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

i'm heavily considering scraping the whole thing.
i know one or to whos said they're just gonna finish it fo their own sakes, but i don't wanna work my ass off on something this hard (and believe me it is hard) for nothing. I've been told that i should finish it because by the time i do or in years to come feist may change his mind. but if he didn't, i wouldn't even be able to show it to you guys without copyright hassle (public consumption you know).
if i do continue it (and i'll have to really think about that) it wouldn't be no. 1 on my priorities list if you know what i mean.
what do you think?
 
I will probably stick with the script through Magician:Apprentice, whether i will then go on to do Magician: Master, who knows?
 
jimmy, its good to know you've heard this.
Though maverikk has made a point.
But if any of it has been slated against - magician's use for a script, feist may say no or take some serious convincing.
 
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Whoever gets it lets make sure to mention these guys in one of the top three slots.
You guys are right i'm gonna keep at it too.
If it goes down hill, then it goes down hill. But till then this is still what i do, i'm damn good at it and nothing worth having or doing in life is easy.
So look out world there's a group of disgruntled, won't-take-no-for-an-answer script writers heading your way.
(Hold for applause, quick bow and exit stage right.)
 
hey Chris sorry I took so long to reply, been on a boys weekend out and haven't been able to see straight so computer was out of the question. Where have you filmed the first few scenes?

The world of the Tsurani will be the hardest thing to film, as it starts off as swamp then slowly changes to the road to the holy city, then you have the holy city and the leader of the political groups house and the magician training center, so there are lots of places (I am probably explaining the known and may seem like a noob for this but oh well just incase anything slipped out of your mind). Midkemia shouldn't be to hard as I gather you are in Belfast Ireland and Ireland has lots of areas for movies like this with huge meadows and s**t like that.

For the cities of Midkemia and the Tsurani place (Forgotten it's name already lol) you will need to use a certain amount of computer animation and blue screening. New Zealand is a good place to film the sorts of scenes in the Magician but it would cost your arm and leg and head to get over here and set up for filming. Hope I have helped, probably haven't but thats all right I geuss. If it goes down the hill some one else will take up the cause of bringing us a good movie for once.

Arutha

PS - Could I get a oscar mention to if its not a problem cos this is sure to work.
 
filmed arutha?
scripting man, haven't gotten anywhere near filming anything.
Filming, as already mentioned on this forum, is not happening with anyone's script right now and if it was, it wouldn't happen years in the future. Besides if you were doing this film you wouldn't want to do it on a low budget. You'd want the money to go to different locations and if didn't have that money, it wouldn't be worth doing.
Also you really wouldn't have time to be on a forum if you were shooting magician. lol.
And where did you get the idea i live in belfast, ireland?
 
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however random that misunderstanding was it does bring up an interesting point... with LotR being filmed in New Zealand, where do we think Midkemia should be filmed/set?

I apologize for referencing LotR a lot in this post, but it is the only fantasy film on a scale by which a Magician film could be compared! And it was extremely well done!

Personally i think Midkemia is far bigger than Middle Earth i.e. weeks pass while they travel across Middle Earth, where many months pass traveling across Midkemia. Therefore i think there will be a far more eclectic representation of terrain etc. Don't get me wrong there was a lot of difference in the different locations in LotR (e.g. the Mines of Morea, the plains of Rohan, The Shire), but as i said before the size of Midkemia means there are so many more subtle cultural differences. Even the differences between the frontier fort of Crydee, the metropolis of Krondor, and the renaissance beauty of Rillanon - all the same kingdom, run by members of the same family, all with their differences. How many times does Feist mention the fact that The West is often considered barbaric by the standards of the Eastern provinces of the kingdom. Not to mention the fact that there is also constant reference to the contrast in beauty over defense.

Is New Zealand allowed to be used again?

Is that cheating?

Is it even the right setting?

Personally (and in the sense that this is us just having fun with wishful thinking thrown in for good measure) i think it should be filmed all over the world to get the feeling of the vastness of the world they live in... however; budget! budget! budget!

:eek:
 
I think you've got a good point, and don't worry about the references to lotr - we get you.
I think you could pick a couple of choice locations and some good studio work and get it right. After all narnia's snow forest and sleppy hollow's forest we're filmed in studio and you'd never notice.
 
Sorry guys I think I misunderstood one of the posts, I'm pretty sure you told me you lived in Ireland Chris (not sure may have been thinking about other various things), go on use NZ again who really cares if LOTR was filmed here.
 
page 1.... or 2??

i agree with arutha's earlier post that ireland is a good place for midkemia, with fields and grassy plains (is there a differnece between them) and old walls and stuff. you mentioned at the start of this thread that you need to know scenes everybody thinks would be important. i assume if you're doing magian you're doing silverthorn and sethanon too so here are the scenes i think are of great importance. the fall of armengar with the big boom! and roland and pug fighting over carline in the garden, then getting pissed with tomas...... good times
 
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If a Magician movie were ever to be filmed, I think New Zealand would be the perfect place!

-There is a large variety of scenery available, covering pretty much all the archetypes (if you substitute sand dunes for desert).
-The society is multi-cultural so finding extras for the different races in Magician shouldn't be a problem.
-It's cheaper then filming in other countries such as the US and UK.
-Weta Workshop is based there and their special effects work in the fantasy field is second to none.

Of course I may be a wee bit biased having spent a large portion of my life there ;)
 
I agree with you Muess, Weta workshops is a pretty good place, but most of the latest films with action scenes have been shot in New Zealand (LOTR and the Narnia movie) I'm sure there are better places out there that need to be discovered.
 
Sad But True

Unfortunalty IMO a movie could never do the book/books justice. The great appeal about Midkemia Is your own imagintaion, and as in LOTR the books where much better and told all of the story. Don't get me wrong i love the movies but nothing beats the books and your ability to imagine the worlds and chars as only you yourself do. It is sad but i think it would be better to leave the books as they are until a time comes when the full story could be told in as many movies it takes. Don't forget there are two other books after the Magician and these would have to be made into movies as well for the die hard funs who love feist.
 
there's actually 20 more books which die hard fans would love to see. Although i don't think we need necesarily worry about them yet... i think that the first two would be enough; apprentice and master! It may even be good to do some of the filming in Europe somewhere like the czech rep or croatia perhaps... it would be a lot less expensive to film there, create some job opps for locals and ther'e som great scenery there which fits in! It's a big continent with pretty good infrastructure and it would be great to see another country/ countries benifitting from film like NZ has from LotR! Let's not thief Middle Earth eh? This needs to establish itself as a completely different thing. If and When this ever happens there'll be loads of non fantasy fans who'll just palm it off as a copy of Tolkien etc. Setting it in the same country only adds fuel to their fire!
 
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!
 
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.
 
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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??
 
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.
 
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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???
 
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