Deadline reports that production company A24 and Nightcrawler producer, Jennifer Fox, are planning to adapt Ursula K. Le Guin's beloved fantasy series, Earthsea, into a television series! With Le Guin's blessing (and her son's support) to Fox, my fingers are crossed that we will finally get a proper adaptation of the Earthsea stories. “Ursula Le Guin is a literary legend with a huge fan base and her work has been translated into practically every written language on the globe,” said Fox. “She is second only to Tolkien in influence in this genre, and before she died last year, she agreed to put her most beloved work in my hands. This project is, therefore, a sacred trust and priority for me as well as an opportunity to create an iconic piece of American culture.” . . . “Ursula long hoped to see an adaptation of Earthsea that represented a collaboration between her ideas and words and the visual storytelling of others,” said the author’s son, Theo Downes-Le Guin. “I feel very fortunate that, with Jennifer Fox and A24, we have a bedrock of producing and development experience that can bring the sweeping narrative and moral truths of my mother’s work to screen.”
Considering how sacred Fox considers the books, I think it's safe to say she knows how important the casting is. I'm sure that was something that was discussed between her and Le Guin before Fox got Le Guin's blessing.
I've always heard wonderful things about this book series. I'll need to read it before this adaptation comes out.
I have to confess, I've never read any of her stuff. I did watch a documentary PBS showed about her earlier this year, and it went into some pretty extensive details about her writing, and a lot of it, including the Earthsea books, sounded really interesting.
I've read positive stuff about these books and they do look fascinating. This could be quite nice if done properly.
Never read Earthsea, and never saw the SciFi Channel series, nor the Studio Ghibli adaptation. I have, though, read two of Le Guin's other works, "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "The Dispossessed", both of which I hold in very high regard. I never planned to get into Earthsea, as I'm a way too slow reader to commit to another longer series, so I'm looking forward to getting a good TV adaptation.
My spouse and I used to read to each other a lot when we were dating. This was a series he loved in childhood and introduced to me in college. We are both stoked about this news and hoping they don't whitewash the cast.