Legend of the Seeker: L'épée de vérité

Filming of Wizard's First Rule, the first book in Terry Goodkind's popular The Sword of Truth books began this week.

But the 22-episode series has been renamed Legend of the Seeker - apparently to avoid religious concerns among American audiences about scorcery.

Executive producers Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert told a comics and fantasy convention of the name change, and announced the New Zealand actors, Entertainment Weekly reported.

The syndicated series from Disney-ABC Domestic Television and ABC Studios, will premiere in the United States on the weekend of November 1. The series marks ABC Studios' first foray into broadcast syndication, and has already been sold into stations covering 95 percent of the American market, according to TV Week.com.

Each one hour episode will have a New Zealand director and the series will be shot in the Auckland region over 36 months. One of the episodes will be directed by New Zealand actor Michael Hurst who starred in the original Hercules TV series.

The series is based around a backwoods guide, Richard - played by Australian actor Craig Horner - in Westland, the only part of the world which contains no magic. While investigating the mysterious murder of his father he rescues a woman, Kahlan Amnell, (played by American actress Bridget Regan) who has crossed over from the "magic" side of the world, and does battle with an evil dictator.

Raimi said Australian actor Bruce Spence will play Richard's best friend Zedd, Jay Laga'aia will play a boundary warden Chase, and Craig Parker will play the series' villain, Darken Rahl.

Parker spent four years on Shortland Street after being cast as Guy Warner in 1992, and won international attention after being cast as Haldir, one of Lothlorien's elves in the first two parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Laga'aia played David Silesi in four series of the television drama Street Legal and Captain Typho, in two Star Wars films, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Tapert, who filmed Hercules and Xena, Warrior Princess in New Zealand and married his star, Lucy Lawless, in 1998 showed people at the convention a clip from the show's filming around Auckland.

...I'm actually really enjoying this series (as of episode 4). I started watching Legend of the Seeker knowing that I was signing up for extreme fantasy, and must say it's very entertaining. It is a huge call to pay off a story of this scale every week without looking embarrassingly cheap, especially with all the special effects required. To the show's credit, it embraces what it is and delivers an unusually high standard for television.

I find the action sequences gripping. They have put a lot of effort into stylizing the fights, and as someone who generally finds hand-to-hand a bit dull because it's all cut-cut-cut to hide inconsistencies and build pace, Legend of the Seeker has some wonderful stunt work and detailed action. The slow-mos are fantastic; it is great to see the detail and be able to understand the complexity of choreography instead of it being hidden under choppy editing.

I will agree that Craig Horner is almost too pretty for this role, but it compliments the style the directors have taken; just look at the effort that's been put into delivering beautiful cinematography. It is not surprising they have chosen to cast equally beautiful leads to give the show a holistically beautiful appeal. And let there be no doubt: this show's cinematography coupled with New Zealand's breathtaking topography makes for a very pretty show.

The angry and negative reactions of the book fans has been pretty overwhelming, and a bit disappointing to read. But on the bright side, this show has encouraged me to pick up the books. So it's not all lose/lose for fans of the books, as the show is garnering new readers for the novels.

I bought Wizard's First Rule the day it was released in 1994, simply because of the great cover art and my love for new, good fantasy books. What I got was my favorite fantasy series of all time, including Tolkien and Jordan. I am a published author myself, as well as having a profile on this website. I am an avid reader of classic literature since 1975, especially fantasy. So, written above, is my claim to believability.

This series is terrific. The camera work and ambiance is smooth and satisfying for the fantasy genre of swordplay, magic and high adventure on an epic scale. The story is changed a bit, especially the time line, but that is expected to keep it exciting and suspenseful for a TV audience, which it is. Can you imagine tuning into a show about a book you've never heard of and watching a woods guide walking around the forest for 2 hours? Of course not. It amazes me how many people complain about the series without doing a bit of research, making common errors. Terry Goodkind IS involved, intimately, with the story flow of the show and to keep his characters as close to his creations as possible, allowing only changes needed for TV adaption. You can read a letter about the series, directly from Terry to his readers, on his official website TerryGoodkind.com. It explains everything. Go read it to keep this review shorter after you've finished here.

Some people are comparing this series to the Lord of the Rings movies, and, in the same breath, complaining about the changes made for this TV series from the Wizard's First Rule book. Yeah, like they never had to cut anything out of LOTR movies. That book was only about the size of the bible. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE LOTR; books and movies. It's my second-favorite fantasy series of all time. The only reason I like Goodkind better is deeper characters more easily related to. As for the changes in the "Legend" series, as you will read in Terry's letter, they are mainly ADDITIONS to use up all the time they are afforded in a full TV series. People seem to be uninformed of this and are making snap judgments. Now, I don't know about you, but I can't think of anything better than watching my favorite book series in live action with even MORE content and background, from, and approved by, Terry himself. I'm beside myself with happiness at this and hope everyone tunes in and avoids the uninformed negativity, and that it runs for 11 seasons to tell the expanded stories of every single book in The Sword of Truth series.

Some are also comparing this to Hercules and Xena simply because some of the same people happen to be working on it. Hercules and Xena this is not. Those shows were entertaining in their own right. I enjoyed the episodes that I saw. However, they were mainly a bunch of campy, individual fantasy-based shows that happened to form a series. They were meant to be that way for people who enjoyed that type of show, and I don't fault them for that, at all. Legend of the Seeker is a continuing story of amazing vision, that of Terry Goodkind's first book, "Wizard's First Rule." If you enjoy epic fantasy, trust me, keep watching.

I hope you found this helpful.

OK here is the bottom line: Wizard's First Rule is a mature adventure filled with both intense violence and extreme sexual content. To put this miniseries on a channel other than HBO or other unedited station would be compromising the original drama and story line of WFR. If this show is put on a channel where it will not be able to show the Demmin Nass content, the sexual scenes between Richard and Kahlan, and the gore of the seeker's battles, then it should not be created in the first place. If you do not agree with what I am saying. then you obviously and sadly do not fully appreciate the artistic beauty of what Goodkind writes. A great deal of drama and feeling cannot be portrayed within WFR without the mature content. But then again, it will still never compare to actually reading the novel.

I heard about this series by a friend that said "Just don't read the comments before you see it". Of course, that was the very first thing I did, and let me tell you how afraid was after I read them!! I though this series was going to suck big time, but had to see it by myself and guess what - I loved it! OK, it's not phenomenal, but it's quite good. I was kept interested, the photography was awesome, the costumes, too. I've only just seen the first two, but I sure am going to see the others and if they continue like this I'll be a fan. I'm not sure if I'd would of liked it had I read the books that this series is based on, but I think I would have. I've always been good at separating the books from their interpretations to the theater or television. When I watched "Legend of the Seeker" I watched the show for itself and therefore I enjoyed it very much. It's good entertainment for a fantasy series and I was actually quite surprised by the excellent performance of the actress Bridget Regan.