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[tearsintherain]

You want a game of thrones killer?

Budget 90 mil per episode.

Battle episodes 160mil.

The horus heresy.

Yeah, a high budget Warhammer TV show could do really well, if it stuck true to the violence and depravity in the books and stuff.

I think amazon will have to fire off a lot of its top inhouse TV development staff before they can get to the place they want to be. I'm sure shows like Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle and Man in the High Castle and Alpha House have their fan base but they are extremely niche slices and they need to pivot hard and look at the rom coms, the giant sci fi and fantasy stories, and the mysterious/unknown (Indiana Jones, X-Files, etc) to get that wide appeal. Instead what mostly comes out of amazon feels like artsy projects and thats almost certainly a result of what the programming decision makers prefer.

The fact that they have really had zero fantasy or scifi offerings pretty much speaks for itself. They should have been the ones to get The Expanse, Dark Matter, Killjoys, 12 Monkeys, Altered Carbon, Westworld, etc and learned from it how to go even bigger and better. They could have figured out a way to work a deal to get Star Trek, even in secondary rights but Netflix beat them.

 

[FaustsBoon]

I want to say I hate each and every one of you suggesting 40k/Horus Heresy.... because I want it so badly, and know it won't happen. :-(

I would sell an organ to see a live-action Bjorn the Fel-Handed (Last of the Company of Russ), being a boss.

 

[Noema]

Asimov's Foundation series.

This is how his hits are made right? Someone just says, hey, make a hit, and then someone does it.

They need to bang their show at the table while demanding their megahit.

 

[Geist-]

I bet most of those Prime subscribers have Netflix too. I rarely ever watch anything on Amazon Prime.

It's not exactly hard to market an appealing show to people who are already paying for your service.

 

[SofNasciment-]

Asimov's Foundation series.

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/foun...ies-coming-from-david-goyer-and-josh-friedman

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Dune, and do it right this time.

And we are done here. Do a faithful adaptation and throw a shitload of money and talent at it.

 

[Wag]

It's not exactly hard to market an appealing show to people who are already paying for your service.

So why haven't they done it already? Their original content is largely bland and unappealing compared to Netflix's. I watched most of High Castle and found it too dark and depressing. The Tick was OK, just not enough of it.

 

[andythinkpad]

Foundation can be done very cheaply for its early settings.

Personally I think its shit.

Unfortunately all my favorite scifi novels from Stephenson and Gibson require large budget.

Hopefully I will see an adaptation of Diamond Age before I die. They can even sucker China into funding the show.

 

[ClosingADoor]

I recall reading that HBO regreted cancelling that show. And I found Rome to be the only other TV series in the same level of Game of Thrones as far as production values and attention to detail is concerned.

HBO, or any other, should try to make a similar series but during the reign of Constantine or thereabout. It could be truly epic.

Or Byzantine Empire. Those were some truly back stabbing, plotting times. Everyone out to kill everyone, trust not even yourself.

 

[i-Lo]

Whilst it may, in all likelihood, never reach the same fandom as GoT, perhaps becoming the producer of Dredd would be a good idea. It's such a nice blend of sci-fi, cyberpunk and fantasy.

What are you talking about? Amazon spends almost twice what HBO does on original content, $4.5 billion. They are second only to Netflix. Netflix actually got scared and had to increase their spend in response to Amazon.

And for all of that, I still find that Netflix (Canada) still has more enticing original atm. But, competition is good.

 

[NLCP Gaming]

Harry Potter

 

[shadow_shogun]

The Witcher or Berserk would make for great TV.

 

[Geist-]

So why haven't they done it already? Their original content is largely bland and unappealing compared to Netflix's. I watched most of High Castle and found it too dark and depressing. The Tick was OK, just not enough of it.

It's really hard to make any arguments since Amazon hasn't released viewership numbers (as far as I'm aware).

The Grand Tour is apparently their most watched show at the moment, and I can believe them considering how massive the Top Gear fan base was.

 

[SofNasciment-]

Or Byzantine Empire. Those were some truly back stabbing, plotting times. Everyone out to kill everyone, trust not even yourself.

The Roman Empire after the fall of its western provinces has traditionally been ignored, we hear of Justinian and Belisarius but that's about it. There is plenty of material to a great series after a Fall of the West, but I doubt anyone would pick the reign of Heraclius or Basil II over earlier rulers.

 

[Poetic.Injustice]

Everyone suggesting Berserk isn't suggesting the real anime/novel that can be turned into a Game of Thrones style series: Legend of Galactic heroes. Multiple perspectives, space opera spanning years.

Star Trek audience would eat that right up.

 

[ramparter]

You want a game of thrones killer?

Budget 90 mil per episode.

Battle episodes 160mil.


The horus heresy.

Or you know, hire really good writers, keep the budget to normal levels. First season of got was probably the cheapest and is still the best, I dont watch GoT for the battles and the special effects.

 

[Barzul]

Live action Avatar the Last Airbender with the right budget and aged up characters and a bit more gritty. The fundamentals are great and established fanbase would tune in.

Mistborn trilogy as well although I'm not sure the tech to do that right even exists or it would be super expensive to produce.

Something sci fi based like the Expanse but even more fleshed out.

 

[AmayaPapaya]

I don't know if you can just create that. I don't think that HBO even realized that GoT would be as huge of a success as it was. Good luck, I guess, LOL.

 

[UrokeJoe]

The Elric Saga.

 

[f0rk]

You want a game of thrones killer?

Budget 90 mil per episode.

Battle episodes 160mil.


The horus heresy.

A show without any women in it is not going to get anywhere near Game of Thrones

 

[sunshine and gasoline]

Everyone suggesting Berserk isn't suggesting the real anime/novel that can be turned into a Game of Thrones style series: Legend of Galactic heroes. Multiple perspectives, space opera spanning years.

Star Trek audience would eat that right up.

Legend of Galactic Heroes would be nice to see as live action though I would prefer Five Star Stories.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Or Byzantine Empire. Those were some truly back stabbing, plotting times. Everyone out to kill everyone, trust not even yourself.

The Roman Empire after the fall of its western provinces has traditionally been ignored, we hear of Justinian and Belisarius but that's about it. There is plenty of material to a great series after a Fall of the West, but I doubt anyone would pick the reign of Heraclius or Basil II over earlier rulers.

Want to capitalise on the Vikings audience? Highlight the Varangian Guard.

 

[SofNasciment-]

Anyway, besides 4th century Rome, I'd love to see The Culture novels being adapted. I think that would be my two picks.

 

[Deleted member 98878]

A prime series would be one of Brandon Sandersons. Mistborn. Stormlight.

That'd be great. I think there's already someone is working on a The Way of Kings movie adaption.

 

[SofNasciment-]

I don't know if you can just create that. I don't think that HBO even realized that GoT would be as huge of a success as it was. Good luck, I guess, LOL.

I agree. Just throwing money at a TV series wouldn't make it the next GoT. I doubt that will ever happen actually.

 

[VeeP]

Aren't there they making a Witcher TV series? If done well it could be great. Not GoT levels but it could do well.

Someone above suggest a Harry Potter series. A series of multiple set in the same world could do great. I would love to see a Hogwarts type school series. And I would love to see a Auror series.

Beyond that I've always wanted to see a Band of Brothers style ODST series. It wouldn't do amazing but I think it'd do well if the writing and production values were good. (Halo needs some of its hype back tho, who knows how Halo 6 will launch)

Beyond that, just focus on writing, acting, good production values. Take risks. Be bold. Hopefully something great lands in your lap.

 

[Drifters]

I got you Bezo's fam:

Feb 2018: Launch Season 1 of Dredd: Mega City 1 on Amazon Prime Streaming
Nov 2018: Launch sequel to 'Dredd' 'Dredd: Future Judgement" via Amazon Films
Apr 2019: Launch Season 2 of Dredd: The Lonely Walk on Amazon Prime Streaming
Dec 2019: Launch sequel to 'Dredd Future Judgement' 'Dredd: Retribution' via Amazon Films
June 2020: Launch final season (Season 3): 'Dredd: ...And justice for all'

Hire me Amazon and I will make you money.

 

[i-Lo]

Can there ever be a sci-fi show that becomes as big as GoT or close to it (aside from Star Wars and Trek)? Currently, I can only think of The Expanse that has made significant waves in the mainstream media.

 

[Frozenprince]

TV Berserk would be great simply because I want to feast on the reactions of show watchers to the boat.

 

[Barzul]

Oh god. I don't even want to think about how that would end up. Kudos to anybody who could make that into a coherent TV show.


Took me a good 3/4 of the way through the first book to even have a clue what was going on.


A prime series would be one of Brandon Sandersons. Mistborn. Stormlight.

Sandersons series would be great but surely even more expensive than GOT? Can't imagine what the special effects budget to make Lashing and Shards look impressive. Think Mistborn would be easier than Stormlight.

 

[SofNasciment-]

Want to capitalise on the Vikings audience? Highlight the Varangian Guard.

I'll be quite... disappointed if they ever make a series about the Roman Empire after the fall of the west just to focus on the Varangian Guard. But I get what you're saying.

I wonder if we will see them in the next season of Vikings?

 

[Sibersk Esto]

Berserk literally has none of GOT's appeal past the Golden Age arc.

 

[Ikuu]

First Law would be perfect, and don't need to worry about the books being finished.

 

[andythinkpad]

Legend of Galactic Heroes would be nice to see as live action though I would prefer Five Star Stories.

I watched the entire Legend of Galactic Heroes because I am a Three Kingdoms fan. On personal drama level is boring as fuck. It has almost zero palace intrigue.

12 Kingdoms has more palace intrigue and it's a rate G series.

 

[jet1911]

Stephen King's IP are pretty hot right now so maybe a Dark Tower series or The Stand could br succesful.

 

[Hero_of_the_Day]

Why hasn't anyone else thought of this yet!?

 

[Just_myles]

It's The Boys.

Seriously? That book gets pretty demented.

 

[HStallion]

Anyone thinking the Horus Heresy would make for good TV realizes there are barely any female characters, let alone female characters of much import. The Space Marines and Primarchs are all men and often the most extreme examples of them.

TV Berserk would be great simply because I want to feast on the reactions of show watchers to the boat.

The Eclipse makes the Red Wedding look like a walk in the park on a sunny Summer afternoon. If they did everything right leading up to it, it would probably give people a freak out we have never seen before.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Aren't there they making a Witcher TV series? If done well it could be great. Not GoT levels but it could do well.

Someone above suggest a Harry Potter series. A series of multiple set in the same world could do great. I would love to see a Hogwarts type school series. And I would love to see a Auror series.

Beyond that I've always wanted to see a Band of Brothers style ODST series. It wouldn't do amazing but I think it'd do well if the writing and production values were good. (Halo needs some of its hype back tho, who knows how Halo 6 will launch)

Beyond that, just focus on writing, acting, good production values. Take risks. Be bold. Hopefully something great lands in your lap.

Netflix are doing the Witcher. That one's interesting since, on paper, you actually do to some degree have the kind of built-in audience that ASoIaF had prior to Game of Thrones airing. The Witcher series has been bought into and enjoyed by over ten million people... but not for the books. So how well the show is able to translate the audience of the games into its own audience, even while potentially being truer to the source material and having differences of its own, will be key in deciding what scale of hit it might be.

Edit:

I'll be quite... disappointed if they ever make a series about the Roman Empire after the fall of the west just to focus on the Varangian Guard. But I get what you're saying.

I wonder if we will see them in the next season of Vikings?

Ideally highlight instead of star. Just an additional hook to say 'This is related to other historical shit you really enjoyed!'

 

[thefro]

I think Game of Thrones popularity derives a lot from being able to capture a part of the nerdish territory (with a lot of established fans) while being very conventional tv in the process. There's barely any action, loads of smallish settings, interiors, where you can place the camera an allow actors to do their thing while intercutting some nice vistas here and there. The costumes and nice sets end up hiding a lot it's limitations. I don't think it's easy to find properties that you can mask it so well it's just tv.

But if the plan is to imitate I would probably look at other best selling properties, cause got was already popular.

It had an audience, but I don't think the books really blew up until the HBO series was announced. It wasn't a Harry Potter/Hunger Games thing. I didn't read the books until I saw on here about the HBO adaption and how it was "Lord of the Rings meets the Sopranos".

The key appeals of GOT are:
- Twists and turns and seemingly no character is safe. Every main character has horrible things happen to them.
- The different houses and their dynamics/alliances and backstabbing
- Great cast and talent. Big ensemble. Characters you like or love to hate.
- Sex/gore
- Big budget, good CG and big movie-like battles.
- It's adapted from pretty good source material, but even with D&D's faults as writers they make it fun to watch and throw in some humor and fun things even with all the dark stuff.
- Mainly played pretty straight-up as historical fiction in an alternate universe until the fantasy elements like the dragons are slowly added.

 

[AgentChris]

Men in Black, Monster, Elder Scroll...

The best bet and recommendation from this thread was Robin Hood. Lots of side characters to jump back and forth from.

 

[KernelPanic]

Love these books, they got started me into the fantasy novel genre. Serpentwar saga wasn't bad either.

Yeah those were good too.

Magician is a coming of age tale of Pug and Thomas and there's a lot of intrigue in the Tsuurani empire as well as Rillanon and Krondor if memory serves. Always thought it would work well as a series if they cast the right people.

 

[Aureon]

Asimov's Foundation is about the only thing with enough comparable GOOD twists and turns that could work.
After "Fake history with dragons", "Fake history with spaceships" is about as good as it gets.
Not enough material for 5+ seasons, though.

 

[Lari]

A well written and plotted 'Saw' tv show could be really good.

They would have to reboot everything and spin their own mythology out of the basic premise.
But the thought of a show where every other week someone dies to some horrible puzzle/contraption and the audience is playing detective to figure out what is actually going on sounds enticing to me.

 

[Hilbert]

give me Gormenghast using Henson like puppets.

it won't be a mega hit, but it would be neat.

 

[Sesha]

Good thinking.

Get a Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter going while you're at it.

Oh wait, stuff like this doesn't grow on trees.

 

[PrivateWHudson]

I'm rooting for the wheel of time. Last I heard they were getting close, and shopping for a network. It has the biggest element that casual GoT fans pick up on. A tight group of heroes that get separated and grow while on adventurers.

 

[CadetMahoney]

This guy.

I DEMAND it!

 

[sometimes i game]

Yeah I'm all for being experimental (Netflix) but one thing I loved was a Netflix original at one time was a seal of quality. Now they shove anything out to see what sticks. Amazon originals were also a seal of quality but they badge is fading. They should focus on more big quality hits and less volume.

Whether it has to be fantastical like GOT to be a hit or not I'd say no.

 

[GoldenCrow]

Pick a series of books by an author with a decent following on a content that has potential mass appeal and can take existing structures of highly rated tv series such as The Sopranos or The Wire to grab the critical reception then dumb it down as you increase the action and more viewers start to watch.

Troy trilogy by David Gemmell
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski