Terry Brooks - Magic Kingdom of Landover optioned for movie (1 Viewer)

[DaveGTP]

Hmmm

I did a few searches and didn't find anything.

I was just catching up on some fantasy author pages for new releases and noticed this...I didn't see a discussion about it anywhere...

http://www.terrybrooks.net/news.html

News from Febuary 21st, 2005




Personally, Van Helsing and The Mummy are not good credentials in my book. Nor do the writing credits give me a lot of hope, but at least they aren't mindless action flicks. Of all of Terry Brooks' books, though, the Landover novels are pretty basic (especially the first one), maybe pretty hard to mess up.

 

[Michael Martin]

It's been a while since I read the first Landover novel, but I don't see it making a particularly compelling movie. Brooks is no Tolkien, and his stories tend to be a lot of seemingly unrelated adventures or events strung together. Perhaps this could be a case of a mediocre book transformed into a decent movie (ala Hunt for Red October).

 

[Rick Guynn]

I quit reading the series after the third book, and I really had to struggle to get through that one. The first book I loved. No, it's not Tolkein, but it is a great peice of escapist fantasy. I felt making a series out of it was like wanting to make a sequel to The Wizard of Oz. The book was a self-contained story, but not something to found a series on.

I think it would make an entertaining movie, but having Sommers attaced to it does not give me hope. Although I enjoyed his take on The Mummy, the sequel and his other efforts have been disappointing.

RG

 

[Matt_A]

I've always liked Terry Brooks' novels, and think some of them would make excellent movies. I really think his novel "Running with the Demon" would make a really great horror movie, while Magic Kingom of Landover will make a nice lighthearted one.

I'm looking forward to this one.

 

[Bobby*K]

I grew up on the Shannara books and before LOTR I had always hoped that they would make movies from them. I own, but have yet to read the Landover novels.

 

[DaveGTP]

Brief Idea of the book from what I recall (they are on my shelf but it has been a few years).

Ben Holiday is a very good lawyer. But when his wife died...hmm a Babylon 5 quote seems in order here as I would summarize it with it:

"When she died, she took the best part of me with her! I survived by telling myself that it was an accident, like everybody said, and focusing on the one other thing that I had left --- my job!"

Anyway, he is depressed and drinks too much and just works like crazy. He sees an ad for a Magic Kingdom for sale for 1 million dollars. He buys it even though it seems crazy, takes some vacation as he is a firm partner, and basically gets tossed into this sort of cliche Fantasy kingdom...except like anything you get sold it wasn't quite what it was hyped up to believe... I'll leave it at at that for now to avoid spoilers.

 

[Lynda-Marie]

This ought to be interesting... Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold! is not the title I would think of for a Brooks creation to become a movie, but who knows? It might just work.

Terry himself is an interesting [and very nice] guy, and I hope he will have enough control so they don't butcher this one!

Any information on casting yet, or are they still in the planning stage?

 

[Joe D]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I love the book series, but I'd rather drink salt water than watch any movie by the maker of The Mummy and Van Helsing.

 

[Kevin Grey]

The book was light and pleasant enough when I read it 10 years or so ago but certainly not very memorable and I never made it past the 2nd book in the series.

Not a surprising choice for movie adaptation to me, though. The premise is very accessible and kid-friendly and should make it an easy sell to families. Also, its not really epic at all compared to most major fantasy series in terms of scope and it offers a relatively self-contained plot (again rare among major fantasy series).

Although, I'm sure Sommers will somehow manage to spend $200 million adapting it...

 

[DaveGTP]

Agreed. And the sequels, again, are very self contained, really. Unlike, for example, the Heritage of Shanarra 4-book series, which has 4 interweaving story lines and many characters (the highpoint of the Shanarra books IMO).

 

[Kevin Grey]

Yeah, you would think the Shannara novels would be a hot property now in the wake of the LOTR. Aside from The Wheel of Time, Shannara is still probably the biggest selling fantasy series out there, even after almost 30 years. It has a name recognition with the general public that few other fantasy properties have.

Unfortunately time has not been kind to the first novel and its straight from LOTR elements would be even more apparent when stripped down to film than than in 1977 when Sword of Shannara was released.

The novels improved dramatically after that though though but it would be hard to start with Elfstones without the groundwork laid in Sword. Plus, as you noted, the Heritage series is effectively one long novel and not really self-contained at all.

 

[Andy Sheets]

The thing is, despite LOTR's massive success, from what I've seen there are very few LOTR-like projects being picked up. It's almost all stuff riding on Harry Potter's coattails, kid heroes in more contemporary settings.

I guess Narnia might be thought of as a sort of middle ground, but beyond that I can't think of much. Maybe the Princess of Mars adaptation? Hollywood still seems a little bit nervous about grittier fantasy stories in more exotic settings. Maybe I just haven't been paying attention.

 

[TheLongshot]

I think also, there really isn't that much that is as iconic as Tolkien in the genre. I mean, the closest thing is perhaps Jordan, but I really think The Wheel Of Time is unfilmable.

Jason

 

[Andy Sheets]

I agree, although my response as a reader is that Hollywood should get over what's iconic and just go for the good stories, of which there are a great many that are not only excellent but are self-contained and aren't ripping off Tolkien

 

[Matt C]

Interesting, I wouldn't have thought that Landover would be one of the next major fantasy movies to be released.



I would also have to agree with this. The WoT series has become a never-ending story with little movement in plot despite each books' 1000+ pages (though I think that perhaps Jordan will soon begin to close out the story). I've often thought of how it could make a great anime series though.

Personally, I would be interested in seeing a movie adaptation of "The Chronicles of Prydain", the 5-part series by Lloyd Alexander, which was first released starting in 1964. It would be great to see an accurate live-action film, one that would make me forget about Disney's half-hearted and innacurate attempt(IMHO) at The Black Cauldron animated feature.

In any case, I'll have to dig out my Landover novels and take another look, as it's been a while since reading them.

 

[CaseyL]

Even though he tries to be. The plot of The Sword of Shannara is essentially LOTR in one smaller book.

Despite that, I have always enjoyed Brooks literature, Have read and enjoyed all Shannara & Landover books, but didn't like "Running with the Demon" series. I heard many years ago, that Shannara was optioned as a film, but never pursued beyond that.

Frankly, IMHO Sommers will make a mockery of a good book. So far, judging on his film history, Sommers has been making a rapid decent into madness. Cthulhu Calls to him!