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Sci-Fi Books Media Television

Sci Fi Channel Plans 'Earthsea' Miniseries 308

Posted by timothy from the screed-to-screen dept.
Gumpy writes "The Sci-Fi Channel has started producing a TV miniseries based on the first two books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. The Earthsea miniseries is supposed to start on the Sci Fi Channel in December 2004."
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Sci Fi Channel Plans 'Earthsea' Miniseries More

Sci Fi Channel Plans 'Earthsea' Miniseries

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  • DragonLance (Score:2, Insightful)

    by ruronikenshin83 ( 661704 )
    I'd personally rather see a DragonLance miniseries.

    • Re:DragonLance (Score:5, Insightful)

      by B'Trey ( 111263 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:33AM (#8588681)
      The Earthsea series is one of the defining series of fantasy. It is a classic in every sense of he word. The Dragonlance series is mildly entertaining escapist fiction with stock characters and a predictable plot. A Dragonlance movie or series might be amusing, but it wouldn't be near as significant an event.

      • Almost... (Score:2, Informative)

        by manonthemoon ( 537690 )
        The setting is indeed stock, but at least the twins are not. Their interplay of dark/light was incredibly well done, giving the whole series texure and depth.
      • Sounds like you barely made it through "Dragons of Autumn Twilight".

        And let's get one thing straight: "Magic Kingdom for Sale/Sold" is escapist. The "Narnia" series is escapist. "Dragon Lance" is an epic that develops multiple plot lines that can be read in any order based on what books you read after the first 3 (Chronicles). Name one other serial novel with that feature.

        I'm glad they're picking the "classics" rather than the books and characters I enjoyed. After they pushed out a stillborn and half-fini

        • Re:DragonLance (Score:3, Insightful)

          by B'Trey ( 111263 )
          Narnia is escapist and Dragonlance is not? Surely you're trolling.
          • Ok

            Narnia: kids walk through a wardrobe into a fantasy land.

            MKFS/S: guy follows up on a classified ad and becomes the king of a fantasy land.

            Dragonlance has no such infantile segue from reality to fantisy. What criteria do you use to categorize a book/series as escapist?

            • Re:DragonLance (Score:5, Informative)

              by B'Trey ( 111263 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @11:47AM (#8589364)
              Escapist fiction is writing with no other pretense than to entertain. It's meant to distract you from your day to day existence. It doesn't attempt to address any issues; it doesn't attempt to teach any lessons; it has no theme or moral; it says absolutely nothing about the human condition. It's simply fun to read.

              The Chronicles of Narnia are children's literature but they are most definitely literature. They address and examine a number of moral and ethical issues. Their purpose is to teach children WHILE they entertain, not just to while away some time.

              • Re:DragonLance (Score:3, Insightful)

                by dustmote ( 572761 )
                Thank you. To follow up the above poster, the Chronicles of Narnia are widely considered classics of children's literature, and the series is an allegory to the religious themes that Lewis explored much more fully in his adult writing. They teach graduate level courses over CS Lewis, spending the first two months on the heavy symbolism and messages inherent in the Narnia books. My mother just finished one such course as a part of her Masters program. Aslan as a Christ figure, et al. If you think there
            • Narnia: kids walk through a wardrobe into a fantasy land.

              Don't take this the wrong way, but are you Jerwish or of some other very non-christian background?

              The only person I ever knew who had read the narnia books and didn't notice what they were was a Jewish friend. He liked them. Other people either like what they are doing or are able to set it aside.

              They make my skin crawl, but they are definitely not just ``kids walk into a wardrobe...''.

        • multiple plot lines that can be read in any order based on what books you read after the first 3 (Chronicles). Name one other serial novel with that feature.

          maybe I'm mistaking what you mean here, but .. CJ Cherryh's Company Wars/Merchanter/Union [cherryh.com] novels.

          Read in any order (though perhaps its a good idea to read the earliest half before the later half), each is stand-alone, but all build on the central universe definition - even taking the same events and portraying them from opposing viewpoints. Highly r

    • Re:DragonLance (Score:3, Insightful)

      by blancolioni ( 147353 )
      I'd personally rather see a DragonLance miniseries.

      What a bizarre non-sequitur.

      Earthsea is widely regarded as a classic, and not just within the genre. Dragonlance is somebody's D&D campaign written up with pedestrian prose, shallow characterisation and a corny plot.

      Though I admit Ged doesn't roll nearly as many natural 20s as whoever those PCs were.
      • What a bizarre non-sequitur.

        I'd agree, though, but for different reasons than the grandposter. I'd have to add "... because I'd rather see them take something that's not so much of a challenge to adapt, rather than ruin something I value more."

    • And a recent interview (Score:5, Informative)

      by tiltowait ( 306189 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:25AM (#8588613) Homepage Journal
      from this Feb. here [guardian.co.uk].

      • Re:And a recent interview (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Pastey ( 577467 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:37AM (#8588720)
        Favorite part of that interview:

        Q: Do you have a favourite TV programme?


        UKL: I used to watch Star Trek, until they went off the rails with Voyager, and when we were in England about two centuries ago we got hooked on Dr Who - the guy with the long scarf and the great nose, not the one after him who looked like he needed some vitamins. There isn't much to watch on American TV now unless you are into violence and/or canned laughter. Did you know that most of the laugh tracks they use are so old that the people you hear laughing at the sitcom are mostly dead? It seems appropriate.

        Appropriate indeed. I always wondered why "Friends" left me feeling "unclean". Now I know it was the living dead laugh-track.

        Or David Schwimmer's acting abilities....
    • Although one should note that there are five Earthsea novels in the series; the last two being relatively recent additions.
    • "The hero, Ged, born with the name Duny, learns magic tricks from his aunt, the town witch, who sees in him the possibility of great power. When his home island of Gont is attacked by the vicious Kargs, Duny casts a simple fog spell which enshrouds the village, hiding the villagers from the enemies and saving the village from certain massacre. Word of this deed spreads to Ogion, the great mage of Re Albi"

      Lordy! What a bucket of absolute toss.

  • What about Riverworld?!? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Roger Keith Barrett ( 712843 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:19AM (#8588552)
    Aren't SCI-Fi ever going to continue with the Riverworld books, or was the response to that too disapointing?
    • I am very curious about that myself. I thought they did a pretty good job with the pilot. The casting was superb.
    • I did not know the Sci-Fi network even did a Riverworld series.

      This gives me hope for a "word of tiers" series!

  • Woah... How was "The Lathe of Heaven"...? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Mitleid ( 734193 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:19AM (#8588553)
    I meant to watch The Lathe of Heaven when Sci-Fi aired that a few years back, but missed it, so I'm whether or not to have my hopes up or not. I was sort of impartial to their interpretation of Dune, but then again I only saw the first miniseries. A Wizard of Earthsea wasn't the most "dense" of LeGuinn's novels, so hopefully Sci-Fi won't be able to mangle it too bad. This should be sort of interesting to check out; I might be actually excited. Heh...

  • Prepare for disappointment (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rjstanford ( 69735 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:20AM (#8588563) Homepage Journal
    More than most fantasy, the Earthsea books spend time on internal character development. They can make you think. Their plots, frankly, are nothing to write home about - in my opinion, at least. Unless this is going to be an "adaptation" along the lines of Starship Troopers, I can't see it doing very well. But, who knows - I'd love to be wrong about that...

    • [T]he Earthsea books spend time on internal character development.

      The first one, especially, is a kind of Once and Future King with a touch of Harry Potter (though of course it predates H.P.). I'm thinking about the old wizard tutoring Ged a la Merlin, before sending him off to wizard school.

      The whole way to make this successful would be to concentrate on character and philosophy. These were the most enjoyable parts of the book, as I recall.

      I still remember being fascinated with the idea that Ge

    • Re:Prepare for disappointment (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Otter ( 3800 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:35AM (#8588709) Journal
      Certainly my tastes are a long way from standard sci-fi fan -- you couldn't pay me to read anything by Robert Heinlein except Starship Troopers and his older space opera-ish short stories. So take this with a large grain of salt:

      I find Ursula LeGuin's books utterly painful, the most boring things this side of, well, Robert Heinlein. Even Left Hand of Darkness, pretty much a consensus all-time top ten, bored the hell out of me.

      (As an aside, where's Connie Willis' rabid fan base? Her books range from excellent to mindblowing, but I've never heard people fawn over her like they do LeGuin or the other tedious female sci-fi authors. Is a general warmth towards tradition and religion too politically incorrect to be assigned in those classes that are always pushing LeGuin? It's not like she's Margaret Thatcher.)

      • Re:Prepare for disappointment (Score:5, Interesting)

        by david.given ( 6740 ) <dg@cowlark.com> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:51AM (#8588841) Homepage Journal
        I find Ursula LeGuin's books utterly painful, the most boring things this side of, well, Robert Heinlein. Even Left Hand of Darkness, pretty much a consensus all-time top ten, bored the hell out of me.

        You should be aware that Ursula LeGuin has an evil twin, Skippy. Quite a lot of her books were in fact written by Skippy.

        For example: the original Earthsea trilogy was written by Ursula LeGuin, and is wonderful. Tehanu, on the other hand, was written by Skippy.

        Likewise, The Eye of the Heron is by Skippy, The Lathe of Heaven is by Ursula. The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are collaborations, however.

        Basically, while Skippy is not necessarily a bad writer, she's so concerned about pushing her message that the plot suffers immensely. Tehanu just doesn't fit in Earthsea: but instead of designing a new world were the message could fit comfortably, Earthsea got twisted until the message could be wedged in somehow. In my opinion I think the book's terrible. (The huge deus ex machina at the end is just clumsy, too.)

        But when Ursula manages to keep Skippy under control, she can be fabulous. You didn't like The Left Hand of Darkness, but I love it. There's a message, but it fits so beautifully...

        • Skippy - heh.
          I didn't particularly like Tehanu either, but I don't think her "message" did the book in - I think it was just that my memories of the original Earthsea trilogy come from my childhood, and Tehanu took a point of view that tended to stomp those rather naive memories into the ground.

        • Tehanu just doesn't fit in Earthsea: but instead of designing a new world were the message could fit comfortably, Earthsea got twisted until the message could be wedged in somehow. In my opinion I think the book's terrible.

          I was disappointed with it initially too, it's a jarring change in tone from the original trilogy. It went down better on a re-read, and with the last two books in place, it fits pretty well (even the deus ex machina at the end of Tehanu makes sense at the end of the The Other Wind).

      • The Left Hand of Darkness was her first book and it was rejected [ursulakleguin.com] by someone who felt the same way as you.

        On a similar vein: the 'Toten Hosen' - a German punk band who sold zillions in the 90's were previously rejected by CBS (?) because they could not imagine that there would ever be a market for that kind of noise. There was.

        Connie Willis? Sorry, I have never heard of her.
      • Perhaps the fact that there are a mess of good sci-fi writers around now who happen to have a uterus has somthing to do with it.

        Are you trolling with the religion crack? I am confused by it.
    • I have to agree. I've read the trilogy 4 times in my life (starting at about 7th grade). I've read the newer three books twice each.

      The books make me think about much different things each time I read them. They are definitely focused on character development and have a lot worthy of critical literary praise.

      Read them before you see this miniseries.

  • Rehash (Score:2, Funny)

    by Captain_Amigo ( 717041 )
    Oh, come on now...let's be honest. They're just re-airing Seaquest episodes.

  • Never really clicked for me (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AnonymousKev ( 754127 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:21AM (#8588580)
    It's been a long time since I read the Earthsea trilogy. I remember enjoying the first book, but the other two just didn't click. The premise was really interesting and held a lot of promise, but I just couldn't get interested in the plot.

    Not sure why. I like the Lathe of Heaven and think The Ones Who Walk Away from Oomlas is one of the best short stories ever written. If I had cable, I'd probably watch it out of curiosity. But since I don't ... oh well.

    • Re:Never really clicked for me (Score:4, Insightful)

      by R.Caley ( 126968 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:30AM (#8588655)
      The premise was really interesting and held a lot of promise, but I just couldn't get interested in the plot.

      That's rather the problem for a visual adaptation. They aren't really plot driven. The plot is just an excuse to watch the characters grow. The first three are little studies of three aspects of becoming adult (responsibility, identity, mortality).

      The fourth never spoke to me, and I haven't yet read the fourth.

      I can't imagine them manageing to recreate that when the temptation to jump at magic battles with dragons is there.

  • Someone was bound to try. I wonder how much they are going to try and do.

    I suppose they did relatively well with Dune (certainly better than the god awful movie), not so well with Children.

    But Earthsea is subtle. I dread to think what they'll do with the dragons.

  • Hate to be a Cassandra (Score:5, Insightful)

    by arivanov ( 12034 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:25AM (#8588615) Homepage
    Time to put the asbestous suit.

    Hate to say it. It is likely to be a flop. Compared to Earthsea the Lord of the Rings is simple. I(very biased)MO this is the second most impossible movie after the Lord of Light. The reason is that you have both an extremely complex, logical and well described world along with a complex story line and complex characters.

    I love the rings, but the rings characters are like cartoons compared to the Earthsea (or nearly any Ursula Le Guin book).
    • Earthsea's characters are much better developed than LotR's. I think that's an opportunity for them, not a predicament. The script for LotR is tricky because the dialogue, which reads beautifully as an epic poem, sounds silly coming out of the mouths of actual characters. Additional plots were written in to give the characters some depth. They used distressingly little of the original dialogue.

      If the writers, director, and actors of Earthsea can use this to their advantage, they have an opportunity to

      • Re:Hate to be a Cassandra (Score:3, Interesting)

        by hey! ( 33014 )
        I think you are right here. Earthsea is clearly much easier to dramatize than LotR, because it is much closer in spirit to drama to begin with. This has nothing to do with its relative merits.

        Earthsea, on the other hand, was written more like a modern story and less like an ancient epic. They've got a real opportunity here, a great work by a master storyteller. I hope it works out.

        LotR is not really written like an ancient epic either. I know, I've read the Kalevala and the Illiad and, of course, Beow

    • Re:Hate to be a Cassandra (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Unknown Kadath ( 685094 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @11:18AM (#8589089)
      I don't know if they have any designs on Lord of Light yet, but last I heard, Sci-Fi was planning on an Amber miniseries [scifi.com], written by Richard Christian Matheson, whose past writing credits [imdb.com] include such tours de force as The A-Team, Knight Rider, and The Incredible Hulk.

      P.S. You're not a Cassandra if people believe you. ;)

      -Carolyn
    • Granted, it's been about 8 years since I read A Wizard of Earthsea, but from what I remember it would be possible to distill the book down to a simple, film-able story.

      We read this book for a religion class in college and in our discussion focused on the importance of names in the book. That may be why I remember the story as basically a young man's quest to discover the name of the evil thing and thus defeat it. I can't remember if becoming a wizard was part of his quest or defeating the evil thing was pa

  • Very cool (Score:5, Informative)

    by 0x0d0a ( 568518 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:26AM (#8588619) Journal
    The Wizard of Earthsea series is one of the most underread fantasy series I know of. It isn't the best fantasy out there (that's reserved for Paula Volsky -- try Illusion and see what you think), but it's very good, and very different from most fantasy.

    I'd read the first book before anything else. I was kind of disappointed with The Tombs of Atuan book 2), which was very different from the first book. The third book was okay, but not as good as the first -- sort of the Dune syndrome.

    The setting is different from most fantasy -- a bunch of islands, lots of emphasis on sailing around. There are not a lot of epic things going on -- there's lots of pragmatic, down-to-earth people.

  • Great! (Score:5, Informative)

    by bhima ( 46039 ) <Bhima.Pandava@gmail. c o m> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:26AM (#8588622) Journal
    This is great! Although I've read and enjoyed ALL of her books, the first two books are far better suited for this than the others (not being depressing or anti-men). They're short enough to translate OK into the mini series format. So far I'd give the Sci-Fi network good marks on their attempts to bring the Dune series to film.

    Earthsea world is a fun world to game in despite the difficulties thrown in by the latter stories.

    I wonder will they remake the lathe of heaven, and I'd love to see "The word for world is forest" or even "Rocannon's World"!

    • They already did:

      http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0290230/

      Not too bad... they skipped a lot of the hard parts, quite frankly, to avoid the confusion.

      Lisa Bonet (from the Cosby show) does a very good job in this movie, considering her lackluster career.

      The first adapatation, which was a VERY formitive movie I saw on PBS when I was young, was much better.

      Add to that the Ascent of Man (Think "Connections" with a brain) turned me into the twisted geek I am today...

  • Don't get too excited (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:26AM (#8588624)
    Considering the uhmmm, "quality" of most SciFi Channel productions, I'm not exactly jumping up and down over this one. The Earthsea books aren't likely to translate well to TV even in the best of hands.

    I'd love to see a big-screen version, though. I think there would be a better chance of getting it right in the larger format. Not because of "action" scenes or dramatic landscapes or any of the usual things people want to see in a movie, but because to do these books justice, you really would need to immerse the audience in the film in a way that isn't possible on a typical 29" screen.
    • The Earthsea books aren't likely to translate well to TV even in the best of hands.

      Agreed. I'm not sure how they can go from the now-freed-of-his-shadow ascendant mage to Tenar's plotline without the in-print convention of having to pick up another book. Years since I've read them, but I distinctly remember being entirely focused on the new characters and situations in the second book, then being blown away by Ged starving and dehydrated, lost in the tunnels. To say nothing of the character developmen
  • what's the difference?

    • Re:Fantasy, SciFi (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Nimrangul ( 599578 )
      The bounds of probability, allusion to reallity and illusion of believability. One has them, the other does not.

      Fantasy doesn't try to really have things make sense they just tell you that a thing works, they do not explain it.

      Science Fiction often bases it's marvels on actual theory of the modern day, expanding upon it's fantastical possibilities.

      Nanotechnological devices repairing a person's wounds are a little more believable than a man chanting a bunch of words than putting his hands on a would and

  • Read the books whilst you can... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:35AM (#8588705) Homepage
    For anyone planning on watching this, now would be a good time to read (or re-read) the books.

    I'm not suggesting that the books are about to disappear. Nor am I implying that the TV series will be terrible. I have no idea how well the product will turn out, and the books will be as available after as they are before.

    No, what I'm saying is that pretty soon this series will influence your view of things, whether you want it to or not. I'm seeing this with my nephews, who are reading Lord of the Rings directly after seeing the films. They're seeing the book as much more action-packed than I did, and I'm sure that this is due to expectation after watching the films.

    So read them now, and then watch with interest. You're going to be influenced - can't help but be, but at least you'll have your own ideas in place beforehand.

    Cheers,
    Ian

  • Please use mini-series (Score:4, Funny)

    by SmackCrackandPot ( 641205 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:39AM (#8588747)
    Everytime I speed-read miniseries, it looks like miseries.

  • not really suited for SciFi (Score:3, Insightful)

    by laura20 ( 21566 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:46AM (#8588795) Homepage
    They are wonderful novels, and I'd love to see them adapted but... so completely not suited for the SciFi style of miniseries making. They need almost nothing in the way of special effects, and a proper adaption would depend on really strong actors who can bring out the inner development. This is especially true of Tombs of Atuan, where a large part of the story involves the main characters wandering around underground.

    It's truly a pity that the BBC never picked up an option -- that have been a perfect combination.

  • Cautious optimism is called for (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The three thin books of the Earthsea Trilogy are IMO the second best fantasy series ever written (LoTR being #1), and probably the most *original* fantasy series ever. How LeGuin was able to create an entrie world with such economy is totally beyond me.

    If you haven't read it yet, I envy you.

    The SciFi Channel did an amazing job with Dune, another very cerebral book, so there's hope that they'll take the same intelligent approach with Earthsea. That clown Peter Jackson could learn a lot from these people: r

  • When did miniseries become a cable thing? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:50AM (#8588832)
    In general it seems like the major networks can't make miniseries float, ratings wise. The last network ones that made my radar were the Jesus one on CBS (long enough ago that Debra Messing played Mary Magdalene and it wasn't a weird casting) and the Dinotopia one that flopped badly.

    Back in the day, Shogun and Roots and that kind of thing were big money makers for the three broadcast networks. Now it's the SciFi Channel and that kind of venue putting out new series, or first-time-in-the-US ones anyway. (A&E ran the [fantastic, literate, well-acted] BBC Pride and Prejudice, for example.)

    How long ago did this happen? Personally I'm not so sure it's a bad thing. The production values are lower, okay, but CGI can fill in rough edges for this science fiction or fantasty stuff. A miniseries is much better, much much better, for most books, and for characters in general, than any film release. The Aubrey Maturin movie this spring was pretty good, really, but there's just no way to do that in two-plus hours.

    Maybe in 25 years we'll get Harry Potter miniseries done by some sort of children's network, and the plots and characters won't feel like they're being crammed inside of three hours to cash in at the box office. That first HP movie in particular was way, way frenetic.

    • The production values are lower, okay, but CGI can fill in rough edges for this science fiction or fantasty stuff.

      Low production values + CGI can themselves be the rough edges. Remember the tiger attack from the Children of Dune mini-series?

    • Re:When did miniseries become a cable thing? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by NSash ( 711724 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @11:48AM (#8589376) Journal
      Maybe in 25 years we'll get Harry Potter miniseries done by some sort of children's network, and the plots and characters won't feel like they're being crammed inside of three hours to cash in at the box office.

      In 25 years, no one below the age of 30 will know what Harry Potter is. (Kid living with mean family discovers he has magic powers, secret history. It's been done better before, and it will be done better again. Don't get me wrong -- I liked [most of] the books -- but don't confuse them for something they aren't.)

  • Not a trilogy. (Score:5, Informative)

    by flogger ( 524072 ) <non@nonegiven> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @10:57AM (#8588897) Journal
    OK, Maybe it was originally a trilogy:
    Wizard of Earthsea
    Tombs of Autan
    The Farthest Shore

    But in 2001 Leguin published Tehanu. [tinyurl.com] The earthsea trilogy is now called the Earthsea Cycle. Of all of The Earthsea cycle books, Tehanu really showcases LeGuin's political and feminist slants. (This is a good thing I believe). Tombs of Autan had some and the other two books required a little more digging to get into her philosophy.

    If you want to read some great LeGuin I would reccomend: Always coming home [tinyurl.com] and The Dispossessed [tinyurl.com]. Both of these books are very thought provoking and well worth the time to read. There was an edition of Always coming home publihsed with a cassette tape of the music and poetry that was created by the societies described in the book. Wonderul stuff.

    "Grain grows best in shit" Ursula K LeGuin

    (Tinyurl links got to amazon Please use fewer 'junk' characters.
    )

    • Re:Not a trilogy. (Score:2, Informative)

      by DudeTheMath ( 522264 )
      Tehanu was published in 1990/1991; The Other Wind was published in 2001. LeGuin [ursulakleguin.com] calls them "The Books of Earthsea."

      But why only the first two books, anyway? Are they planning on following up with the rest? After reading Wizard, I kept wondering, "Why am I here?" while reading Tombs. Farthest Shore helped make sense of that.

    • Actually, there's even more...

      The Other Wind [scifan.com], a full novel, came out in 2001, as did Tales From Earthsea [scifan.com], a collection of short stories.

      IIRC, the short story Dragonfly was originally published in Robert Silverburg's Legends [scifan.com] compilation.

      --darren
    • You missed 'Tales from Earthsea' and 'The Other Wind'. One of those (guess which) is a collection of short stories.
    • On the other hand:

      The A Wizard of Earthsea, Tombs and Furthest Shore cluster together as a story about the career of a single character (Ged). The later books, developed 20 years later, focus on different characters, different themes and are done in a different style. Probably the best way to think of them is as a trilogy with two sequels.

  • Old news... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Caduceus1 ( 178942 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @11:00AM (#8588930) Homepage
    The press release is from January, and they've talked about it back as far as August 2001...

  • devastation (Score:2, Insightful)

    by LordMyren ( 15499 )
    they are going to blaspheme against one of my greater childhood memories.

    i reread Wizard this summer. beautiful little Man v. Self. but there's no way they can lace the movie with all the subtle surrealism of the book.

    Myren

  • I always thought... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tassii ( 615268 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @11:39AM (#8589309)
    I always thought the Miles Vorkorsigan books would make a fantastic miniseries. So much material to work from and a lot of blanks to fill in for new stories.

    Space combat, political intrigue, charismatic lead character.. how can you go wrong?

    Unless Disney got a hold of it, of course.

  • The Name (Score:4, Funny)

    by sutekh137 ( 173495 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @11:40AM (#8589316) Homepage
    If only we could discover the true NAME of the series, we could control how it turns out. Anyone?

  • Myst (Score:3, Informative)

    by kundor ( 757951 ) <.kundor. .at. .member.fsf.org.> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @11:41AM (#8589327) Homepage
    The Sci-Fi Channel announced quite a while ago that they were making a Myst miniseries. I haven't heard a peep about it since.

    Does anyone know if that's still going forward? How many planned miniseries actually come to completion -- if Myst was silently cancelled, are the chances of this one being finished questionable?

  • with all of SciFi's funding... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by The Lynxpro ( 657990 ) <lynxproNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @11:43AM (#8589339)

    Why can't they [SciFi] put the funds to good use, like co-financing the Beeb's revival of "Doctor Who" slated for 2005? SciFi would be a better outlet in the States for it than BBC America...and reach a larger potential audience since SciFi is a basic cable channel and BBC America is usually treated as something reserved for digital cable packages. Yep, load up 10 Spanish-speaking stations in basic cable, but make the Beeb a premium cultural channel. Nope, that's not discrimination at all! Damn you to hell, Comcast! :)

  • No? How about Michael Ironside then? Now, a V - 20 years later series - that's what I'd like to see.
  • Yeah, they SAY they're going to be a miniseries based on the first two books. But after they do the first book, they'll cancel the second half citing poor ratings and high production costs...
  • the earthsea books were some of my first experiences with "fantasy" fiction, long before i was able to tackle the lord of the rings series, though i recall they seemed to be written well above my normal reading at the time.

    unfortunately, the "fantasy" section at my local bookwhores were filled with tripe like the endless dragonlance series and their ilk. i took a bad turn, and for a long time was dissatisfied with the genre, delving instead into more sci fi than is healthy for an adolescent.

    then i took up

    • Re:better, by far, than harry potter (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ruds ( 86067 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:03PM (#8590219) Homepage

      then came harry potter. a wizard going to wizard school, making friends and enemies while learning his special abilities and discovering his hidden power. huh. that sounds familiar. i awaited word of a lawsuit, but alas...

      i have yet to trudge my way through any of the potter books, or for that matter see the movies, but i recommend to any of my adult friends who do that they read a wizard of earthsea before inflicting potter on their children.

      hey, what a good idea! let's trash a book we've never read!

      i heard that wizard of earthsea has a wizard in it that fights dragons! that sounds a lot like the hobbit! tolkien's estate should sue!

      it's great that you recommend that parents have their children read earthsea; it's a great book that's perfect for readers from curious pre-teens to fantasy-minded adults. but rowling writes some fine fiction for children, and for you to discount it without reading it is pretty lame.

      here's a tip--try not to be so pretentious.

  • Race... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by qtp ( 461286 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @01:56PM (#8590696) Journal
    I hope they get the race issue correct, as most attempts to make film or TV from LeGuinn's books make the central characters white, despite her descriptions.

    She never does specify a definate race, but all of her main characters are described as brown, red, or dark skinned. There may be a question as to what race Ged actually is, but he is definately not white.

  • reviews, and a query about creative control (Score:3, Interesting)

    by danny ( 2658 ) on Wednesday March 17, 2004 @06:14PM (#8593520) Homepage
    Check out my review of the Earthsea trilogy [dannyreviews.com] and other le Guin reviews [dannyreviews.com].

    I would be surprised if Le Guin sold the film rights without retaining tight creative control... Or did she sell them a long time ago, before she became famous enough to be able to set her own terms?

    Danny.

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