Sam Raimi’s devleoping a new fantasy t.v. series

Xena and Hercules producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are setting up a new syndicated t.v. show titled Wizard’s First Rule, based on the first of Terry Goodkind’s best selling fantasy books “The Sword of Truth”.

The first run series will screen 22 episodes, the first of which is to begin filming in May and is a joint venture between Disney ABC-Domestic Television and ABC Studio’s. Presumably the scripts were turned in for this a while back so it can film during the WGA strike.

The series follows the transformation of Richard Cypher, a woodsman turned magical leader, in a world of mystical danger where he must save a woman from a bloodthirsty tyrant. Apparentaly the books are quite dark, with several murders and even rapes along the way… which will no doubt needed to be toned down for this kind of feature.

The novel on which the book is based on is probably most famous for the fact that author Terry Goodkind was 45 when he decided to give up his job and take up writing. Just one year later he was given an advance of up to $300,000, and it would became a massive international best-seller and one of the most successful debut novels in history after shipping sixty thousand copies.

There are now 11 books in the series and Raimi see that as being rich enough for along running series. I never did get into Xena or Hercules… didn’t particularly like the ‘tonque-in-cheek’ tone, though I did like the Greek Mythology they sometimes played with. Gonna be interesting to see how this one turns out.

source - the hollywood reporter

Thanks for visiting us at Obsessed With Film, we update several times a day, so if you haven't done so yet you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also sign up to receive updates via e-mail.