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Sword of Truth TV Miniseries

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Hakarmaskannar

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As I've just gotten 'Phantom' I decided to check out what was happening at the SoT site and I found out that TG has finished talks with Sam Raimi to do the whole series of books as a series of mini-series. Apparently Raimi is a fan of the books and TG was happy with his (Raimi's) approach to telling the story on the screen.

Check out this link for the whole story. Also, just above it on the page is a link to a nice interview with TG.

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  • 1 year later...
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I am currently reading Soul of the Fire and I am excited by the upcoming Sword of Truth TV series. I hope it is faithful to the books...although I think that portrayal of the Mord-Sith could be at risk of veering off into campy dominatrix territory.

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I am currently reading Soul of the Fire and I am excited by the upcoming Sword of Truth TV series. I hope it is faithful to the books...although I think that portrayal of the Mord-Sith could be at risk of veering off into campy dominatrix territory.

Faith of the Fallen (the book that comes after the one you're reading), is the best in the entire series.

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According to a number of sources I've read (including Goodkind's official site), the first season will include 22 one hour (approx. 42 min.) episodes covering the material in the first book, Wizard's First Rule. Raimi intends to produce the other books, but of course that depends on what happens with this first one. The series will necessarily make changes to the story in order to accommodate the visual/TV format. To this end, new material is also being added. The show will have a similar production and distribution model as Raimi's earlier shows, Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. My guess is that Raimi may write and/or direct the pilot, and perhaps other key episodes, but that for the most part, episodes will be written and directed by guest writers and directors. Goodkind has sold all the rights in the franchise (except publishing) to ABC/The Mouse.

~Q

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First scene from the series can be found here - at least the camerawork looks good, if they could only keep it up:

http://www.craveonline.com/articles/filmtv...the_seeker.html

I don't know about other states but in NYC area the show will air next week Saturday Nov 1st at 8pm on channel CW11. Also there will be a short preview one week before (tomorrow - on Saturday, Oct 25th) at 9:30PM. It's initial 10 minutes of the 1st episode - which can already be found on youtube, but I'd rather wait for high-def version on the TV.

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First scene from the series can be found here - at least the camerawork looks good, if they could only keep it up:

http://www.craveonline.com/articles/filmtv...the_seeker.html

I don't know about other states but in NYC area the show will air next week Saturday Nov 1st at 8pm on channel CW11. Also there will be a short preview one week before (tomorrow - on Saturday, Oct 25th) at 9:30PM. It's initial 10 minutes of the 1st episode - which can already be found on youtube, but I'd rather wait for high-def version on the TV.

Wow, looks excellent. I've been eagerly anticipating this for some time, looks like it will be an excellent show and Raimi and Goodkind have complete creative control over it. This series, if popular, could be the largest boom to objectivism ever, popular TV shows reach audiences 10 times larger than popular books. I wonder what portion of people unfamiliar with objectivism read Goodkind's series and become interested in the philosophy? 10%? 1%?

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This series, if popular, could be the largest boom to objectivism ever, popular TV shows reach audiences 10 times larger than popular books. I wonder what portion of people unfamiliar with objectivism read Goodkind's series and become interested in the philosophy? 10%? 1%?

I'd say easily much more than that. Especially young people. I learned about Objectivism thanks to Sword of Truth books as well. One day I read Goodkind's bio, found Ayn Rand mentioned in it, and went from there. This is definitely going to expose a lot more people - particularly those who decide to check out the books once they get hooked on the series. Especially if the show is never completed - because somehow I doubt they'll be able to keep going for more than a few seasons at the most.

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I have been waiting forever for this... I was introduced to Objectivism by the SoT series. I would have to say more than 1-10% of the people who are introduced to Objectivism through his novels will follow up by reading Ayn Rand and learning about Objectivism.

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The first ten minutes look great, I like that it opens with Kahlan's flight to the boundary. The quad chasing Kahlan and Denee in the opening sequence is fairly menacing and there's good suspense to hook the viewer.

WGN is running the series at 4:00pm Central on Saturdays, this is a truly awful time slot. It makes it seem like they are marketing it as a kids' show. Unfortunate, really. But by the same token it may hook a younger (and philosophically non-committed) audience.

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If only Goodkind could throw in a 30-second piece on Objectivism at the end of each episode. :D

Like those 'Don't do drugs' spots they'd have at the end of 'Saved By The Bell'?

'Don't do altruism kids!'. Or, 'This is your mind on pragmatism'.

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Some liberties were taken with the plot, as compared to the books. This is not unexpected in translating a novel to the big screen, and is unavoidable in translating a novel to the small screen. There was bit of heavy-handed dialogue, a bit too much explaining done by characters in a contrived way. Especially when Kahlan

stood before the fireplace at Zedd's house and recited an explanation of who the Confessors are. She sounded like she was reading it off of a teleprompter.

I hope Terry Goodkind didn't let Raimi turn his work into a kind of sword-and-sorcery version of The Lone Ranger .

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Some liberties were taken with the plot, as compared to the books. This is not unexpected in translating a novel to the big screen, and is unavoidable in translating a novel to the small screen. There was bit of heavy-handed dialogue, a bit too much explaining done by characters in a contrived way. Especially when Kahlan

stood before the fireplace at Zedd's house and recited an explanation of who the Confessors are. She sounded like she was reading it off of a teleprompter.

I hope Terry Goodkind didn't let Raimi turn his work into a kind of sword-and-sorcery version of The Lone Ranger .

It seemed more to me to be a Sci-Fi Channel Original Programming that was meant to slightly resemble Goodkind's story. I thought that they way they dumped all of the information which was slowly revealed as time went on in the book in the first two episodes was kind of bad. I thought the casting and acting was just kind of... bleh. The special effects are also disappointing as far as this day and age is concerned. I wasn't expecting much from the previews, so I wasn't really disappointed, after a fashion. It lived up to almost all my expectations. Which, in this case, was not a good thing. The only part of the half that I watched that I liked was Zedd's introduction. Him standing naked on his rock and talking to his chicken was amusing in the extreme. Very Zedd. Unfortunately after that one bit of genuine Zedd-ness we are replaced with an angry old man who is nothing like the adorable old Zedd we all know and love.

I don't think I'll be following this one.

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I watched the first 45 minutes and it seemed like the characters were just giving overdramatic monologues about all of the spoilers for the first book.

"You are the first Seeker to be born in 1000 years. You must be named!"..."Here, take this book, the Book of Counted Shadows." "I can read the text!" "That means you are the one"..."You must take this sword and use it to kill Darken Rahl!"..."I am a Confessor, we protect the truth even when others don't wish us to!"..."George and Mary Cypher aren't your real parents!"...They even made Michael look highly suspicious, ruining the whole surprise of his betrayal in the novel. I'm surprise when Richard found Zedd, Zedd didn't just say "Darken Rahl is your father."

Another thing I disliked was that none of the characters except Kahlan were how I pictured them from the book. Zedd especially seemed horribly miscast, he didn't have any of the eccentricity that made the character so entertaining in the novel. Why wasn't the first thing he said to Richard to ask him if he brought any food?

They obviously aren't going to follow the novels closely at all, changing the characters and plot so significantly they bear little representation to the original. The acting is really hard to watch as well, none of the actors seem to believe in the material and feel like they're practicing poems for a high school drama performance.

I really wanted to like it since the books are so wonderful, but not even that can make me sit through the show.

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