Feist's "Magician"...film??

**Beorn** · March 1st, 2006, 04:07 PM

2 would not be enough you would have to do at least Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethalon to do any justice IMO. But this topic is atleast fun to discuss even if its only a dream we funs have. Power to the Midkemia lovers!

SHADOWCRAFT · March 1st, 2006, 07:26 PM

Magician was originally written as a stand alone book but it became something that feist wanted to carry on.
Its like Dune, you can read the first and there's an ending to it, you don't need to read the rest (though in both series you'd be cracked if you didn't want to).
If it could stand alone as a book, why not a film./films.
If you were even going to approach doing silverthorn or sethanon, you'd need to have had an amazingly success magician movie/movies, so that you could easily get backing. This may sound simple but lets not forget, george lucas had to completely finance the empire strikes back by himself. And this was after the incomprable success of the first film.
Besides we could sit here all day and say: it wouldn't be as good as doing 3 movies or 5 movies or more. But fact is that LOTR was going to be 2, its luck that the new exec producer suggested fitting the bill for 3. So since we haven't even got one yet, and magician can't really be told in one, lets jump that hurdle first before we start worrying about no. 2,3,4,5,6 & 7. (though i would love to see them).

Also its really a great thread with really interesting ideas and people. Please don't kill people's will to talk about it by telling us it really can't happen.
LOTR would've never happened if Newline hadn't agreed to take the project on, miramax were going to dump it if they could get just one film. But miracles can and do happen.

**Talwin** · March 1st, 2006, 11:29 PM

though it is most improbable tht this will ever happen, making just magician is not doing the riftwar saga justice. it would leave feist fans wanting more and if more never came, then you just created a heap of cynics.

you would need to make magician, silverthorn, and sethanon. the following books are not necessary.

as for setting, New Zealand would never work. too many people would name it a copy of tolkiens work and it would not help feist at all to have people payin' out his books. i tihnk the czech republic would be a good choice as maverikk mentioned earlier. or even australia for crydee??

SHADOWCRAFT · March 2nd, 2006, 07:38 AM

i think we'd need to find a new "new zealand", somewhere with lots of different environments to seriously cut costs.
But people have been calling feist a hack for a while saying he ripped off LOTR, and it never really got to him.
But even tolkien ripped off alot of ideas from norse myths about kings returning, broken swords being reforged for said king and an powerful and cursed ring.
Tolkien did kind of create a genre for novels not ever really explored in that format before. But most fantasy writers are called thieves of his work by people in the "tolkien only" fan club and when the man himself borrowed, you can just go ahead and ignore critics.
Its even more **** because any new fantasy film without LOTR production values is being put down by critics, its like we now have to reach a specific level or its not worthy. And if we do reach that level, then we're branded as knocking off LOTR.
Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
I don't think we should shoot solely in new zealand but i don't think it should just be ignored because another fantasy film shot there.
And we know we're not knocking off LOTR so we should really stop worrying about it, worrying will influence how you work on the project at hand.

**Arutha** · March 5th, 2006, 06:20 PM

A New Zealand would be hard to find as NZ is pretty much a unique country, Northern American would be close or Southern Canada, with the lakes and forests and some flat plains. Or you could try Northern Italy???

**Kieran Fishomo** · March 9th, 2006, 09:03 AM

A magician movie would be awesome in fact why not 3 movies for the whole riftwar saga. The Riftwar saga is in a much better league than Lord of The Rings, LOTR doesn't even compare, LOTR ain't good enough to lick faeces from the shoes of Riftwar. Please make a Riftwar saga movie? Please

**darkhorse08817** · December 4th, 2006, 12:24 PM

On the one hand, don't wanna discourage a fan who is devoted enough to do a script, but on the other hand, unless you have LOTR type resources for a trilogy, I doubt the Riftwar could be made into a movie that stays honest to the book.

Like LOTR, the Riftwar original story probably *could* get told in three or perhaps movies of over three hours each - problem though is that, unlike LOTR, there isn't a large enough Feist following to justify an upfront committment to or investment in a trilogy or quadriligy(sp?).

Fear not, though - if I ever win a monster lottery or become a billionaire, I'll have a Riftwar movie made that spares no expense in staying honest to the book, even if I end up losing $$$

**Pug_of_Crydee** · December 11th, 2006, 07:45 PM

i tihnk the czech republic would be a good choice as maverikk mentioned earlier. or even australia for crydee??[/QUOTE].

Actually, that's not a half bad idea. Tasmania, which to everyone else out there is a state of Australia, has very similar land to New Zealand. I think that if you were going to make a movie out of the Riftwar Saga, it would be best to do it there, because as you've said, we don't want to be ripping off Tolkiens work, eh.

But anyway, I've had a strange thought. A lot of people seem to be overlooking a very simple idea. What if the Riftwar Saga was made into an animated series? That way, it needn't be put onto air unless some random channel wants to, a whole heap is saved in production costs, and in my view, the eps should be just as good as they would be in a series, or in two or three movies.

I think these eps should be about an hour long each, with one episode for every two to three chapters. So, approximately (Sorry, I don't have the book on me) that would be about 10 to 15 episodes for Magician, and another 20 to 30 episodes for the other books. Then if need be, someone could go into the Serpentwar saga and all the rest, but, personally, if the Riftwar saga is done justice, then I really couldn't care less.

If you were to give these eps a good anime director, then there's absolutely no reason that they're going to be crap, and, only fans of Feist's work would be compelled to buy them.

Anyway, what do you all think?

**pugwtfpwns** · February 28th, 2007, 01:52 PM

I just had to do it...

As of 28 FEB 07:

Pug is Toby Maguire (Spider-Man)
Tomas is Justin Hartley (Smallville; "Green Arrow")
Arutha is James Marsters (Buffy; "Spike")
Macros is William Fichtner (Prison Break)
Martin is Eric Bana
Black Guy is Lambert Wilson (Matrix; "Merovingian")

:P

/cheers

**Crabs** · July 3rd, 2007, 08:53 PM

I really like the animated series idea, esspecially because of TLOR movies.

I would buy the whole series in a second

**Alma-Lodaka** · August 6th, 2007, 09:57 AM

It would be awesome if it would be picturized.

but i would be also scared of the characters - for example arutha, amos, jimmy

with my best friend i was thinking about the actors, but we never settled.(sorry for my mistakes)

**incredible hulk** · August 7th, 2007, 08:24 PM

These books would make awesome movies. I have read the Rift war saga three times and also I have read the Serpent war saga three times. Feist is one of my most favourite authors ever and I would love to see his characters portrayed on the big screen.

**Phellim** · August 8th, 2007, 08:11 AM

If they got in unknown actors, found a little, cheap, scenic country to film in, had a good director and good producers, and had Feist onboard to offer advice on the look of his world and contribute to the screenplay then they might just pull it off.

But it would change the series in my head forever, and I don't know if thats something I would like to happen.

**incredible hulk** · August 10th, 2007, 01:00 AM

When I read these books my imagination just saurs. When Lord of the Rings was made I must admit it wasn't as good as the book but for a film it deffently came close to what I saw in my head and dreams and some parts better. I think with the right director and special effects Feist's books could be up there with one of the greats.

**Phellim** · August 17th, 2007, 11:08 AM

I think if an adaption of Magician was done properly, it would be much better than Lord of the Rings. The only aspect I would miss is the darker qualities of Lord of the Rings, but while I don't think Magician would look quite as good as LotR, it still has plenty of opportunities to outshine it's vastly popular predecessors.

Does any know where Feist actually stands in regards to putting his work on the big screen? He didn't mind having video games made, so he shouldn't object to this either.