# thomas covenant
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 20, 2003, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804 "2003-04-20T06:05:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/1 "2003-04-20T06:05:09Z")
In y’all’s opinons, would _the chronicles of thomas covenant the unbeliever_ make a good series of movies?
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### Author:  [@Sigmundex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmundex)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/2 "2003-04-20T06:38:43Z")
Well, IMHO, it certainly would have to be done correctly. I have enough issues with the LOTR series that bother me, and I’m afraid I’d have a lot of problems with the Covenant series. It would be hard to cast it, that’s for sure. If you go to the fan website (don’t remember the url, but it’s run by a guy in England that’s a big fan), there’s a forum where there has been a lot of debate about a movie series and the casting possibilities.
Having said all that, if somebody could pull it off well, I’d love to see it.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/3 "2003-04-20T12:02:49Z")
Only if you wanted to come out of the theatre feeling suicidal.
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### Author:  [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/4 "2003-04-20T12:29:07Z")
Loved the books, not so sure I’d want them to try a movie as I think the odds that it would be done well are slim.
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### Author:  [@Fiat\_Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiat_Lux)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/5 "2003-04-20T13:42:38Z")
I’m guessing it would have to be softened up a lot for Hollywood, especially while they still half-think of fantasy films as being the same things as children’s films. Actually, I can’t see any Hollywood executive being interested in making anything resembling the original books at all.
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### Author:  [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/6 "2003-04-20T13:58:31Z")
Only if Paul Verhoven directs it. The books are crap. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/7 "2003-04-20T14:03:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Only if you wanted to come out of the theatre feeling suicidal.
You say that as if it would be a _bad_ thing. Ever see _Johnny Got His Gun_?
I sent an e-mail to The Easton Press last month asking them to publish a fine edition of _Thomas Covenant_. I was told it would be brought up at their next meeting. (“Thank you! We’ll certainly give it all the consideration it deserves. Don’t call us; we’ll call you.” The preceding was not what they said, nor the impression they gave. But I have no illusions that they will really consider it seriously.)
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/8 "2003-04-20T15:10:52Z")
I fear they’d strip Covenant of his internal turmoil to make a glossy action pic.
Of course, all his internal turmoil got to be annoying pretty quick.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/9 "2003-04-20T19:29:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Estilicon \*
> \*\*Only if Paul Verhoven directs it. The books are crap. 🙂 \*\*
You are now my mortal enemy.
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### Author:  [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/10 "2003-04-20T22:54:14Z")
Why because I want Verhoven as the director or because I say the books are crap? 🙂
And besides Miller you don’t want to mess with me when faced with a potential live threatening situation I usually scream like a little girl. Not nice at all.
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### Author:  [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/11 "2003-04-20T23:08:08Z")
It seems to me from this forum and other places that “thomas covenant” has a bad reputation.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/12 "2003-04-20T23:37:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Qadgop the Mercotan \*
> \*\*I fear they’d strip Covenant of his internal turmoil to make a glossy action pic.
>
> Of course, all his internal turmoil got to be annoying pretty quick. \*\*
The problem is that it can be very difficult to demonstrate the “inner turmoil” of a character on the screen. So many pages of Donaldson’s books are taken up by Covenant’s wrangling with his ambivalence about The Land and his place in it that i think it would difficult to convey this sort of thing in a movie without resorting to the rather contrived device of “listening” to his thoughts.
It would be interesting to see what the film industry did with a story in which one of the first actions of the “hero” is to rape a teenager who has just helped him with his injuries. It’s obvious the Donaldson intend Covenant to be a sort of anti-hero, with his leprosy and all, but this is not the sort of thing that plays very well in multi-million dollar Hollywood blockbusters. And the movie would have be high-budget if you wanted to make the setting and the creatures look realistic.
I must say that i prefer Tolkein’s work to Donaldson’s, and there are many aspects of the latter’s books that are far too derivative of The Lord of the Rings. I still liked Donaldson’s books, however, and thought that the world he created was quite an interesting one.
How would you do the movie/s? Would you have one movie for each of the three books in the first chronicles (Lord Foul’s Bane; The Illearth War; The Power the Preserves)? Because it seems to me that you’d have to try to do all three of those books. Just doing Lord Foul’s Bane could make a fun movie, but would leave the long-term fate of The Land unresolved.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/13 "2003-04-21T03:39:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Estilicon \*
> Why because I want Verhoven as the director or because I say the books are crap? 🙂
Whichever you prefer. Donaldson is one of my favorite authors, Verhoeven is one of my most reviled directors
And besides Miller you don’t want to mess with me when faced with a potential live threatening situation I usually scream like a little girl. Not nice at all.
[/QUOTE]
You better be scared: you may cry like a girl, but I fight like one.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/14 "2003-04-21T03:41:08Z")
Shoot. That second paragraph was **Estilicon** , not me.
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### Author:  [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/15 "2003-04-21T05:29:21Z")
I didn’t finish the thomas covenant series. How does it end?
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/16 "2003-04-21T05:40:43Z")
I don’t think they’d ever do it. No Hollywood studio would greenlight it. No indie director could manage the effects necessary.
Hollywood would run away screaming from a story with a protagonist who does little but whine about how horrible his life is, rapes a girl who’s been entrusted to guide him, and generally tries as hard as possible not to play Messiah to another world. There’s very little to admire in Covenant. He’s a selfish, self-pitying prick.
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/17 "2003-04-21T06:17:49Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by mhendo \*
> \*\*Just doing Lord Foul’s Bane could make a fun movie, but would leave the long-term fate of The Land unresolved. \*\*
That almost sounds like there actually _was_ a resolution at the end of The Power That Preserves. Or at the end of White Gold Wielder.
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### Author:  [@captainQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/captainQwark)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/18 "2003-04-21T06:25:28Z")
how does the series end?
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### Author:  [@Fiat\_Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiat_Lux)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/19 "2003-04-21T13:00:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by captainQwark \*
> \*\*how does the series end? \*\*
The first series ends with Covenant deciding that, even if it is an imaginary place, the things the Land represents in his imagination have to be preserved, so he uses the white gold ring and blasts Lord Foul.
**jayjay** : Beg to differ there. Covenant’s a bastard, but he’s got a point. All the people of the Land will do is stand around waiting for him to be their Messiah. Why should he? He doesn’t owe them anything, and he’s got problems of his own. If he accepts them as real, he surrenders to what he thinks (and may be) his own fantasy life and dies in the real world.
I wouldn’t want to _hang out_ with him or anything, but there it is.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2003, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thomas-covenant/169804/20 "2003-04-21T13:16:29Z")
But he still stands around and whines. And ironically enough, he really does go out and believes in the people he meets, if not in the scenery around him. C’est la vie. Regardless, he is not a nice person, overall.In some ways, he’s a very unAmerican person. Rather than just adapt and make the best of his situation, he like sto mope. Moping is is a pinko activity! (_wink_)
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