Now that Game of Thrones is a huge success (at least as far as its cultural impact is concerned), and given that we know that TV (and film) producers like to do nothing more than find something successful and copy it, what GoT knockoffs will there be? There are two variants of this question:
(1) What do you think SHOULD be adapted into a GoT-style TV show? As in, you personally think it would be a commercial/artistic success?
(2) What do you think WILL be adapted into a GoT-style TV show? What do you think that TV producers will THINK will be a commercial/artistic success?
I’ve been thinking about this, and I can’t come up with any other existing property that fills all of these requirements:
-existing fan base
-enough action and spectacle to keep the casual viewer interested
-enough serious drama and characters for there to be really juicy acting and character moments
-fantastical setting so that there can be dragons or the equivalent
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Whatever it is it has to be a low magic setting. Tons of spells flying around make things like Wheel of Time or the Malazan book of the fallen impossible to adapt. I wanna say the Black Company but its just too “generational” with the main characters aging several decades throughout the series to work.
Dragonriders of Pern? It’s got the medieval feel and a mix of science and fantasy that’ll look nice with the right budget. The advantage is you can pick a completed story line.
They already did, and it’s already been cancelled.
While GoT was playing on HBO, Starz was running Camelot. It was, it seemed to me, meant to catch the overflow of GoT viewers who wanted more of the same each week (at least in my area, Starz comes with the HBO package, so they are synergistic rather than competitors).
For my money, I really liked Camelot, and, despite it’s flaws, was enjoying it more than I was enjoying the first seasons of GoT. But I was not in the majority opinion, apparently, and Camelot tanked after one season.
Despite the fact that it has already failed, I’d say that Camelot has everything that producers and audiences could want when it comes to “the next” GoT. Even more, since the story/premise is a proven success in a way that ASoIaF cannot be. Low magic (and what magic there is, is damned intriguing), interesting background, recognizable characters, etc. etc. It fits every bullet point from the OP better than any other story I can think of.
Which leads me to think that what is needed, at least as much, if not more than, a good story, is good actors and great directing. Because you could reboot Camelot, with perhaps a bigger budget, and definitely with better scriptwriting and directing, and it would definitely fit the bill and do well.
The only flaw in my theory is that it already didn’t.
Joe Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy might work, but there’s a lot of torture scenes, and there is a huge magical showdown near the end of the trilogy. Also, a lot of the plotlines (besides Glokta’s) are kinda slow-burning.
Maybe Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle. Fox optioned it. I can’t say that I see that book working out as well for them as Game of Thrones, though, but it’s got enough of the elements you list to be contender. The biggest knock against it is that it’s entirely focused on a single character, whose name is either Kvothe or Mary Sue; I can’t quite remember.
Big Budget Dune as a weekly series instead of the movie or mini series treatments it has already had. That and the need to do some reworking so that the changes made in later books are present in the early ones.
How interesting… I’m just re-reading the “Books of the North” (The Black Company, Shadows Linger & The White Rose) and about to start on “Books of the South”
The beauty of Cook’s style is that he just doesn’t really go into it. I mean, we don’t know how old Croaker is or what he looks like at the beginning of “The Black Company” in Beryl, and we know very little else by the end of “The White Rose” (where I’m up to as of yesterday) except that he’s 7 years older.
They could do a lot with graying up hair and adding some judicious age signs there. One-Eye, and Goblin don’t seem to age, and Silent is just described as “aging” at one point.
I think a set of 4-5 episode miniseries would be the best way to do them- one for each book in the “Books of the North”, because even though the books are shorter than the AGoT novels, they’re FAR more dense in terms of plot and action. They’d probably have to cut-out the casual atrocities (enchanting the soldiers in Beryl and killing them in their beds, various times that they massacred prisoners, wrecked buildings, etc… ) though.
That’s actually a very good and plausible idea. I think there are parts of it that would be budget-stretching far beyond what GoT has ever done… but many other parts of it could just be filmed on location in the real world.
It’s been languishing in development hell for ages. I wonder if the success of GoT is lighting a fire under anyone’s butt?
But… It wasn’t done WELL. Imagine HBO’s take on the Queens of winter? Jenny Greenteeth? So much skin to show. Though Mab (for me) will always be Miranda Richardson from Merlin.
Plus, I think the fanbase has grown so it wouldn’t need to be a cold opening.
I know, just a dream.
Have we reached the point where Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy could be done? It would require the same level of slicing through the boring stretches as GOT (well, OK, a bit more) but I think there’s enough of an audience now for the intellectual aspects, and our generation has changed the rules of society radically enough to make it all more plausible.
(Gollum + Counselor Troy) * Littlefinger = The Mule?
I’d love to see Julian May’s Pliocene Epic (six novels) done. They’ve got a largish cast of well-defined characters; intrigue; medieval-ish pageantry, and mind powers (which aren’t on view enough to make the story overly-magicky.) It’s high-concept stuff (explaining, among other things, why some parts of the globe have the reputation for producing psi-powers) with lots of dramatic appeal.
The only drawback is that the books don’t have a huge fan base.
