Netflix is going to make The Witcher TV Series

hope it'll turn out good

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https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/17/15651956/the-witcher-tv-show-netflix-announced

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Netflix is developing and producing an English-language TV show based on The Witcher. The franchise started life as a series of fantasy novels by Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski, before being turned into a number of critically acclaimed video games. Now it’s coming to the small screen, although there are no details on when the show might arrive.

In a press release Sapkowski said he would be serving as a creative consultant on the series. “I’m thrilled that Netflix will be doing an adaptation of my stories, staying true to the source material and the themes that I have spent over thirty years writing,” he wrote. “I’m excited about our efforts together, as well as the team assembled to shepherd these characters to life.”

It was previously reported that a movie adaptation of The Witcher was in the works for 2017, but it seems this effort has been scrapped in favor of a TV show. Sean Daniel (of The Mummy and The Expanse) was previously attached to the movie, but is now onboard to produce the Netflix series, along with fellow producer Jason Brown.

Filmmaker Tomek Baginski, best known for his Oscar-nominated animated short The Cathedral, is also involved, along with Jarek Sawko. Both Baginski and Sawko belong to Polish visual effects studio Platige Image which was responsible for the CGI intros for The Witcher video games.

In a press release, Baginski and Sawko said: “There is a moral and intellectual depth in these books which goes beyond genre. It is a story about today and today’s challenges, hidden under a fantasy cover. It is a story about us, about the monster and hero inside of all our hearts.”

Cool, the witcher's world has lots of interesting stories and locations :)

more cutscenes?

Budget monsters and effects, count me out. I'll take a movie over a show any day. An animated series would've been nice.

Netflix has been banging out some quality shows lately.

I'm going to temper my expectations for this, but hope for something amazing. This could be really, really good if they do it right. Maybe leave Geralt out of it and tell some different, smaller stories in a different time period, for instance. Huge potential.

Please don't let it be another ''The Hexer''.

There's a polish series of The Hexer.

As a Netflix member and Witcher 3 gamer fan, I'm all in for trying something new for once. I would like to see Witcher T.V series in all CGI if all possible and seeing Netflix getting some good shows like Luke Cage, Transformers: Prime and such, adding Witcher T.V series will definitely boost more Netflix members.

I don't expect them to go with Geralt's path but use another unknown Witcher would be good to see how it all plays out.

@the_master_race:

This might be good. I hope they make a Tomb Raider or Halo series too!

To this day, I keep asking myself this. WTF happen to Steven Spielberg's Halo T.V series?!

Normally I would be quite sceptical of a videogame to film or television project, but considering The Witcher was a series of novels first before being adapted into games, this could actually turn out great.

They also bang out shit like Iron Fist, so balance must be preserved

Good, considering how many characters there are in the saga, a TV series is much more appropriate.

Especially if they do first two books, which are short story collections.

This is very promising, considering the insane quality of those cutscenes in Witcher 3.

this is a transition from books to film , not games to film ..... there ain't a decent movie based on a video game

wait , we have good rip offs

Monkey Island >> Pirates of the Caribbean

Hidden Xperia is one of my favorite Halo lore youtubers and he did a video about that question. Just up and vanished once MS shut down there live entertainment studio before it really got to do anything of note.

@cainetao11: Well Damn, I didn't know that! Just went up and smoke huh, oh well.

I think when it comes to adapting video games into other mediums, a television adaption is a better choice than a movie adaption, and more studios should consider doing it.

Reasons being is that video games have a lot going on in terms of interaction and exploring, the average single-player game exceeds many hours, sometimes even dozens upon dozens of hours depending how much content is in the game.

Look at it this way:

A movie adaption has to pick and cram the essential parts of a game and fit it all in a 90 - 120 time frame.

A television show with let's say 20 episodes with a run time of 1 hour each has a better chance of conveying a game's premise and story to an audience.

Netflix could actually get a decent-quality show out of it, though a HBO series would probably be better. HBO won't do it mind you, cos they're trying to spin the shit out of GoT now.

Game of Thrones has some quality creatures and effects, regardless of being an ongoing TV series. I'm not sure what kind of production facilities Netflix has to HBO, but there's always potential.

And here's hoping the casting for Triss and Yennefer do proper service to the characters ??

GoT also has a budget of ridiculousness, wayyy past your common tv series

I can't wait for Geralt of Detroit

Fair point. Even so, the advantage of TV series over movies, is the extended length of content for more comprehensive character development and world/story/lore exploration. And I'm not even sure how many books there are from that original source material.

@AdobeArtist: You are correct on that and as someone who owns all the books(sans last one) I too would rather take a well made series over a movie.

Aside from what AdobeArtist mentioned above, movies generally have much more of an obligation to follow guidelines, in many of the worst cases, they don't give a shit about the source material.

Even right now, King Arthur movie was more interested in setting up a Marvel Universe then telling a basic story, because that's what Warn Bros wanted. It's bombed, big time.

Saying that, looking forward to Outlaw King, it's a movie, but Netflix is doing it, they seem to allow much more creative freedom than traditional distributors.

Do not necessarily agree. Street Fight II The Animated movie is arguably the best adaptation of a game to movie. The TV series (all of them) sucked.

You could probably make an argument many games are better adapted to cartoons, since they share more in common. Unfortantly unless it's Pixar, cartoons bring in less money and will typically be relegated to straight to Blu-ray.

How many books in the Witcher series?

GoT is on another level with budget. Netflix makes decent shows but Witcher just has too many monsters and magic for a show budget. (imo)

That being said, your last point is a gamechanger.

2 short story collections and 5 novels, last novels english translation was released earlier this year, havent gotten to ordering it yet

I'll be watching this.

Oh I disagree, Mortal Kombat was pretty good! Even just for the soundtrack :P

Oh I think we're on the same page here ???

Agreed...I'm forcing myself to watch that one. Feels like it takes forever, because it's so bad. Can't wait for it to be over. Though if they make it hardcore...more mature...GoT, but more natural in theme to the Witcher...whew...it could be grand.

That's cool, I'm sure I'd like that more than the games.

I watched the polish TV show with badly translated english subs and still liked it. Heck, it's better than most of the stuff I grew up watching in the 80s lol.

Yeh I gave up on it pretty quick, I'd rate it even below the Flash.

Netflix has a higher budgets so I wouldn't worry about it and they are making money from Marvel & Disney, I say that's putting them on the same level as HBO so I can see Netflix going over budgeting Witcher series. I still say a CGI series like the clone wars would be something good to see.

It'll be rubbish.

Mads Mikkelson as Geralt please.

Hope it's good. Would be great just like The Vikings or GOT.

Isn't The Witcher relatively light on fantasy elements? It always seemed to me closer to something like Conan than Lord Of The Rings where it's small scale and largely grounded.

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Have you actually played the Witcher games? ?

And while we're at it;

Yennefer: Kate Beckinsale or Haley Atwell or Lexa Doig

Triss: Tricia Helfer or Laura Vandervoort or Morena Baccarin

?

90% of what Netflix funds is gold so this gives me high hopes.

The first two, yes. 3, not so much.

High fantasy is defined as fantasy set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world, rather than "the real", or "primary" world. The secondary world is usually internally consistent, but its rules differ from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set in the primary, or "real" world, or a rational and familiar fictional world, with the inclusion of magical elements.

The vast majority takes place is typical European environments, villages and castles with human or humanoids dealing with racism. There are only a few sections of giant creatures, elaborate magic or battles. Pretty in line with with how Conan works.

I haven't read the books, they may be completely different, if it's anything like the game similar to Vikings, or The Last Kingdom, it should easily be put on the small screen. Netflix will probably have a higher budget then these regardless. The only real issue I can see is rendering something like the Kayran. Everything else seems pretty much doable.

e.g.

Your previous post was taking the position of the Witcher series "being light on fantasy elements", not this more selective genre classification system. Not even sure where that criteria comes from.

And a game (and books) that is populated with dwarves and elves, along with the host of non-human creatures; rock trolls, ice trolls, sirens, griffons, wyverns, basilisks, vampires, tree spirits, gargoyles, golems, harpies, and all manner of spectral phantasms (from shades to wraiths), along with the fact that there is supernatural magic in the mages and witcher signs... there is no way this is "light" in fantasy elements. It's as deep into the realm of fantasy as D&D or Narnia.

Doesn't matter that it's based on medieval European setting, it's an entirely fictionalized rendition of that, used as a thematic foundation from which to build the fantasy world, again one in which elves inhabit the landscape. It's not an accurate depiction of ancient Europe, so it may as well be a "different world".

This doesn't really change my argument. Everything in it is entirely doable on the small screen. Assuming they don't actually use a dwarf, simple perspective tricks were used in Lord Of The Rings.

Practically every location in the game mirrors real world European settings, requiring minimum touch up. In cases with villages, it would most likely require none, because that's exactly what parts of Europe look like.

The only monster effect that would be demanding (from the first two games) is A) Kayran or B) Dragon imo.

Everything else has either been done, or applicable with practical effects e.g. human/humanoids

Even if we talk in terms of CGI, we aren't in the days of Xena Warrior Princess anymore. Battlestar Galactica, which no doubt had a lower budget and is now about a decade and a half old, has some fairly stunning set pieces.

Might be cool, maybe if they made it a well budgeted Japanese anime.

I welcome this, I just hope it isn't low budget.

@howmakewood: Iron Fist is far from bad though, the internet hate train mixed with sjw nonsense is where all the bs started.

I am just wondering how many people are gonna spout how it's a ripoff of Game of thrones once they hear white wolf, and see the wild hunt and theme of the white frost.

Though Wild Hunt> White Walkers

Well, it is a bit of a rip off, just not of Game of thrones, but rather Elric of Melniboné. Either way though, just enjoy it for what it is. Everything in Fantasy rips of something to some degree.