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Neo2199 OP t1_j4rpmrw wrote

> Stephen Colbert, a noted fantasy fan, has come on board to help develop and produce a series adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber.

> Colbert, via his Spartina banner, will produce the adaptation alongside Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment.

> 'The Chronicles of Amber' features two series of five books each – The Corwin Cycle and The Merlin Cycle – with a number of short stories and prequels also in the series.

> It follows the story of Corwin, who awakens on Earth with no memory, but soon finds he is a prince of a royal family that has the ability to travel through different dimensions of reality, called shadows, and rules over the one true world, Amber.

Sounds great, hopefully one day we will get 'Lord of Light' TV series as well.

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Metal-Dog t1_j4rrbpg wrote

I remember reading the first book a long, long time ago.

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kenlasalle t1_j4rtwzo wrote

Read those books in high school - early 1980s. Never though it would be produced!

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JenovaProphet t1_j4s1u4s wrote

My favorite fantasy novel as a kid. So glad this is finally happening.

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SPacific t1_j4s641z wrote

I've been wanting this since I was a kid in the 80's! Hell yeah! Bring us weird, multiverse hellscape, psychedelic family melodrama!

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CallingTomServo t1_j4scu02 wrote

Such a good series. When I was a young teen my dad took me and some friends to Six Flags and just let us loose while he posted up outside to read this. He got through like half of it that day. I think he had more fun than we did lol.

After that I read it and understood.

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LockTheUniverse t1_j4sfp81 wrote

The way my heart leapt into my throat. This was something my dad recommended to me before he went off the deep end, and to this day is still one of the best series I've ever read. I trust Colbert, famed LOTR nerd, to get the details right? Cautiously optimistic.

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sara-ragnarsdottir t1_j4sjknd wrote

Oh, this could be interesting, but the endless series of underwhelming fantasy books adaptions taught me to not get my hopes up too much. So I'll wait for it skeptically, but I'll still wait for it.

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alierajean t1_j4sl0m9 wrote

YAY! This is going to be so amazing.

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Donttrustallfarts t1_j4sldml wrote

The least funny man on tv is taking his lack of talent and applying it to other stuff

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KnotSoSalty t1_j4snhfa wrote

Loved the books as a teenager. Like Game of Thrones on Acid. Hopefully they can recreate the profound strangeness of the books. A dynastic struggle across space and time for control over all-reality will require a decent budget.

Also, fingers crossed, they cast people with fencing experience because there’s a lot of swordplay in the books. In-universe most technology becomes difficult to use the closer one gets to Amber.

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stringrandom t1_j4sop24 wrote

Replying to sara-ragnarsdottir (#1,390,529)

While agreeing you’re probably right to be doubtful here, there are two things that give me hope.

The Chronicles of Amber are a complete story, so whatever gets made can follow from beginning to end.

Stephen Colbert is a huge nerd and, based on his LOTR fandom, is likely to push the production to follow the original story instead of just making shit up and calling it Amber.

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[deleted] t1_j4sw6qw wrote

Remember him talking about this on the The Friendship Onion podcast. Might have to check the books out.

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GrouchGrumpus t1_j4szw95 wrote

Looking forward to this, but will be curious to see how they handle walking through shadows. That is one of my favorite parts of the books, and a great concept, but won’t be easy - or cheap - to do. It would be amazing if done well, but they could decide to just downplay it.

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mamdotboy t1_j4t144y wrote

Which channel or streaming service?

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Underlord_Fox t1_j4t14bk wrote

Replying to Neo2199 (#1,388,836)

To be fair, Lord of Light is a barely fleshed out treatise. The last three chapters are basically notes. It would take a lot of creative interpretation. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of my favorite books.

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lapsedhuman t1_j4t4782 wrote

About fucking time. I ran a dice-less Amber RPG campaign for several years, back in the 90's. I'm glad Colbert has a say in production.

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ContinuumGuy t1_j4t56hz wrote

Replying to Neo2199 (#1,388,836)

>
> > Sounds great, hopefully one day we will get 'Lord of Light' TV series as well.

Last time there was a rumored adaptation of it, it was actually the cover story for the CIA to extract people from the Canadian embassy in Iran.

And remember: Argo fuck yourself.

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NeadNathair t1_j4t7rn4 wrote

This series was my Bible when I was a kid. I knew Corwin and Eric and Random and the rest of the family like they were my own relatives.

I trust Stephen to do this RIGHT.

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LLRDSTCX t1_j4t7w38 wrote

No way! I’ve read this collection like 5 times, no joke. An amazing and creative story RZ authored. Just hope they don’t F it up like Spielberg did with Ready Player One. That was trash

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NeadNathair t1_j4ta6ec wrote

Replying to Maptickler (#1,390,331)

Agree to disagree. Say what you want about Eric , but he was legitimately concerned about Amber's well-being and was perfectly willing to risk his own life in a fight to defend it. He even had a chance to use his death curse on Corwin and didn't, instead setting it on the enemies of Amber.

He was nowhere near self-serving and petty enough to be a Trump stand in.

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worm600 t1_j4tbh8h wrote

I love these books, but I have no idea how you make a series about them. They’re sprawling, complex, and the prose style is part of the charm.

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t_bonium119 t1_j4tl6w6 wrote

My mom brought the full set home from a garage sale. Read them all in like a week and a half in 8th grade.

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that1tech t1_j4tlfly wrote

Played Amber TTRPG and the GM saw I enjoyed the setting and said I could usually pick up the books used. I remember loving the Corwin books but lost interest in the Merlin ones. I should revisit those one of these days.

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AngelicDevilz t1_j4tr30o wrote

Replying to stringrandom (#1,390,850)

I don't know, he is a partisan talk show host. All he does is try and make all democrats and their talking points sound good. Anything a conservative does he tries to make sound bad even if its something he praised a Dem senator for a year prior. Shit I'm a communist but he is so pro establishment it grosses me out.

I could see him trying to turn villians into trump and having fantasy characters endorea 2023 Dem party talking points as the morality of the book. Def don't see him changing everything to throw identity politics everywhere.

−7

twbrn t1_j4tty27 wrote

Replying to worm600 (#1,392,159)

Glad I'm not the only one who was thinking that. I mean, most of the style of the book is just lost without Corwin's narration. (And later Merlin's, but same thing really.) Maybe they'll actually just bite the bullet and do a voiceover?

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frostygnosis t1_j4txid1 wrote

No!

Fucking!

Way!

! This series was one of the most mind-fuck stories I've ever read! Best of luck to the show to pull off this extremely cerebral storyline.

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AngelicDevilz t1_j4txurm wrote

Replying to twbrn (#1,393,150)

I'm a communist, far left as you can go and this just isn't true.

An example is tighter immigration policy. Less workers in a country means companis are forced to pay citizens more to keep them. Without H1B visas they would have to provide free training to their low skilled workers in order to have enough specialists to produce their products/services thus raising people out of poverty. The way it works now is we just bring in upper class citizens from other countries whose families had enough money to send them to good colleges to take these jobs at lower wages than upper middle class Americans will work for thus lowering wages for the industry and helping well to do foreign citizens make slightly more while depriving their birth countries of the skilled labor they need. Immigration benifits the rich at the expense of the poor.

That's one example.

−6

metal_stars t1_j4ty0zd wrote

Replying to twbrn (#1,393,170)

Think of Zelazny as akin to Raymond Chandler. They've done Chandler badly, and they've done Chandler well -- but it can certainly be done. The zip of Zelazny's dialogue will translate. The ironic egdes of the character will translate. If they do it well, it should still feel like Zelazny.

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kenlasalle t1_j4tya3o wrote

Replying to Windowplanecrash (#1,391,209)

I found mine at the back-est back of my school's library. All nine - was it nine?

At the time, it felt so ahead of its time, risky, and adult, I thought there was no way I'd ever see even a movie. But then budgets exploded and we are where we are.

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AngelicDevilz t1_j4u7hwt wrote

Replying to Houzeplants (#1,393,772)

I hope so, but if it was Tucker Carlson that was big into Sci-Fi and producing a Hyperion series would you not be worried? I know I would.

Edit: I'll take the downvotes as a yes,I'm right and am downvoted because you don't have an argument so you cannot reply

−7

stringrandom t1_j4u87g6 wrote

Replying to Houzeplants (#1,393,778)

Very true and having reread the whole thing not that long ago, I can immediately foresee some likely changes to Flora, and many of the female characters to bring them along from the 1970s-80s, at a minimum. The production is still so far away at this point that I’m going to choose to be warily optimistic that it will get the full 60-100 episodes required and with a sufficient budget to do it right. Or, at least they’ll make it Corwin’s story.

In the worst case scenario, we’ll get The Witcher or Wheel of Time treatment and we’ll wish it never happened. Best case, we get LOTR or The Expanse.

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sglushak t1_j4uhv6b wrote

I've asked/talked about this for years. I always thought the people I trusted most to be authentic and do a good job producing it would be Tom Hanks and Ron Howard. I'm excited and scared for this. I like Steven, but he lost a lot of major points for me when he talks about how good the Hobbit movies are. We shall see!

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hannibalbaracka t1_j4uy3lw wrote

Replying to AngelicDevilz (#1,393,390)

It's a terrible example.

The US is currently experiencing a labor shortage, which is why you saw help wanted signs everywhere. Immigrants arent taking people's jobs, they help fill the gaps in working class fields.

Highly skilled immigrants on the other hand aren't lowering anyone's wages, they're just working in jobs in white collar industries and are treated the same as everyone else. Not to mention that immigrants have a massively positive economic benefit toward the country and are massively overrepresented in innovation and startups.

And then there are the moral implications of stricter immigration policy.

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TeehSandMan t1_j4uy7b2 wrote

What the fuck, this cunt is a lunatic. No doubt there will be a vaccine dance and the villain will be a trump clone under this clown

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ballsmigue t1_j4v4b4h wrote

Another great series of my childhood just like deltora quest. I'd love to get them finally to read again on my old kindle but yikes...too expensive for me.

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Les-Freres-Heureux t1_j4v9vmq wrote

Replying to stringrandom (#1,390,850)

A “complete story” doesn’t prevent renegade writers from using the IP as a vehicle for their terrible fan fiction. Just look at how they butchered Wheel of Time.

That being said, Colbert’s involvement is reason for hope.

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DiggyMcGriz t1_j4vc0aa wrote

Best of luck.

I'm not one of those "It's unfilmable!" guys but there's a reason a lot of really great Zelazny has remained unadapted. All of his stuff is like adaptation hard mode. A lot of his big moments or plot twists hinge upon you not really having access to the visuals. It's a lot of prose fuckery.

Especially if they're going the series route, I imagine they're going to be taking a LOT of liberties with the source material.

But... if it works, they're geniuses. If it doesn't work, then it was obviously a terrible idea from the start. All sins are forgiven if it's *good*.

Anyway, I love (the first half) of all the Amber stuff. I'll be rooting for this not to suck. Good luck!

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Nittanian t1_j4vg9y7 wrote

Replying to hannibalbaracka (#1,394,936)

Yep! Some other confirmed or conjectured references to friends or famous figures include:

  • Alexander Alekhine (Alekyne Florent)
  • Bill Belichick (Triarch Belicho)
  • Thomas B. Costain (House Costayne)
  • David Eddings (House Deddings)
  • Phyllis Eisenstein (Alaric of Eysen)
  • Alan Garner (House Garner)
  • Sharon Kay Penman (House Penrose)
  • Joe Lansdale (House Lansdale)
  • Fritz Leiber (House Lyberr)
  • C. L. Moore (House Moore)
  • Andre Norton (Halleck Hoare)
  • Mervyn Peake (House Peake)
  • Howard Pyle (House Pyle)
  • Phil Simms (Wun Wun)
  • Cordwainer Smith (House Cordwayner)
  • Howard Staunton (House Staunton)
  • Jack Vance (Houses Vance of Atranta and Wayfarer's Rest)
  • Tad Williams (House Willum)
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linksawakening82 t1_j4vivok wrote

My father has a book collection in the 10,000+ range. I would bet half are Sci-fi. How I’ve never seen them on his shelves is surprising to me.

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twbrn t1_j4vkrxs wrote

Replying to metal_stars (#1,393,402)

I hope so, and Colbert being involved gives me a little more hope. It's just that Amber is a lot like Dune in that a LOT of the information and style is conveyed outside of the dialogue. How much of the narrator's knowledge and wit is never really spoken aloud? It's quite a bit.

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AdaAstra t1_j4vm6jg wrote

I have been waiting for sooooo long for someone to finally do a series on those novels. That said, I worry this is going to be a hard sell for alot of people who have never read the series or know nothing about it.

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majiorsamanthacarter t1_j4vorwx wrote

We can’t fix the shattering with science and human hands.

Only the first mover can.

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Logical_Hare t1_j4vpcoa wrote

Pfft, I'm still waiting for an adaptation of Colbert's own sci-fi masterpiece: Stephen Colbert Presents Stephen Colbert's Alpha Squad 7: A Tek Jansen Adventure

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twbrn t1_j4vslv9 wrote

Replying to AngelicDevilz (#1,393,390)

> An example is tighter immigration policy.

Thing is, their obsession with immigration isn't about H1Bs, it's about brown people coming over the border to work service jobs. Even there, it's more about propaganda than policy--"migrant caravans" anyone?

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metal_stars t1_j4w4kmm wrote

Replying to twbrn (#1,396,374)

Hmm, I really don't read things that way. Dune has a density of information issue to it that Amber just does not have. Zelazny provides us with a framework for learning the world. And the concepts of a royal family, political backbiting, grand castles, etc. don't really need that much explanation.

Royal power struggle. One true world. Shadow-walking. Trump cards.

Okay, got it. Done and done.

Then you introduce the individual elements within that framework as they arise.

Yeah, I really think a good writer can easily structure this to bring the audience in, in a compelling way.

The writing has to be good, though.

We will see! (Hopefully.)

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AngelicDevilz t1_j4xho3q wrote

Replying to twbrn (#1,396,919)

More unskilled labor also means lowering wages for low skilled be workers. If you can hire someone here illegally and pay them less than min wage and no taxes then why wouldn't you?

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AngelicDevilz t1_j4xjrsp wrote

Replying to hannibalbaracka (#1,394,980)

So of you could hire someone from a foreign country for cheaper than it costs to train a local then why wouldn't you?

And the moral implication of a country not having enough doctors because they all try to immigrate is that the poor citizens of the native country that don't have the skills to get an H1B visa are left without enough doctors. NPR has done a few stories on its devistating effects in India for example.

Not to mention that universal healthcare and ubi are not possible in a system that allows for high levels of immigration.

But please,tell me how I am wrong instead of just claiming I am. I used to help illegally immigrants skirt the rules to avoid deportation before I became a communist because I was unaware of the impact on the working class.

I suppose of you don't want social saftwy nets and you don't care about Americans in poverty then immigration is great. In reality many of these people should be working to improve their own countries to get them at USA levels.

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hannibalbaracka t1_j4xo8pk wrote

Replying to AngelicDevilz (#1,400,927)

Your entire premise is flawed.

A) There is little evidence that immigrants actually suppress wages of native born workers. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/23550/chapter/2

This is true for both blue collar and white collar workers.

B) Immigrants are also job creators. They are more likely to found businesses (and employ others) than native born Americans. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/immigrants-to-the-u-s-create-more-jobs-than-they-take/amp

C) The idea that it is incumbent on the United States to prevent people from entering the country as an altruistic measure to prevent brain drain in other countries is ludicrous. Not only does it actively hurt the United States, but it is not up to the United States to decide to help other countries in need of doctors by preventing them from immigrating to the US

D) Many countries with universal healthcare currently have high levels of immigration, so it is most certainly possible.

E) Many of these people who want to immigrate are incapable of “working to get their country to US levels” because of risk of persecution, war, climate disaster, authoritarian regimes, bad policymaking and more.

Immigration is proven to be good for the economy, good for immigrants, and good for workers.

And even if it wasn’t good for american workers (which it is), As a communist, you might remember that a certain someone said “Workers of the world, unite!” He didn’t say, “Workers of the world, as long as you’re American, unite.”

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UnquestionabIe t1_j4xyv1f wrote

Replying to stringrandom (#1,390,850)

Amber wasn't really a complete story given how many major plot threads are left dangling at the end. If the author hadn't passed away he had plans to get back into it. And given how incredibly abrupt and anticlimactic the last scene is, coming off more like set up for the next arc, it's pretty disingenuous to pretend otherwise.

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UnquestionabIe t1_j4xzeop wrote

Replying to twbrn (#1,393,170)

One of my favorite things about the series is how much of the story is colored by Corwin and Merlin's narration. They're both very different in their thought process and it drastically impacts how the reader interprets the plot.

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OttersEatFish t1_j4zy7zj wrote

Some of the early ones were serialized in sci fi magazines of the time. I picked up a grocery bag full of them as a kid and devoured them. That’s how I got into the series.

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