Fans of Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time were surprised to discover that the show had a pilot airing in the small hours on FX, with no hype, no advertising and, apparently, no budget. So what’s going on? Why does it look so cheap? Why is Billy Zane running around as an obvious bad guy?
I’m just here for what appears to be a student film that spent its budget on actors. What’s the Wheel of Time?
It’s a very long series of very long books that tells the story of a trio of hicks who become the defenders of the world in a fantasy setting. There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the napkin idea.
Ah, so Game of Thrones then?
Sort of. It’s a lot less dark. But, yes, a cable network or similar entity would surely like The Wheel of Time.
Did FX win the bidding?
Nope! The “pilot” here appears to be aired entirely on paid programming time. The producers of said pilot just paid FX for a time slot to air… this.
Yeah… what’s the deal with this thing?
From a story perspective, it’s a prologue explaining a rather important bit of mythology for the larger story, namely how men can’t use magic because they’ll lose their minds. From a financial perspective, it’s an attempt by the company that currently owns the rights, Red Eagle Entertainment, to keep them. Contractually, they had to air something, so they got Billy Zane, somebody’s house, a camera and shot a “pilot” they’re calling Winter Dragon as quickly and cheaply as possible. It was so out of left field, not even the author’s estate knew it was going to air.
I have a sneaking suspicion you’re about to lay out an ugly story of greed and incompetence.
Well, it’s a short one: Jordan sold the rights to Red Eagle in the mid-2000s, and Red Eagle has failed to do a single thing with them, despite repeated attempts to get a mobile game, a comic book, pretty much anything off the ground. Probably the most promising project was working with Obsidian on an RPG. That appears to have vanished without a trace, despite the fact that Red Eagle’s website consists entirely of a press release announcing that EA was publishing the game.
Jordan was so unhappy with Red Eagle that he took time while he was dying specifically to chew them out. The fact that they’ve kept the rights for eight years after the author was convinced they’d lose them is truly an achievement in legal wrangling.
So… will they keep the rights?
Possibly? Red Eagle apparently wants to keep the pretty jewel and make some studio co-partner with them, but it’s a questionable strategy. It’s pretty clear at this point that the rights aren’t the problem, it’s how Red Eagle is handling them that’s keeping studios away. The fundamental hope here appears to be that Red Eagle runs out of money and has to sell the rights to someone else.
I’m guessing that means no TV series.
Not unless they keep shooting these at people’s houses and bringing in guys like Billy Zane, who apparently works for sandwiches at this point. Although I have to admit, I’d probably watch that. Especially if they let Billy eat the sandwiches while shooting.