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Interesting things afoot.
I'd heard about this, but I wasn't sure it was ever going to happen. Showtime is probably the right place for it, either that or HBO, since that will allow them not to pussyfoot around more adult themes the way, say, NBC's Heroes would have to. (If it were telling stories relatable to anything remotely resembling a human being these days, which it isn't, but that's a story for another rant.) I have to admit to being fascinated to see how Stan Lee is going to develop this. (And, as a side note, it's interesting to get confirmation of the apparent cancellation of SciFi's "Who Wants to Be A Superhero", albeit in an impressively backdoor sort of way.) I suppose Showtime is going to use it as their Big Gay Series centerpiece for the near future, replacing "The L Word" which replaced "Queer as Folk", which followed, many many years later, Showtime's comedy series "Brothers".
...Eeergh.
OK, look. I know that there are billyuns upon billyuns of people out there who think this series is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I mean, hey, five books in the series to date, I think, and they all sell well. Nonetheless, A Game of Thrones remains one of only four books I have ever thrown, or wanted to throw, across a room. (I heard it as an audiobook, which may have contributed to my dislike of it. Not only was there the strange skeeviness of having Roy Dotrice precisely narrate unexpected sex scenes into my brain, but the inconsistent characterization and plotting drove me mental, and since it was an audiobook, I couldn't skim to get the gist without absorbing all the maddening detail.) The characters were actually well delineated, but then they would do clearly plot-driven things that were entirely against the character as established to that point -- in at least one case, within pages of arguing against precisely that sort of action with someone else. It also, for me, ran into a very common problem with very big fantasy books -- and this is entirely idiosyncratic and not really a knock against the book -- that he kept needing to spend time, for story purposes, with characters about whom I cared not even a little. But you'd have to go through all this stuff with these people, because it was going to be important later, and it would be important later, but it was still aggravating.
Given that they're probably going to have only 7-13 hours worth of television to give the story per season, I hope that HBO can make it work better. They'll certainly need to cut out quite a lot, so that should streamline the story, hopefully not overemphasizing the action at the expense of the character development. I'd like to see an interesting costume drama where I don't have a parallel track in my head about what really should be happening. I mean, don't get me wrong, Showtime's "The Tudors" is sexy anachronistic popcorn fun, but even apart from the fact that Jonathan Rhys-Meyers does not look remotely like the historical Henry, I actually studied a bit of Tudor-era history, so I keep getting jarred out of the show by knowing that particular events simply did not happen as shown. But I digress.
Showtime enlists gay superhero - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety:
Showtime is developing an hourlong project from comicbook icon Stan Lee that tracks the life of a gay superhero. Project is being exec produced by Lee and the president and CEO of his Pow! Entertainment banner, Gill Champion. Story, which focuses on an up-and-coming superhero who struggles to hide his secret identities, is based on the book "Hero" by Perry Moore. Moore is penning the script and also exec producing along with Hunter Hill.
Previous series television produced by Lee includes whimsical reality-competish skein "Who Wants to Be a Superhero?," which ran on the Sci Fi Channel from 2005-07. The comicbook maven is in development on several features for Paramount, including "Thor," "The First Avenger: Captain America" and a sequel to last summer's "Iron Man." Project joins more than a half-dozen others in development at Showtime, including a series retelling of "Camelot" from "Tudors" creatives Michael Hirst and Morgan O'Sullivan.
I'd heard about this, but I wasn't sure it was ever going to happen. Showtime is probably the right place for it, either that or HBO, since that will allow them not to pussyfoot around more adult themes the way, say, NBC's Heroes would have to. (If it were telling stories relatable to anything remotely resembling a human being these days, which it isn't, but that's a story for another rant.) I have to admit to being fascinated to see how Stan Lee is going to develop this. (And, as a side note, it's interesting to get confirmation of the apparent cancellation of SciFi's "Who Wants to Be A Superhero", albeit in an impressively backdoor sort of way.) I suppose Showtime is going to use it as their Big Gay Series centerpiece for the near future, replacing "The L Word" which replaced "Queer as Folk", which followed, many many years later, Showtime's comedy series "Brothers".
HBO orders fantasy pilot 'Thrones'
(the Live Feed, November 11, 2008)
HBO has given a pilot order to fantasy project "Game of Thrones." The program is based on George R.R. Martin’s bestselling series of novels "A Song of Fire & Ice" and executive produced by David Benioff ("Troy"), D.B. Weiss ("Halo") and Guymon Casady ("Hope & Faith"). The title “Game of Thrones” is from the first novel in the series.
If greenlit, “Thrones” would represent the rarest of TV genres: a full-fledged fantasy series. Though broadcasters have embraced sci-fi-tinged shows in recent years following the success of ABC’s “Lost” and NBC’s “Heroes,” and supernatural themes have been given a spin by CW’s “Supernatural” and HBO’s own “True Blood,” high fantasy is nearly nonexistent in primetime TV history -- and “Thrones” is an unabashed member of the genre. The books have swords, dragons, magic, the works. “Fantasy is the most successful genre in terms of feature films given the incredible popularity of ‘Lord of the Rings’ and Harry Potter movies,” Benioff said. “High fantasy has never been done on TV before and if anybody can do it, it’s HBO. They’ve taken tired genres and reinvented them -- mobsters in ‘The Sopranos’ and Westerns with ‘Deadwood.’”
The cost of producing a fantasy series is usually a big factor that deters networks. The producers note “Thrones” is written as a character drama and major battles often take place off stage. “It’s not a story with a million orcs charging across the plains,” Weiss said. “The most expensive effects are creature effects and there’s not much of that.”
Martin plans seven books in the series. The producers intend for each season to span one novel. But before the series can get on the air, the producers first have to slay a more formidable threat than any dragon: pilot competitors. HBO has 10 other pilots in contention for series orders. Though the network declines to project how many shows will receive an order since HBO doesn’t need to fill a specific number of time-periods like broadcasters, at least six are expected to get a pickup.
...Eeergh.
OK, look. I know that there are billyuns upon billyuns of people out there who think this series is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I mean, hey, five books in the series to date, I think, and they all sell well. Nonetheless, A Game of Thrones remains one of only four books I have ever thrown, or wanted to throw, across a room. (I heard it as an audiobook, which may have contributed to my dislike of it. Not only was there the strange skeeviness of having Roy Dotrice precisely narrate unexpected sex scenes into my brain, but the inconsistent characterization and plotting drove me mental, and since it was an audiobook, I couldn't skim to get the gist without absorbing all the maddening detail.) The characters were actually well delineated, but then they would do clearly plot-driven things that were entirely against the character as established to that point -- in at least one case, within pages of arguing against precisely that sort of action with someone else. It also, for me, ran into a very common problem with very big fantasy books -- and this is entirely idiosyncratic and not really a knock against the book -- that he kept needing to spend time, for story purposes, with characters about whom I cared not even a little. But you'd have to go through all this stuff with these people, because it was going to be important later, and it would be important later, but it was still aggravating.
Given that they're probably going to have only 7-13 hours worth of television to give the story per season, I hope that HBO can make it work better. They'll certainly need to cut out quite a lot, so that should streamline the story, hopefully not overemphasizing the action at the expense of the character development. I'd like to see an interesting costume drama where I don't have a parallel track in my head about what really should be happening. I mean, don't get me wrong, Showtime's "The Tudors" is sexy anachronistic popcorn fun, but even apart from the fact that Jonathan Rhys-Meyers does not look remotely like the historical Henry, I actually studied a bit of Tudor-era history, so I keep getting jarred out of the show by knowing that particular events simply did not happen as shown. But I digress.
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Given that Liquid Comics is taking over at least most of the Virgin Comics titles, Stan may be pre-occupied with creating their new superhero universe, which he was supposed to be doing for Virgin before it went belly-up. He was in fact supposed to be doing all the writing for the flagship title, whatever that was going to be, for the first year, as well as having a hand in creating the rest of them.