Post/Author/DateTime	Post
cerberuspuppy 09-12-05, 01:48 PM	I'm sure this has come up before, but with the cinematic feel of Eberron, it seems natural to at least think about it. It might even be able to reach a wider market because Fantasy and Sci-Fi are more popular now. Granted, it would take a Star-Wars level effects budget to really do justice places like Sharn, but that may become less so as the technology improves and/or becomes a little more established. It might also be easier to do as animated than live action. Tartovsky could probably pull it off. Now, as for the characters: A few things are obligatory- a Warforged, a swashbuckling rogue, and an artificer. What other types would you like to see represented? And what kind of plot would you like to see?
Euangelion 09-12-05, 02:19 PM	Heck, with CGI live action is animated. I was thinking about this the other day, and I came to the conclusion that a Eberron TV series would be the way to go, as the epidodic nature would fit right in with the tone of Eberron. Sort of an intentional throwback to the old cliffhanger serials. As for characters, one wouldn't really need to look any further than Daine and company, plus maybe a couple others. You could have several recurring villains, the corrupt SF inquisitor, the mad EC necromancer, the sly LoD assassin, the Phiarlan and/or Thuranni spy, and so on. Of course, it'd have to be dark, as in taking a noble (personality, not social class) character who's been on the show for a season or two and have them murder another regular character, the whole gang toeing the line between good and evil, having a member of the group be rather evil themselves, and have an antagonist go back and forth from ally to enemy, etc. Anyway, sounds like fun to me.
Joni-san 09-12-05, 03:10 PM	Has anybody read Gamespy's page that celebrated D&D's 30'th birthday? Well incase you didn't they said there that WotC is planning on making a new D&D cartoon. This is a fact (The question is: can Gamespy be trusted? Will WotC do anything with their plans?) Eberron was already out and DDO and Dragonshard (the RTS) where more or less known. From this we can guess that the odds are favoring an Eberron cartoon. And IIRC there was an Eberron comic series planned (atleast they have the licence). They are currently doing a series based on the Drizzit books.
InfinityStar8 09-12-05, 04:22 PM	I did have a big thread on this a little over a month ago, if search was working I would try and find it. I never saw the end of it, computer got a bug. But, this is what I said last... Make an Eberron cartoon much like Gargoyles (The Disney cartoon from mid 90's that was GREAT!!!) And as far as the chars in it, look in the ECS at the players they talk about for all the classes. I was thinking of having a main group of 4 or 5 people with a few add-ons ever once in a while to show other classes. Just my two crowns...
Edymnion 09-12-05, 04:24 PM	Keith has a casting call over on www.bossythecow.com where people are voting on who should play the parts from his Dreaming Dark trilogy (should it ever get made). Dain and Lei have already been cast, and they're doing Jode at the moment.
Tek 09-12-05, 05:03 PM	I think the best idea for this series actually came from someone in the old thread, in a suggestion that every few months or so, we meet a completely new set of characters. So, you start off with a certain group, they do a string of adventurers, then it completely starts on a new group. Eventually, some groups could come together and others could mostly die out, and you could keep it fresh by introducing new personalities and combine / seperate groups. I think it would make a nice storyline.
GuruChaz 09-12-05, 07:00 PM	Ewww...don't say Movie. The last D&D Movie was a total flop and had bad casting and directing and screen writing and.....ugh.
Sir Elton 09-12-05, 07:31 PM	Shhhhh. . . . stop talking about it. Some of us are going to the NYFA. And one person wants to do this very thing after he graduates. :)
Tek 09-12-05, 07:38 PM	Ewww...don't say Movie. The last D&D Movie was a total flop and had bad casting and directing and screen writing and.....ugh. Do you mean the Dungeons and Dragons 2 movie, that's playing on Sci-Fi on October 8th? mwhahahah!
scissors 09-12-05, 09:33 PM	I think the Eberron TV show should definitely be made on the FX channel. Those pwnstars are the ones who gave us Rescue Me, The Shield and Overthere. Reserve a spot for Michael Chikvis! (sp?)
Edymnion 09-12-05, 09:47 PM	Ewww...don't say Movie. The last D&D Movie was a total flop and had bad casting and directing and screen writing and.....ugh.It wasn't a total flop. It was a success by hollywood's standards. It made more money than it cost to produce, market, and distribute. So apparently they managed to sell two more tickets in addition to mine. :P
Tek 09-12-05, 10:04 PM	It wasn't a total flop. It was a success by hollywood's standards. It made more money than it cost to produce, market, and distribute. So apparently they managed to sell two more tickets in addition to mine. :P And they were successful enough to make a second one... I mean sure, it's already coming on TV.. but still!
cerberuspuppy 09-13-05, 12:44 AM	I did have a big thread on this a little over a month ago, if search was working I would try and find it. I never saw the end of it, computer got a bug. But, this is what I said last... Make an Eberron cartoon much like Gargoyles (The Disney cartoon from mid 90's that was GREAT!!!) And as far as the chars in it, look in the ECS at the players they talk about for all the classes. I was thinking of having a main group of 4 or 5 people with a few add-ons ever once in a while to show other classes. Just my two crowns... Gargoyles was one of the best cartoons of all time, and a good choice to illustrate the appropriate level of seriousness. As for the FX suggestion- I can understand how some people see Eberron as a more mature setting, but some people also see it as more for kids. I think it's really somewhere between, but it can slide on the scale depending on the group playing. But- for such an iconic, definitive representation of the setting as a TV show would be, I just don't think you can give it the "almost rated-R" treatment. Whether the show is animated, live action, or live/greenscreen, there are some definite influences to draw from: Cartoons: The first WB Batman animated series, late 90's The Justice League and JLU shows on Cartoon Network Gargoyles Live action shows: Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis Firefly Movies: Indiana Jones The Maltese Falcon Sky Captain Star Wars Old School: old pulp action/adventure comics and radio shows And I'm sure others as well. It might seem like a goofy idea at first, but I think an Eberron TV show really could work, and that the market is there for it, assuming it is done well.
Tek 09-13-05, 12:51 AM	Live action shows: Firefly I -love- Firefly! Serenity on the 30th! WHOOOO </fanboy>
Kinger 09-13-05, 01:13 AM	Personally, I'd prefer an Eberron mini-series. HBO, Sci-Fi channel, HBO with the Sci-Fi channel, or somebody like that. Granted, the audience may be a tad smaller since not everybody gets HBO ("We have over 250 billion channels." "Do you get HBO?" "Nah, that'd cost extra."), but most HBO bits get bought and rebroadcast. Why a mini-series? Well, I don't like the idea of a weekly hour-long show, for the most part. If you're producing 25 episodes, you can't spend too much on each one. Look at Hercules or Xena and tell me, with a straight face, that they had good effects. :) As a mini-series, one can use the same budget but make, oh 5 or 6 episodes. It also works with the above-mentioned idea of shifting focus from one group of characters to another after a while (by way of another series). The series could tell one plotline and be done with it, rather than avoiding burning bridges, just in case they want to revisit something later on in the season/series. Since they're just telling one, they can do a good job of it. Shift to a new story next year. They make the show and start with the story first and the concepts second (which I believe is the standard movie/miniseries method of doing things), rather than starting with the concepts and making up stories to fit them (like most tv shows: sitcoms, saturdaymorningcartoons (all one word), tv dramas, etc). As for characters? Gotta go with the pseudo-stereotypes, I must say. Have to appeal to the mass audiences here. Warforged bruiser with a heart of gold (literally), nosey changeling inquisitive, shaggy and grumpy shifter ranger (or urban ranger) as the "bad-ass" of the group, and maybe a human artificer with a penchant for blowing stuff up to round out the party. No more than four or five protagonists, though, to discourage "Wait, who is that?" moments. Even if they're all distinct (like, say, different species or even classes of organism), they'd still happen. Also allows more character development per character, which is always good. The Warforged could very well be done with prosthetics. The Thing was in Fantastic Four, and while not perfect it served well enough. The orcs in Lord of the Rings, too, were prosthetics. Shifter could easily be prosthetics too, as could the changeling when clayfaced (though that'd be mostly make-up, I'd think). Now, it goes without saying you'd need CGI for much of the action sequences. That's why I don't think a weekly tv show would cut it, really.
TheRedRobedWizard 09-13-05, 10:36 AM	Well, since there's been so much Firefly/Serenity love in this thread already; my suggestion that Keith should work with Joss Whedon on it won't fall on deaf ears. Also, an anime-styled series (13 episodes) would be really cool. Not necessarily an anime, but the "just one season, 13 episodes to get your point across" thing is just kinda cool. -TRRW
Orion Polaris 09-13-05, 11:13 AM	IMO Eberron would definately be better suited as a cartoon then live action.
Sir Elton 09-14-05, 11:46 AM	:rolleyes: I guess people won't stop talking about it. Okay, IF I WERE THE PRODUCER: assuming that I had complete production control and no Wizards consultant looking over my shoulder who doesn't understand how T.V. works (although I'd love to have a Wizards Consultant who is saavy about the T.V. biz!), the best way to show off the T.V. series is to target as many mainstream watchers as I can. Neilson Ratings and all that, really. I'd pull a Babyon 5, but only go for 3 seasons. Here is how it works: To create a common interest, there would have to be eight characters, at least. This is because a story mirrors the way the mind works through a problem. I'd use Archetypical Characters because they reverberate through the human consciousness. Everyone identifies with them on a primal level. I'll need: a protagonist and an antagonist. Pretty basic. A guardian and a Contagonist. Got to have somebody appeal to the conscious of the protagonist and somebody to tempt him off the path. I'll also need a logic character and an emotion character. Finally, I'll need a skeptic and a sidekick. After that is done, I'll need a good formula that will grab the mainstream audience the first time. Either this will have to be about extra-dimensional exiles or the protagonist will have to be somebody that can connect as All-American in a marvelous, wondrous world. After this is done, I'd tell the Casting Department to find some EXCELLENT actors to play all eight characters. Then the writers will have to come up with interesting stories that people will enjoy, and not talk down anybody's intelligence. No dumbing down, period. :)
Jimmifett 09-14-05, 11:58 AM	For reasons i've stated in other threads regarding this same subject, I'm against a dnd cartoon. Like it or not, it will most likely suck. it will have to overcome dnd steroetypes of the 80s (which most parents still remember, sadly) and therefore not be too deep or violent, or have much intrigue. Not to mention, while clone wars was different, It looks like a spruced up flash animation. I'd also not want typical anime style artwork, one notable exception is Berserk. And i'm willing to bet the style of artwork already on covers of the eberron books (which is totally sweet), would be very expensive to translate into animation. Some things are better left undone and stay in the realm of imagination than to be horribly ruined by the hands of political correctness (read communism), and corporate dependency on known working formulas for nielson ratings (and therefore revenue).
Sir Elton 09-14-05, 01:32 PM	Some things are better left undone and stay in the realm of imagination than to be horribly ruined by the hands of political correctness (read communism), and corporate dependency on known working formulas for nielson ratings (and therefore revenue). The terrible thing about all those working formulas is that they are overused, cliched, and proven to work. :( I want to produce an Eberron T.V. Series, though, I'd target mainstream as possible; not niche. But I'd make it as intelligent as possible. The best way is to take an existing Eberron novel, like City of Towers, and translate it to the motion picture or T.V. Series medium. In Japan, they do this a lot with manga. Why can't we do it here?
Jimmifett 09-14-05, 03:39 PM	The terrible thing about all those working formulas is that they are overused, cliched, and proven to work. :( I want to produce an Eberron T.V. Series, though, I'd target mainstream as possible; not niche. But I'd make it as intelligent as possible. The best way is to take an existing Eberron novel, like City of Towers, and translate it to the motion picture or T.V. Series medium. In Japan, they do this a lot with manga. Why can't we do it here? bc seductive gnomish women running unsavory syndicates (city of towers) played by children actors just wont work in the states. go figure :rolleyes: