originally posted by Derek Coventry
Ah, there was a time when I could have put myself forward as Arithon but nowadays it's Sethvir who looks out of my mirror!
originally posted by Clansman
Derek, better Sethvir than Luhaine, or, GASP! Dakar!
Well, at least Dakar is alive.
Welcome Antonia!
originally posted by Konran
After watching The Prestige, I have to put forward Hugh Jackman as my candidate for Arithon. He does an excellent job as an angsty, obsessed character. Seriously, if all you've ever seen him do is Wolverine, you're missing out.
originally posted by Lyssabits
I love Jackman, but he's too tall, he's 6'2". 
originally posted by Craftsman
Much as I hate to say it, I don't think that a movie should be made of the WoLaS series - any attempt to translate the wondrous eloquence that is Janny's writing would ultimately fail. There is just too much detail and intricacy in the writing outside of the dialouge, and so many of the concepts that make the series so interesting could never be anywhere near so well explored by a movie. Also, movies suffer from time constraints, and you could never fit everything in the book into the movie. The director would probably modify the plotline to work to better as a movie, and as we have seen through the series, Janny choses every word she uses with absolute precision. I think that a movie would never satisfy, particularly in the realm of music and magic.
However, I agree that it is interesting to cast characters! 
Arithon is impossible to cast - unless he was to actually step out of the pages, I don't think you could ever find an actor to match.
I would like to see Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee as sorcerers though…
originally posted by Clansman
Right you are Craftsman. LOTR barely made it into a screen play (it took the better part of a decade), and despite a really good job at bringing that amazing story to film, there are a lot of interpretive problems with it (Elrond, Aragorn, and Faramir, not to mention a wingeing Frodo). To be fair to Mr. Jackson, the task was huge, and he did call it an interpretation, not a faithful translation.
To convert the 8 plus 3 forthcoming books of WoLaS would be impossible, unless one did an epic series of about 50 two hour episodes. In fact, I believe that the HBO series (scheduled to start filming in Ireland this fall) of G.R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire will fail to translate to the screen at all well. Far too many POV's, and too much detail that is vital to the progression of the story make it a veritable nightmare for the producers who are brave (read "foolish") enough to take that career-ender of a project on. They might pull something off, though. Certainly, that story has enough graphic sex in it to satisfy the carnal desires of HBO's regular audiences.
Imagine tackling The Malazan Book of the Fallen on screen! Sheer idiocy!
Some stuff should be left in book form, like the WoLaS. The form of the books can be changed (like audiobooks, for instance), but translating to a visual medium just doesn't work for the larger stories.
Welcome, Craftsman!
Turning a large, long series into a screenplay could indeed be a nightmarish effort…
The plot deviations alone in Jackson's interpretation - some were obviously made to make the film play better on screen (Arwen being a stronger character) but some were made for sheer whim…and films have a habit of doing what they please with a story line with disastrous results.
There are rare successes - The Hunt for Red October comes to mind.
The talent of the actors is EVERYTHING, IF the scriptwriter stays true to course.
I went into the Jackson movie terrified - because I just KNEW Gandalf was not possible to portray in film. I expected to hate what I saw. McKellin proved the exception - that man could say EVERYTHING unspoken with just a facial expression or a look…given talent like that across the boards - and a transparent script (hah!) and a director without an agenda…that's a lot to line up.
Doing the whole sweep, all five arcs…I don't see it. But who knows what the future will hold? We are thinking linear acting, etc…what may come, who knows?
Right now, I'm gunning for a nice audio production.
With regard to ASoIaF, I am just interested as heck to see how the screen writing crew will handle the POV - will they dare the risk of alienating the audience, and if not, which characters will be the ones they choose to let viewers root for in their script?
originally posted by Konran
I wouldn't trust anyone to handle WoLaS either *grin* It's just fun to find people with resemblances. However, has anyone here seen Watchmen yet? Zack Snyder did a really good job of staying faithful to the book (minus the ending, which was changed, but without spoiling anything, the original ending *was* pretty bizarre, and what they replaced it with made sense.)
originally posted by Clansman
Yup. Saw Watchmen. 2/3 character development, 1/3 story. Kind of interesting, but more should have happened in three hours of movie.
originally posted by Konran
Honestly, that was it. Nothing was taken out story-wise. I'd just read the comic for the first time shortly before seeing the movie so I was able to follow along with the plot in my head. A little tiny bit was cut out, but again, it was mostly character development and relatively unimportant side stuff. It matches really well; I was even able to spot some frame-for-frame recreations of certain comic panels in some shots of the movie.
originally posted by Kam
I wouldnt trust anyone with WoLaS because no one seems to be able to get Earthsea right and that's about as simple as fantasy can get.
originally posted by Trys
When a book is filtered through the mind(s) of people who were not the creator of the work there is bound to be variations on the interpretation of the work. Given that Tolkien was dead and had sold the rights to the movie and that LeGuin was not involved in the making of Earthsea, there wasn't much hope that those works would be faithfully recreated (please note that even a small morsel of hope can have tremendous results). The only way I can see a movie version of any WoLaS work being created well would be if Janny were intimately and intricately involved in the process. Can you say artistic control? I thought you could.
There's always hope that these books could see a video format that faitfully reproduces them.
Trys
originally posted by Lyssabits
I think artistic *control* is a dangerous idea when you're translating from one medium to another. I do believe writers should be a granted greater say in books of theirs that are adapted to the screen. Heck, I think screenplay writers should also. However as many people probably already know, what works on the page can sometimes be horrible on the screen. (Ira Glass talked about this when he was going from This American Life the radio show to This American Life the TV series.) Some authors can help the transition, and some are too close to the material to be able to let other people who might be better suited to the film adaptation change things. I think with a good collaboration you can get a film, that while different, has the same effect as the book. But different people have different ideas of what a "faithful" reproduction would be… I think the important part is to evoke the same sort of emotions, communicate the same ideas. You don't necessarily have to tell the story completely or in perfect detail to do that.
But once movies start shooting often times things get changed by directors and actors… at some point, once you hand your creation over into the hands of people who have to bring it to life, you have to cede control, lest your artistic vision crush the vision of anyone else. A writer has the control over their work on the page in a way that is completely impossible to replicate on stage or on film. I think it's interesting that you have this hue and cry over bad book adaptations in films, but not over plays. I think directors and actors would be insulted if a playwright tried to be the same way about their work. The only thing that makes a movie different from a play in that regard is that the movie gets made ONCE, so some illusion of a measure of control is possible there, whereas you know you can't go to every company staging a production of your play to enforce your will.
Earthsea ended up being very poorly done when they cut LeGuin out of the production because the folks who made it clearly hadn't had a connection to the material in the way they'd needed to have in order to do it justice. However I imagine working with people like that, even with the author involved you'd get a bad production. I recall her saying something about the movie they made out of her book The Lathe of Heaven, how even though she wasn't intimately involved in the nuts and bolts of making the movie, and even though the details weren't exactly the same, that the movie was communicating what her book was about and so she loved it. (She writes an essay on this in… Dancing at the Edge of the World? I think?)
originally posted by Beldarius
I could see Garrett Hedlund as either Lysaer or Arithon - he looks good both blond and dark-haired. XD I really liked him as Murtagh in Eragon (the movie was way better than the book).
originally posted by Stephen Mulligan
Hey,
I'm about half way through Ships of Merior and I keep seeing Eric Clapton circa Derek and the Dominos as Arithon.
Stephen
originally posted by Sleo
Yeah. I could go with that.
originally posted by Joshua Bruce Law
Jonathan Sadowski for Arithon , he plays Henry in bleep my dad says, he's adorable slightly built and the right coloring, the only problem being he is too tall.
Melinda who plays Sydney Hanson in providence, and is also in csi ny. Or julliane margillies spelling definitely off, from the good wife back in the days she played morgaine in the mists of Avalon for Elaira.
originally posted by Anna Kanowski
It just hit me today : Darren Criss who plays Blaine on Glee could be Arithon!
He is shorter than average and of slight build. Looks good shaved or with a beard.
He plays 9 instruments and sings.
In most of his photos he is smiling but I'm sure angst is in his range.
His hair goes curly when long but that is what professional hairdressers are employed on movie sets for right?
Also he is young and unfortunately some great candidates are a bit too old imho.
Did I mention he is really hot?
Google him!!!
Ok you can probably tell I'm a big Gleek.
If you're not into that or you've never heard of Darren Criss it might help if I mention he played Harry Potter in a musical parody on you tube and he wrote most of the music for it.
(I haven't posted for ages - had to re-register).
originally posted by Stephen Mulligan
actually changed my mind for arithon…now im seeing Chris Cornell.