Dragon*Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the US.
Dragon*Con 2008 will be held Labor Day weekend (August 29 - September 1, 2008) in Atlanta, GA.
Fri 02:30 pm A707 Marriott Marquis Who You Callin’ a Kid?
Sat 11:30 am Hanover C - E Hyatt Regency Meet Brandon Sanderson
Sat 05:30 pm Regency V Hyatt Regency Wheel of Time Costume Contest
Sat 07:00 pm Regency VI - VII Hyatt Regency Awards Banquet
Sun 11:30 am Regency V Hyatt Regency Robert Jordan Memorial Panel
Mon 11:30 am Roswell Hyatt Regency Dragon*Reading: Brandon Winn Sanderson
Mon 01:00 pm M301 - M304 Marriott Marquis Dragon*AutoGraph
Sanderson will be doing an additional free signing at the Badali Jewelry booth (A9 & A10) from 10:30 am to 11:30 am on Sunday.
Variety has published a report announcing that Universal Picures has acquired the rights to the Wheel of Time series and intends to create a big-budget live action film. Here are the details below:
Universal spinning “Wheel of Time”
Studio nabs film rights to Robert Jordan book
By SAM THIELMAN
Universal Pictures has acquired film rights to the late Robert Jordan’s bestselling “The Wheel of Time” novel series in a seven-figure deal.
Adaptations of the fantasy tomes will begin with the first book in the cycle, “The Eye of the World.” Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon will produce for Red Eagle Entertainment, which published graphic novel adaptations of Jordan’s books.
“The Wheel of Time” follows, among its dozens of characters, Rand al’Thor, the latest incarnation of a force for good called “The Dragon.” Rand is born to fight an evil character called Shai’tan. “Wheel of Time” books have sold 44 million copies worldwide and spawned computer, trading-card and role-playing games; a soundtrack; comicbooks; and numerous fan sites. The four most recent installments have reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
The property has been optioned before, notably in 2000, when NBC held the rights to make a miniseries based on “The Eye of the World.”
Jordan died last year at 58, but the final book in the series is still set for publication in fall 2009, with fellow fantasy scribe Brandon Sanderson writing the novel’s conclusion from Jordan’s notes and tapes.
So what does this mean? It means that Red Eagle Entertainment is working closely with Universal to create a movie based off of THE EYE OF THE WORLD. No actors or director have been announced. It will be a while before any of that happens. Typically, an announcement like this is a good sign of a movie actually moving forward, but of course, there are no guarantees… yet.
The Reality Break podcast has posted an outstanding 30-minute audio interview with Robert Jordan that was conducted in 1994, while RJ was on book tour for LORD OF CHAOS. In the interview, RJ gives many of his trademark responses (like how he’s known the end of the series since before he wrote the first book). But nonetheless, the interview is insightful, well conducted, and more than a little heart-breaking when you think of Jim’s all too early passing.
Tor Books has announced the release of the 2009 Wheel of Time calendar. The calendar contains WoT inspired images created by fans of the series.
Shortly before he died, Robert Jordan put a call out to fans to submit original pieces of artwork. From those submissions, he personally chose the winners to appear in the calendar.
He wrote, “I know there is some really professional quality work because I have seen it. Style doesn’t matter in this. Manga, hyper-realism, current cover-art. Whatever. Anything and everything is acceptable as a possibility. It will be the quality that counts, not the style. If you want to try it the way you think Rembrandt would have done it, go for it.”
The July 2008 publication of ROBERT JORDAN’S THE WHEEL OF TIME® 2009 CALENDAR offers another new way to experience favorite stories and characters, and will be a must-have for Robert Jordan’s millions of fans.
The Dabel Brothers have released two teaser preview images for their upcoming EYE OF THE WORLD comic book. One image shows Lews Therin Telamon surrounded by the Forsaken as they appeared in the Age of Legends. The second image shows Rand surrounded by the same Forsaken as they appear in the modern (”Third”) Age.
Click each image to see it in full size.
The artwork was done by Mike S. Miller, and the coloring was done by Teodoro Gonzalez.
The Dabel Brothers are now in production on creating graphic novels for the entire Wheel of Time series. They will begin with The Eye of the World and go sequentially from there, all the way through A Memory of Light. Here is the press release:
DABEL BROTHERS TO ADAPT ROBERT JORDAN’S BESTSELLING
WHEEL OF TIME SERIES IN COMIC BOOK FORMAT
NEW YORK, NY – July 1, 2008 – Dabel Brothers Publishing announced today that they will adapt Robert Jordan’s bestselling Wheel of Time series, which has sold more than 14 million copies in North America alone, into comic book format. The first issue is scheduled to release in December 2008.
The Wheel of Time began in 1990 with the publication of The Eye of the World; ten more volumes have followed. The most recent four books of the series have reached #1 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list. It is the story of a world – both our past, and our future – in which the battle between the Light and the Shadow must be fought every day; and of the people, both ordinary and extraordinary, who must fight that battle. Jordan wrote eleven volumes of the series and one prequel; he was unable to complete the twelfth and final volume before his death in 2007. That volume, A Memory of Light, will be completed by Brandon Sanderson, a writer chosen by Jordan’s widow and editor, Harriet McDougal, and published by Tor Books in 2009.
The Dabel Brothers published a comic adaptation of Jordan’s A New Spring in March 2005. In conjunction with that project, Robert Jordan provided them with extensive notes for use in further possible publications, including character descriptions and other visuals.
“I’m delighted to be working with the Dabel Brothers! Their work is splendid. Robert Jordan liked it enormously,” says Harriet McDougal.
Graphic-novel collected editions of the individual comics will be distributed by Del Rey, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group. The deal was negotiated by Jordan’s agent, Nat Sobel.
Robert Jordan was born in 1948 in Charleston, South Carolina. He taught himself to read when he was four with the incidental aid of a twelve-years-older brother, and was tackling Mark Twain and Jules Verne by five. He was a graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, with a degree in physics. He served two tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army; among his decorations are the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze oak leaf cluster, the Bronze Star with “V” and bronze oak leaf cluster, and two Vietnamese Gallantry Crosses with Palm. A history buff, he also wrote dance and theater criticism. He enjoyed the outdoor sports of hunting, fishing and sailing, and the indoor sports of poker, chess, pool, and pipe collecting. He began writing in 1977 and continued until his death on September 16, 2007.
Dabel Brothers Publishing, LLC, is a comic book studio dedicated to bringing many of the best and most popular novels in the world of fantasy to the comic book medium. Since its inception in 2001 they have produced adaptations of novels by bestselling authors including George R.R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Laurell K. Hamilton, Raymond E. Feist, Tad Williams, Richard A. Knaak, and Robert Silverberg. Currently on the schedule is a remarkable list of high-profile projects including adaptations of major novels by bestselling authors: Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son, an original story set in the world of Jim Butcher’s bestselling series The Dresden Files, a Wild Cards series edited and overseen by George R. R. Martin, and a brand-new Mercy Thompson adventure by Patricia Briggs titled Mercy Thompson: Homecoming.
There are no plans at this time for the Dabel Brothers to return to complete the New Spring graphic novel that they were working on with Red Eagle Entertainment.
As promotional art and other news arrives, we will post it here.
Posted by
Kathana
on
June 1st, 2008 in the
JordanCon category
Representatives from JordanCon will be at Sci Fi Summer, popular media convention held in Marrietta, Georgia. Sci Fi Summer bills itself as “The official start of summer sci fi s.e. fandom”. It will be held at the Crown Plaza Atlanta-Marietta from June 6-8. Sci Fi Summer membership is $30 at the door.
JordanCon is the first Wheel of Time fan convention. It will be held April 17th-19th at the Alpharetta Embassy Suites in Alpharetta, GA. Pre-registration is $50 until August 18th.
Not really sure how this slipped past us, but Hunter Wentworth has been diligently raising for his Robert Jordan documentary. With only three days left on his deadline, he’s within several hundred dollars of his goal. Let’s see if we can get him over the top.
Posted by
Kathana
on
April 20th, 2008 in the
JordanCon category
Pre-registration for JordanCon is now open. JordanCon is the first convention dedicated to exploring Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series and his rich, literary legacy. It will be held April 17-19, 2009 at the Alpharetta Embassy Suites in Alpharetta, Georgia. Our Guest of Honor is Harriet MacDougal, Robert Jordan’s wife and editor. Our Fan Guest of Honor is Wilson Grooms, Jordan’s cousin and frequent contributor to his blog on Dragonmount.
Posted by
Jason
on
April 16th, 2008 in the
Tor Books category
On April 18th, Tor.com will be making some WOT artwork images available to the public. As I understand it, they will be high resolution images that you can download and use as desktop wallpaper, etc.
Wheel of Time wallpapers available for the first time on April 18th
Two Wheel of Time wallpapers will be available for download this Friday, April 18th, at tor.com (www.tor.com). This will mark the first time that these WOT wallpapers have been legally available for download.
Anyone who visits tor.com can download the WOT wallpapers. Anyone who signs up at tor.com will also be able to download Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn novel in PDF, HTML, and Mobi e-book formats at some time in the next several weeks.
Tor.com is an exciting and highly interactive science fiction and fantasy site soon to come. Watch the Skies. www.tor.com
Update:
The first two wallpapers are available on Tor’s website. You can download them in sizes appropriate for an iPhone all the way up to 1600×1200 resolutions.
The Eye of the World
The Great Hunt
The Dragon Reborn
The Shadow Rising
The Fires of Heaven
Lord of Chaos
A Crown of Swords
The Path of Daggers
Winter's Heart
Crossroads of Twilight
Knife of Dreams
A Memory of Light
New Spring
