A Quick (but ultimately unexciting) Update from Brandon
I spent some time with Harriet and Team Jordan last month during a visit to Charleston for a writing conference. There were two things I wanted to clear up for you all.
The first is regarding the film rights to the Wheel of Time. A lot of people have been asking, and while I’m no longer the steward of Randland as I once was, I’m at least steward emeritus. So I try to look out for you all when I can.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get very much for you. As you probably know, a pilot of a Wheel of Time television show was released in February. This was what they call in the industry an “Ashcan.” It was a quick exploitation of the rights to a property before those rights lapse, an act usually done because a contract includes a stipulation allowing a production company to maintain control of a property as long as they release something on television or in the theaters every five years or so.
The producers call this a “proof of concept” that a television show could work. Team Jordan calls this a violation of the contract. Both ended up suing each other, and both dropped the lawsuits this summer.
Well, the official word from Team Jordan is that “Negotiations are ongoing.” Nothing is settled, they’ve just moved their discussions out of court.
In more interesting news, I asked if there was ever going to be a time when I could reveal things from the books that are unresolved. (Nakomi is the big one, but there are a few secrets that the fans haven’t figured out yet.)
The word from Team Jordan was that they can foresee a time when these things could be revealed, though that time is not now. (Or soon.) I don’t have to take the secret to my grave, then.
There was also interest in someday doing a re-integrated ebook of the last three books, where I weave the chapters back the way they were originally planned (eliminating things like the timeline confusion in Towers.) I think a special edition 2000+ page version of A Memory of Light would be a cool project.
As for some of the things you haven’t picked up on, there is at least one large one, but I did a lot of misdirection on it (because the attention to detail from fans is very impressive, and I didn’t want this one cracked quickly.) So there’s not a ton of evidence for it. You have to know the characters, the rules of the world, and posit something that will probably sound obvious once you realize it is true–but which isn’t manifest in the text.
However, it is major, and kind of a bombshell. I’ve been warned not to say anything, as everyone is a little worried that fans will smell blood and rip it out of me before the time is right.
I should note that while nobody has asked me anything remotely close to being about this, I don’t follow all of the theory threads, so it’s possible the theory is out there and I just haven’t seen it.
It is relating to AMoL and the Forsaken.
What you have to understand is that the notes, outlines, and stories belong to Harriet–and not to me. In her case, keeping back secrets is because she believes (and I think correctly) that Robert Jordan would want to encourage fan discussion of these secrets into the future, allowing them to keep imagining what might happen. Giving it away now would be a little like Willie Wonka telling everyone exactly which chocolate bars contain the golden tickets.
But as to “Why” they own the rights, I would have thought it would be intuitive. If I were to go to Lucas Arts, write a book for them, then come back and tell everyone the plots of the next four Star Wars movies, you don’t think Lucas Arts would have the right to be angry? Even if there was an idea not used in the films, it’s THEIR idea–to be released if they want to, or to not. Maybe they want to keep it for a potential film in the future, or maybe they feel it undermines part of the released story, and don’t want people fixating on it.
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