Quote from: daniel_ream;909688I think this could make or break the show.  Much of what makes Amber what it is is the First Person Unreliable Narrator.

Perhaps, but getting to see various viewpoints could be interesting as well. The whole "who knew what and when" issue.

While Corwin is my favorite Prince, personally I think that I would have enjoyed if RZ had written his Amber books again from a different character's perspective just to see how others viewed similar events. That could turn out to be the strength of an Amber TV series.

The bigger question will be. "How much they actually use and how much is just pure concoction?"

EG: The two Earthsea movies, chunks of the LOTR/Hobbit movies, the recent Whisperer in Darkness movie, and so on which diverge sometimes quite a bit.

Quote from: finarvyn;909705While Corwin is my favorite Prince, personally I think that I would have enjoyed if RZ had written his Amber books again from a different character's perspective just to see how others viewed similar events. That could turn out to be the strength of an Amber TV series.

I think you're losing a great deal if you try to Rashomon Corwin's Chronicles.  A big part of the strength of Zelazny's writing is that Corwin's narrative is so compelling that you quickly forget that he told you up front he's lying, and that his story is full of contradictions that can't be resolved and Zelazny never draws attention to this.  It's one of the reasons the Chronicles reward repeat reading; in a volume that large, there will always be new inconsistencies or shades of meaning to discover.  A TV series has to be third-person omniscient POV, and I think you lose a lot if the show outright squawks "See? See? Corwin can't be trusted, hey? Hey?"

To my mind, making a completely faithful adaptation of a piece of fiction is like doing a completely faithful cover song: kind of boring and pointless.

The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Preacher are some recent examples of what I consider to be good adaptations. Stick to the spirit and premise of the core material, but don't be afraid of diverging or going entirely off script. If I want the original I can always read the original. Me and a friend of mine were talking about this series and he said, "It could ruin the books". I don't even understand that attitude. The original books aren't going anywhere. And honestly? If the Merlin books couldn't ruin the Corwin books for me? I don't think there is much that can.

I really don't see a chapter by chapter adaptation even being likely to be successful. Ensemble casts are the way to go, and the Amber books have all the makings of a really excellent ensemble show, which I am fairly confident Kirkman has considered.

Man, would I love a "Jack of Shadows" mini-series...

Hated jack of shadows for some reason.  

Batista for Gerald.
 No fucking Johny Dep any where near this series.

I liked Jack of Shadows because it was written in the same basic style as Amber and a few of Zelazny's other stories. (Lord Demon, Changeling, A Dark Travelling, and Dilvish come to mind. Nice action, some sarcasm.) On the other hand, it was a bit of an odd character and an odd storyline.

Idrus Elba for Ganalon.  
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Peter Dinklage for Random
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I was talking on Quora about how nine princess would make a great TV show.

You start from the Corwin perspective because it introduces the premise and the characters and you can start from the mundane and add the fantasy slowly thus drawing in the more reluctant viewer. This is the same route GOT took.

Corwin's chronicles are really well paced for a TV adaptation as well with 3 or possible 4 series of 10 episodes kind of writing themselves.

Casting is tougher and you have two choices, stay with US based largely unknowns as they do with teen wolf, Supergirl, The Originals etc etc .  Now GOT has shown that shifting to the UK gives you a better range of cheaper actors and you get less plastic looking people. Now If you look at the cast of say Originals or the Vampire Diaries the acting and scripting isn't the best but they look pretty.

You do have to realise that the Amber market is smaller than GOT at first at least. the books were never that big, never on the new york best seller list and the readership is old, but they are great books...

Cast wise when this was first mooted in the early 90s I think I had Christian Slater as Random, Ollie Reed as Ganelon, later I thought as did all the fanbois that Viggo would make a great Benedict however....
Realistically you have to look at current TV shows rather than movies. You might get the odd cameo for a part but you need to look to realistic casting.

Corwin - Tom Mison from Sleepy Hollow would be good, but busy and probably wants to avoid type casting. I would look to Matthew Goode, he has a bitty movie list but did a series of Downton so not adverse to telly. Professional goof CV, recognizable but not a face.

Brand - Jason Flemyng -  his movie career seems to have tanked so this might be a good role or Stuart Townsend

Bleys - Matt Ryan - he was okay in Constantine despite the script/plot he can do cocky and charming so but too old for Random.

Julian - Weirdly I think Orlando Bloom could do this. His movie career has tanked and this type of high profile cameo role might work for him. But if we already have enough names then we need to get a solid Telly actor maybe Richard Armitage.

Eric - Kevin Ryan

Benedict - left feild I wonder if we could persuade Sasha Baron Cohen....

One thing that would have to be done for a modern Adaptation would be to strengthen the female roles.  

It's called Nine Princes for a reason.  The Prinesess are there but they aren't really important.  With the possible exception of Fauna, the red headed Sorceres.

Oh Christ, let's not start doing a casting thread! Those are always ridiculous.

Quote from: RPGPundit;911585Oh Christ, let's not start doing a casting thread! Those are always ridiculous.

Fair enough.  Then tell me how to update the story for a modern audience with 2 genders instead of just one.

Gender flip Eric?  Beef up the princess as active participants in the family politics?

Add more people of color too.

As some people pointed out, the biggest issue is the unreliable narrator voice that the novels had.

HOWEVER, you can bypass that issue by having the narrator (played by the same actor) describing things as they go along.

Quote from: Headless;911660Fair enough.  Then tell me how to update the story for a modern audience with 2 genders instead of just one.

Gender flip Eric?  Beef up the princess as active participants in the family politics?

The series as a whole is very 1970's politically incorrect, what with all the unapologetic smoking and woman-slapping.  It's very Chandler-esque.  Again, I'm not sure you could do the series faithfully for F/SF audiences today.  (Yes, I know about Mad Men and Hell on Wheels &c.; I'm talking F/SF audiences, who are thoroughly feminized into pearl-clutching at the slightest hint of manliness.)