Sam Raimi Directing The Kingkiller Chronicle Film

Sam Raimi

by James White |
Published on

As if the ambitious adaptations of Patrick Rothfuss' excellent The Kingkiller Chronicle fantasy novel series didn't already boast enough talent helping to make them a reality, the team just added an experienced director. Sam Raimi is making a deal to jump aboard.

One of the key components of Lionsgate's plan to turn the books (two main entries in the series have been published to date, a third is fervently awaited) into both movies and a TV series, the film has Lindsey Beer writing the script, which will channel the narrative across three time streams: the present, in which the protagonist, Kvothe, is dictating his life’s story to a historian of sorts; the past, a first-person account of Kvothe’s life, and lastly, in chronologically cloudy parables and stories peppered throughout the books. It aims to adapt the first book, The Name Of The Wind.

Hamilton man Lin-Manuel Miranda is involved as a creative producer and musical consultant (Rothfuss' story has a lot of music in it, as Kvothe is a talented songwriter and player in addition to magical abilities) for both the movies and TV, which will allow the story to be fully realised. John Rogers is in charge of the small screen side of things for US cable outlet Showtime.

Raimi's flirted with big-scale fantasy before; he was briefly attached to direct Warcraft. But if he definitely ends up making this, it could represent a big next step in his career.

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