Would Prydain Be Better as Films or as a Television Series?
The Blind Eternities forum
Posted on Feb. 25, 2021, 7:06 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
With medieval fantasy stories experiencing a resurgence in popularity, recently, I would like to see a live-action adaptation of The Chronicles of Prydain, one that is closer to the original books and has a grand and epic feel, akin to the recent live-action adaptations of Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and A Song of Ice and Fire; I did enjoy the Walt Disney Company’s film, The Black Cauldron, for how different it was from anything else that they had produced, before then, but that film combined the first two books of the series, so felt very unfocused and lacked cohesion.
However, I am wondering what would be the best format for such an adaptation; the first presumption would be to adapt the books into theatrical films (logically, one film for each book), but a television or web series may work, as well, since A Song of Ice and Fire was adapted as a television series, rather than as movies, and numerous book series that had first been adapted as movies were later adapted as television series (such as His Dark Materials or A Series of Unfortunate Events, and there are even rumors about television adaptations of Narnia and Harry Potter being produced). In such a format, it would make sense for each book to be adapted into two episodes of such a series, as was the case for A Series of Unfortunate Events.
What does everyone else say about this? Would The Chronicles of Prydain be better as films or a television series?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
legendofa, I am not certain about that, since each book has a very distinct plot, and it would feel too weird to combine them, although, if that needed to be done, then I would suggest combining the third book, The Castle of Llyr, with the fourth book, Taran Wanderer, since those two books both focus very strongly on Taran's personal growth, but the final book, The High King, must stand on its own and not be condensed for a film adaptation.
February 27, 2021 4:04 p.m.
That was my breakdown. I probably should have mentioned that in the post.
legendofa says... #2
There's five books there, and you mention that the Disney movie condensed the first two. Which is fine, for what it was trying to do. If you want a faithful adaptation, I'd go with television (or on-demand streaming). If you don't mind significant modification, I think a movie trilogy would tell the story well without feeling bloated.
February 27, 2021 1:31 p.m.