The Wheel of Time is set to return for a second season on September 1st on Prime Video. Launching on the platform in fall 2021, the series adapted from Robert Jordan’s books was a nice surprise. But The Wheel of Time Prime Video version isn’t the first adaptation of Jordan’s work.
That honor – which in this case is not one – goes to Winter Dragon, a 22-minute pilot broadcast in February 2015 on FXX (an American cable channel) at 1:30 am and without any commercials. This obscure distribution had only an extension of the rights to the book. Harriet MacDougall, widow of Robert Jordan and publisher of the book, spoke out against the pilot. And the only place you can see it now is in low quality on YouTube.
Winter’s Dragon is probably one of the most awkward screen adaptations we’ve ever seen. It’s (almost) half an hour of confusing television, full of boring dialogue. Billy Zane stars alongside Max Ryan and screenwriter Darren Lemke wrote the script.
The pilot was filmed in what appears to be an empty mansion, with little thought given to costume design or the look of Jordan’s world. Seems like a simple footnote… and highlights how well Amazon’s series is produced.
On IMDB, the plot of Winter’s Dragon is described as “A madman searches for his family and is forced to face a dark truth by a mysterious strangerWinter’s Dragon is supposed to be an adaptation of the prologue of the first book The wheel of time, “Eye of the Universe”. In just a few pages, Jordan introduces the central conflict of the entire series between good and evil, light and dark, and the so-called dragon and dark.
In this pilot, Max Ryan stars as Luc Terrin Terramon, the most powerful force in the Second Age. Known as the Dragon, he managed to trap the Shadowed One in Shayol Ghul’s prison, but in doing so he gave the Shadowed One an opportunity for revenge. Dark managed to change the male side of the One’s power, known as sayin. Anyone who tries to use the power of one is doomed to go insane, including Luce Therin.
The Dragon of Winter shows the awkward moment when Ishmael (Billy Zane), Luz Therin’s rival, reveals to the dragon that he has gone mad. His wife and children died by his hand. In the book, the castle is full of corpses, and Luc Terrin apparently destroyed her own house with the power of one. The pilot takes a decidedly less skillful approach in this regard.
Luc Therin is so consumed with guilt and grief that he uses the power of the One to destroy himself, destroy the world, and bury himself on a mountain of his own making called Dragonmount or Pic du Dragon in French. The Winter Dragon then disappears in favor of the credits.
Defamation suit
Shortly after Winter Dragon aired, much to everyone’s confusion, the pilot’s production company, Red Eagle Entertainment, sued Harriet MacDougall, the author’s wife. The wheel of timeRobert Jordan. “The serial was made without my knowledge and without my cooperation– Ms. McDougal wrote on Facebook at the time.I never saw the script.”
McDougal noted on his social media that the television rights to the franchise The wheel of time was canceled on Wednesday, February 11 (when the pilot aired), which may prompt Red Eagle Entertainment-owned companies to speed up production on a sequel to the Hugo-nominated adventure series. And which has been compared to Game of Thrones. .
To add to the mystery, Winter Dragon director James Seda died in a car accident days before the broadcast, after tweeting: The craziest production and the shortest post-production period…but we did it. We brought the film this afternoon. And now… finally… sleep“, he reports The Hollywood Reporter on time.
Red Eagle responded by suing for defamation and tortious interference, alleging that Ms. McDougal knew more about the situation than she said. In particular, the widow reportedly met with Sony to discuss the series and was told of the February 11 deadline.
According to the lawsuit, Ms. McDougall “Disparagingly referred to the pilot in quotation marks and questioned the plaintiffs’ rights to produce the pilot, flatly denying knowledge of those rights and asserting that Universal still owned the rights to produce the program.“.
The following month, Harriet MacDougall asked that the suit be dismissed as inadequate. Through lawyers, he told the court that the right The wheel of time were “highly controversial” that his statements were confidential, that the plaintiffs did not allege injury to their rights, and that they could not allege that there had been an interference with their contracts.
In July 2015, Red Eagle finally filed to dismiss the lawsuit. This decision was made without prejudice, which preserves the company’s right to pursue new legal action. However, the plaintiff told the court that the parties are currently discussing a settlement.
Finally, in April 2016, Harriet MacDougall announced that the major studio was in talks to produce a television series. And five years later, The Wheel of Time from the pen of Raf Judkins came out on the screens.
Source: Allocine
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
