Er, I don't buy this "He doesn't need the money" shtick. He's comfortable, sure, but he is nowhere near rich or in a place where he can just turn down a bigger offer. It also might have been the ONLY offer he got and he liked what they pitched him. Then again I personally think he comes off as a gigantic egotist in his blog so can definitely see him just selling to the highest bidder.

 

Dude, he donated 500k to charity in one year. That constitutes as rich, I don't care where you're from. He IS in a place where he can just turn down a big offer.

And anyway, I don't get the hate for selling your adaptation rights. It's what they're there for. Even if you know the result will probably suck, you have nothing to lose. Your current fans will hold even more tightly to the books because of it, you will likely draw more readers (sales will definitely go up) and you make some money for doing exactly zero extra shit. It's a win for you no matter how good or bad the movie is.

Admittedly you might be screwing things up if you have two offers and you take Fox over HBO. But if you have a single offer and know it's unlikely you'll get another, what's wrong with taking it, even if they cancelled Firefly? It stings a bit, but this is real life and writing is a job.

Besides, I imagine his agent would be going batshit if he turned down a good offer. Keeping your agent happy makes your life easier.

 

I heard an interview on the radio a couple weeks back about how broadcast television companies were starting to get really worried by the high standard being set by cable tv's recent history of very good productions (GoT, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Newsroom, etc.) of the high-quality-low-episodes variety. They basically think they're going to start seriously losing business if they don't start making better products for the primetime consumer (damn straight).

This was part of the reason that NBC produced the Hannibal tv series for this spring. It got mixed reviews, but they were generally positive (I thought it was pretty good, but then again, I'll watch anything Mads Mikkelsen is in).

Perhaps Fox wants to break in on the GoT fanfare but on broadcast air instead of premium cable (get more viewers?)? That's the only logic I can think of behind this, if they're really serious about this and not just trying to poach the rights while they can so that they could shelve it until they feel like dusting it off.

I really wonder if TNotW is a good fit for a television adaption. It'll need a seriously good writer. I hope they go forward on the project, but this could turn out really, really badly.

 

It's an interesting idea Revan, but you mentioned the biggest issue with it too.

I can't see The Name of the Wind being a good TV series, while staying true to the books.