK and like almost everybody with a heart for fantasy, I love Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire series and am highly anticipating this television series.
As mentioned before, 2010 was not the greatest of years for the fantasy genre but 2011 will surely make us forget all about it. In addition, we will have the anticipation of the movie The Hobbit that is scheduled for 2012…
The start of a new year is a good time to glance back at the past year and try to make some sense of everything that happened. I will do this in a small way by summing up some of the major ripples in the pond called fantasy during 2010. This means that I have made an overview of the best fantasy novels, series, movies, TV series and games of the past year.
Perhaps this short overview will point out a movie you have not seen or remind you of a novel you should have read during last year. If not, it will at least help you form an opinion of the level of the fantasy media in 2010.
Fantasy books and series
First, a quick look at the most popular fantasy books of the pas year. Several novels stand out but in particular Towers of Midnight, the 13th novel in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. It has been written by Brandon Sanderson and the general opinion is that he has done this quite well. This is also reflected by the number one position of the book in the New York Times Best Seller list and the fact that it remained high in this list and was sold in high numbers for many weeks.
Another novel that is absolutely worth mentioning is Under Heaven, written by Guy Gavriel Kay. Kay is probably best know for Tigana but has shown that he can become a stable and important author in the genre.
Last book I want to mention is the recently released Stonewielder. Written by Ian Cameron Esslemont and set in the Malazan world he has created with Steven Erikson, it is a great read that I will review in the near future.
Fantasy movies, TV series and games
The major fantasy event on the screen in 2010 must have been the latest Harry Potter movie The Deathly Hallows: Part I. This penultimate movie in the Potter Series was of course very popular and successful and, I have to admit, quite good. I will review the movie sometime in the coming weeks.
Of course there were more new fantasy movies in 2010, like Twilight: Eclipse and Clash of the Titans. Both are entertaining films but not ones you will remember as a classic.
Looking at fantasy television series, there was the news of the cancellation of Legend of the Seeker which is a shame but not that big a loss as this TV series had dwindling viewer ratings and simply wasn’t that good. Hopefully, HBO can fill the gap and show how a fantasy TV series should be made when Game of Thrones airs on April 17, 2011!
On the game front there has not been much fantasy activity worth mentioning. The World of Warcraft expansion pack Cataclysm was very successful but that was hardly surprising.
Looking back, I would say it was a pretty decent year for the fantasy genre but not a great one. In one of the next posts I will look ahead and will explain what the year 2011 has to offer and boy, that will be something!
HBO has released yet another teaser trailer of the highly anticipated upcoming fantasy television series Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones is based on George R.R. Martins series A Song of Ice & Fire, one of the greatest fantasy series ever written. The first episode of Game of Thrones will air on HBO exactly three month from now, on April 17 2011!
A new trailer of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones has been released, this time showing several scenes and giving a good impressions of the look and feel of the series.
The TV show is based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and by the looks of the trailer, the production of the television series is well underway and on the right track!
The trailer
Official Game of Thrones website.
Produced by the BBC, the TV series Merlin tells the classic story of Arthur and the knights of the round table. However, it centers around Merlin in his younger years. The series started in 2008 and a third season has been ordered by the BBC. Merlin is one of the more popular and successful fantasy television series around.
Story
The young Merlin (in the series Merlin is about the same age as Arthur) lives in Camelot is a land where magic is banned. Merlin finds out he has magical powers but and a dragon tells Merlin that it is his destiny to keep Arthur save. Merlin continues to work as Arthur’s manservant but has to hide his abilities for fear of imprisonment or worse by king Uther.
Other Arthurian characters like Morgana (daughter of the king who can see the future and slowly turns evil) and Guinevere (her handmaid with whom Arthur falls in love) also play important parts in the series.
Style and themes
The series is focused on a relatively young audience. It contains humor generally has good story lines and also good acting performances, which is important as the show is mainly character driven. On the other hand, the story doesn’t go that deep but that is understandable for a series that is also focused on children and teenagers.
The visual effects are somewhat poorly done but then again, that is not what the series is about. It is an entertaining, light-hearted series that does contain quite a bit of morality as can be expected from this kind of heroic fantasy.
Conclusion
Merlin is produced by the BBC and like most of their productions the show is quite good. I’m not that much of a fan myself but I can understand this television series being a success.
Produced by HBO, True Blood is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris. It is a currently running television series, one of the best around, about the co-existence of vampires, other supernatural beings and humans in a small town in Louisiana.
Story
The story take place two years after the existence of vampires became known to the world. Now, vampires and people live together and interact as sort of equals due to the creation of synthetic blood. The story is set in Bon Temps a town in Louisiana, where teh waitress Sookie Stackhouse, who can read minds, falls in love with vampire Bill Compton. Besides vampires, also shapeshifters, werewolves and other demonic creatures play a part in the series.
Not all people accept vampires in their midst and some downright hate them and the people have relationships with them. Together with the love story between Sookie and Bill, the fight with vampire-haters and other supernatural creatures provide for the main story lines.
Style & Themes
The series is quite actionpacked and graphic with loads of blood and murders. However, it also contains a fair bit of humor which is integrated well in the characters and the story. This combination works out so well that I believe it to be main attraction of the series. The fight of vampires to become accepted as a minority within the society is seen and also partially meant as a reference to how some minorities, like gays, struggle to get equal rights.
The fact that True Blood is broadcasted by HBO, just like Game of Thrones will be, is in itself already a guarantee for quality and success. But how good the series is, is also made clear by the many awards it has won among which a Golden Globe and an Emmy. The success have made HBO already pre-order a 4th season which will air late 2011. As True Blood is very popular and has good ratings, like most of the contemporary fantasy these days, I expect the TV series to be around for some time to come.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are two contemporary fantasy series, shown between 1997 and 2004. Both series were created by Joss Whedon and revolved around a group of people, lead by the vampire slayer Buffy and vampire-turned-good Angel, fighting evil in the form of vampires and other supernatural creatures. Angel started out as a character in Buffy and got his own spin-off series after a couple of seasons. Boths series were action-packed but also contained a lot of humor which is why I believe they are among the best fantasy TV series ever made.
Question is: which series was the best?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy was quite the hype when coming to the screen in the late nineties. The idea of a young and hot cheerleader (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who managed to fight vampires and others demons while still trying to hold on to her normal life was a huge hit. Teenagers, both boys and girls, liked the setting and the themes of the series. The combination of action with fantasy/ horror elements and the high school setting with all its issues and relationships proved very entertaining. Together with the lighthearted humor it was a recipe for 6 years of success.
Angel
Angel (David Boreanaz) started out as an enemy of Buffy but turned out to have a good side and became her lover. The character became popular and showed potential for further development resulting in a spin-off series that ran for 5 seasons.
This resulted in a series about Angel being a private detective for dark and occult cases, fighting demons, preventing them from taking over the world and trying to save his own soul. The series had a dark and more grown-up vibe to it while at the same time it was quite heavily action-orientated and had a cynical type of humor.
My favourite is… Angel
For me, the clear winner is Angel. The combination of a darker atmosphere, more sinister and action-packed story lines, the more grown up characters and the humor resulted in a TV series that I believed to have been better and more entertaining than Buffy. In short, the fact that Angel had less of the teenage campus atmosphere that Buffy had, has made Angel my favourite series.
Then again, that is just my opinion so let me know if you disagree.
There have been many rumours for quite some time and although producer ABC Studios has not officially said so, several sources are now saying that Legend of the Seeker will be cancelled after it’s second season.
Although I am personally not a big fan of the series and haven’t seen the second year, I do acknowledge Legend of the Seeker as a decent series, probably one of the best fantasy television series around. it would be a shame to see Legend of the Seeker being cancelled this soon.
The TV series has a large fanbase and the episodes had more than reasonable ratings, both in grades and in number of viewers but apparently these have not been good enough for ABC to order a third season.
About Legend of the Seeker
Legend of the Seeker is a television series loosely based on The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. It tells the classical story of the boy Richard Cypher who is destined to become the Seeker of Truth and defeat his evil father Darken Rahl. Richard gets help from wizard Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander and confessor Kahlan.
As indicated above, the cancellation isn’t official yet so there is a chance we will be pleasantly surprised with news that a third season of the Seeker is ordered but don’t count on in.
After comparing the television series Hecules and Xena in a previous post, I figured it would be interesting to create a listing of the best fantasy television series. However, this turned out to be quite difficult. Where there have been quite a few good and successful fantasy movies, fantasy television as a genre has never been as popular as for example the science fiction genre, which had great and long running series like Star Trek, Babylon 5 and Stargate.
You will see that there is only short list of possible contenders for the title of best fantasy television series that I can come up with, as in my view only a few fantasy television series stand out enough to qualify for the title of the best television series. However, I have good hope that around this time next year, a new contender will be around.
