The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant

Dontch'a think? The time is ripe for another fantasy series to ride on the coattails of Lord of the Rings, but done properly any comparisons would be superficial. Done properly, the Chronicles would make those who shed a tear at Fellowship of the Ring want to slash their wrists.

Visually, it'd be a lot less ambitious than The Two Towers looks to be. After the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, a few hundred ur-viles and cities carved out of rock should be no problem. Dramatically, getting Lord Foul's Bane on film would be one hell of an achievement.

Who to star? Dennis Quaid is the perfect Covenant, Russell Crowe looks like Bannor, and for the last three movies, Nicole Kidman as Linden. I'd pay good money to see The One Tree: A James Cameron/M. Night Shyamalan film starring Dennis Quaid and Nicole Kidman.

Yeah. James Cameron could direct the big stuff and M. Night Shyamalan could do the interpersonal scenes with James Cameron looking over his shoulder. These movies would need a director who can suck a thousand emotions out of an actor's face, and Shyamalan's good at that. But they'd need a director good with the really big things too, and I imagine Peter Jackson's pooped.

Jet-Li as a Bloodguard? Not bad, not bad. Put Donnie Yen in there as well; he's got the flatter, colder eyes that would come of 2000 years of no sleep or nookie. But aren't the Haruchai of a race? If one of them looks Asian, shouldn't they all? Hence, no Russell Crowe, Christopher Lambert, or any other non-Asian badass looking fellows we care to name. Although the more I think about it, the more casting ten Asian actors and 490 Asian martial artists seems like a good idea. Russell Crowe is such a Bannor-looking guy it seems a shame to waste him, though.

Heh. The context of the Bloodguard's service is one of honouring the Lords and what they stand for with unparalleled devotion, but on the face of it they appear to be nothing but bodyguards and servants. Can you imagine the uproar if Asians were exclusively cast as Bloodguard? Someone would blow a gasket, I'm sure.

As far as Foamfollower goes...I dunno. The cover of my copy of The Power That Preserves shows him as being very white, but I don't think that's written in stone. Yeah, I can see Shaq and Dennis Quaid zipping up the river to Lord's Keep, no problem. He's got the look, but does he have the chops?

Howzabout Robin Williams as Pitchwife in the later movies?