I have some great news! I have just learned that author Terry Goodkind's best selling fantasy Sword of Truth book series is going to be adopted for television! The name of the TV series is: The Legend of the Seeker.

For those of you who do not know, Terry Goodkind has largely been influenced by the books of Ayn Rand, is a strong supporter of her works and is an Objectivist. Also, two books from Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, Naked Empire and Chainfire, were nominated for Prometheus awards, respectfully.

The TV series is being filmed in New Zealand and co-produced by Sam Raimi (Spiderman 1,2 & 3) and a Rob Tapert.

The story is about Zedd, a wise and powerful old wizard who accompanies Richard Cypher and Kahlan Amnell on their epic journey to prevent a bloodthirsty tyrant named Darken Rahl from unleashing an ancient, terrifying evil that can enslave the world.

The Legend of the Seeker kicks off with a thrilling two-hour premiere event on November 1st, and will be broadcast on local TV stations. If you want to find out which one near you will broadcast it, you can find out at the show's website (link below).

Legend of the Seeker website: http://www.legendoftheseeker.com/

Terry Goodkind website: http://www.terrygoodkind.com/

Awesome! I knew this was coming, just not the date. I'm just glad I got to finish all the books (11 in all!) first. I'm very excited for Terry on this. Let's turn the sets on and show our support for a great author and a great individual!

~ Shane

Kudos to Terry, and to a great fiction series. I'm looking forward to sampling this.

And the first one to say "This isn't Romantic Realism!" gets thrown in the dungeon permanently.

{g}

I think that the Mord-Sith would side with you on this one.

~ Shane

Does this have something to do with quidditch? Does the seeker find the golden snitch?

I have not been able to see it. SO how is it??? I was really afraid that they might mess it up, but Sam Raimi is very good.
Neha

So far, the series is quite good. There are some minor differences from the book, but nothing that really takes away from the central story line. Terry mentioned that one good thing about the series is that there would be a chance to fill in some of the backgrounds since each season will essentially embody each book (season 1 = Wizards First Rule, season 2 = Stone of Tears, etc).

It's taken a little getting used to the characters, especially Chase. For the 10+ years that I've read Terry's novels, I've mentally drawn my own picture of each character.

All in all, the show has been a good experience. I tune in every Saturday

~ Shane

I agree the series has been decent so far, not great, and not as good as I would have hoped, but it's been ok. Babylon 5 remains one of the greatest shows ever made imo and yet the first season was terrible, so I'll give it a chance.

For purists of the novels, many of the details of the plots have been changed, and most of the characters' psychology is different (except for Zedd's) But the details changed do not seem to be essentials to the theme, just plot particulars and seemingly primarily changed to make the story fit for self contained television episodes. I'm a little disappointed with the casting of Richard, and the way the character has been portrayed so far (imo a little whiny and immature) but hopefully the character will grow throughout the show.

I've been disappointed after two episodes (haven't caught the third one yet). I've found the changes from the book to be quite unbalancing, and there's a lot of gratuitous flashy stuff that strikes me as unnecessary and put in just to hold the attention of TV audiences (I usually watch zero hours of television a year -- literally -- so I'm not really used to the medium). The end of the second episode had Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd all sort of smirking as they looked forward to a future of heroism, which really struck me as tacky.

Judith

Can you watch it online??
Neha

I had read somewhere that NetFlix was supposed to be getting some of Disney's stuff. Not sure if this show would be one of those, though.

As for the recent comments, one thing that has to be taken into account is that no show will ever encompass the true word of the books. It's unfortunate, but a reality. Terry said that he had 0 input into casting and other production details. The producers are going to do what they want to get numbers, not much else. Their focus is not on staying true to the book. Hopefully, the direction of the show will mature a bit more and the characters will assume more of their true essence. Keeping that in mind, I try to enjoy it all the same.

With Kahlan, the actress mentioned that she never even heard of the books before taking the part. I'm curious if any of the cast read Terry's books.

Matus - I agree wholely on Richard. I pictured someone of Eric Bana's presence. His relationship with Zed is a bit neutral vs how they were great friends (tutor and pupil), not to mention the episode with the townsfolk coming to ransack Zed's home. Time will tell if this changes.

~ Shane

Well -- I watched episodes 3 and 4 last night. A very long two hours. I've concluded that about the only thing this series has in common with the book is the characters' names. I could live with that if the series were halfway decent, but this -- this is just -- stupid. The plots have all the depth of a second-grade reading primer. I was hoping for much more, since I'd heard that Goodkind was involved with the series and since I enjoyed the Spiderman movies very much. If this series is considered "good" for television, then I made a good decision in giving up TV many years ago. I think I won't waste any more time on this one.

Judith

Neha,

If you have no personal issue with using black hat methods, Google

free movies online

and things like that. Vary it a bit and throw in some other words if you wish.

You will most likely find what you are looking for.

(Use a good antivirus program integrated with your browser because there are some pretty malicious sites out there. Most likely they will not be linked to from the first page of Google SERPS. You never know, though, so take proper precautions. Then there will be no problem if you decide to take a peek.)

Michael

I haven't dug into the production side of the house, but it seems to fall along the same lines as Hercules and Xena. I'd consider this a step above them in acting, costuming/props and special effects.

Unfortunately, Terry sold the rights to Disney and doesn't have any input into the show.

In a letter written to me by Terry, he explains...

"TV has to make compromises that a book does not have to make. Worse than that, executives who have never read the books make important decisions based on marketing demographics, for example casting people who they think will attract pre-teens rather than casting the right person for the part. The people who put up the money call the shots and not even Sam Raimi can change it. I'm hoping the show will at least be a bit of fun, but there is no way it will be anywhere near as good as the books."

That about sums it up...lol.

~ Shane

What a pityl TV executives assume their audiences are stupid and write down to them, and the audiences watch the stuff and become stupid, passive, and accepting of junk as a result. A vicious circle.

Judith

The real tragedy is that these books were never intended for a pre-teen audience because of the philosophical and "adult" content. The execs got this all wrong from the outset. I'm just hoping that with all the changes, each season at least keeps the main themes intact and Objectivism shines through. That would at least be something worthwhile for today's youth.

~ Shane

This is unfortunate and it is also disappointing that Disney decided to do their own thing with regards to how the show would be done.

After The Fountainhead was released on film, Ayn Rand vowed to never again allow any of her fiction books to be made into movies. This was due mainly to her constant fighting with Warner Bros. studios to keep her script intact. I suspect, in terms of Terry Goodkind's case, that he decided he wanted to see what would happen after signing over the rights to Disney.

I am not implying that Goodkind was weak. But it would seem that he made a mistake with giving Disney a blank check with the series.

So far the series isn't too bad but I lack having read the book series to compare and contrast. Last week's episode had a fairly freedom-oriented message to it and, overall, I like Legend.

How about we start an e-mail campaign of some kind to pressure Disney to remain closer to or totally true to the novels? I am up for it. Anyone else?

This is not the public information. She vowed that Warner Bros. would never again.

--Brant

http://www.hulu.com/legend-of-the-seeker

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