Q&A: Legend of the Seeker Producer Ken Biller Still ‘Hopeful for A Third Season’

Based on The Sword of Truth book series by Terry Goodkind, ABC Studios’ Legend of the Seeker has picked up where other fantasy shows left off – in New Zealand.

In the mid-90s, fans were wild for fantasy hits Xena and Hercules and producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert are just adding more fuel to their fire. LOTS, which made its debut in November 2008, follows the story of woodsman Richard Cypher (Craig Horner) who learns of the prophecy made at his birth that reveals he is destined to protect the world from evil. At his side are the confessor Kahlan Amnell (Bridget Regan) and the wise wizard Zedd (Bruce Spence).

Now into its second season, LOTS is a charming window into Goodkind’s magical world, and minus the goofy quips a la Herc or Xena, it’s intense plot lines can really drive you to keep coming back. But despite a growing fan base of dedicated viewers, the show has remained on the bubble of the top 25 shows in syndication. (To make matters worse, last week The Tribune Company announced it will drop LOTS from its stations’ roster next season, which could spell big trouble for the show as far as a renewal is concerned.)

Still, when I talked with executive producer Ken Biller (Star Trek: Voager, Dark Angel) he seemed optimistic about a chance at a third season and let me in on of some of the things we’ll see at the end of season two. (Hint: More monsters and a Lord of the Rings favorite.)

Allie Townsend: So obviously, adapting a book series with a dedicated following can be tricky? How did you approach creating your own version of the show without angering book fans?

Well I’m not quite sure that I didn’t totally piss off at least some of the books’ fans at least at the beginning, which I knew was going to happen. I completely respect the passion of the book fans, I’m a huge admirer of Terry Goodkind and the achievement of the thousands of pages that he wrote, but when I got asked by ABC Disney to do the show and what I was being asked to do was a 22-episode a year season and I read that first book, it was readily apparent to me that there was no way I could do a 22-episode series and stay completely faithful to the book. The book could have been very faithfully adapted if it were done as a movie or as a couple of movies, but the books don’t lend themselves to stand alone story telling. And even though we have worked very hard to create an ongoing story thread both in season one and season two for the quest that our heroes are on because I think that’s very important for this genre, I also had to mandate to try to create episodes that could stand on their own terms that had a beginning middle and end so that viewers could just come in and be able to enjoy a story every week.

There are lots of elements from the books and many characters from the books that appear in the television series and we’ve found the mythology that Terry Goodkind and it’s a rich treasure trove to dive into. We always ask ourselves, well what happened in the book? Is that something we can use in an episode? Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn’t. We have kind of riffed on his mythology and expanded on it.

(More on Techland: What We’re Looking Forward To In 2010: Sci-Fi TV)

For example, in Wizard’s First Rule, Kahlan Amnell is already the only confessor left in the world. One thing I quickly realized was that this confessor mythology is really, really compelling. And if we were to say that she was the only confessor in the world right from the get go, we would be missing out on the opportunity to explore that mythology deeply and to tell certain stories. We told a story about a confessor who had gone bad and misused her powers and we were able to tell a story about Kahlan’s sister still being alive and how they tried to protect themselves from Darken Rahl (Craig Parker) so it gave us a lot of rich story material by not limiting ourselves. Now I completely understand why Terry did that in his book, but for us, I wanted to have a bigger palate.

AT: You’re filming in New Zealand, and the beautiful landscape really comes through on screen. Does it help to produce a show that has such an unlimited and amazingly beautiful backdrop?

It is amazingly beautiful, but I wish it were unlimited. It’s a small country in terms of people, but it’s a vast country in terms of landscape. And unfortunately, we’re not able to on our series schedule take advantage of all the really varied typography of New Zealand. We’re limited to what are still some really beautiful locations around Auckland, an area on the North Island.

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You Can Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S III Now, but It’ll Cost You

It’s “friggin’ huge,” as my colleague Jared Newman recently quipped, and Samsung’s Galaxy S III is also going to be friggin’ expensive if you’re in the U.S. and want firsties. While the phone’s stateside launch date is still “early June,” Amazon has started taking pre-orders for the international version.

mimsysnark

Hmm, I think I’ve seen this show on during the doldrums of Saturday afternoon channel surfing, right? Seemed pretty generic to me, so I’m surprised to see this article about it. I know I don’t have much to contribute, but I’d love to hear from some commenters about the appeal of this show to them.
http://www.theseekercast.com Kevin Bachelder

> I’d love to hear from some commenters about
> the appeal of this show to them. – mimsysnark

There are several things that appeal to me. On one level it’s a story about two people who come to fall in love with each other but they both have commitments that stop them from being able to move forward with a physical relationship. On another level it’s a well done adventure story about a group of people who are on a quest. Above all else it’s a show about a group of characters that you come to know and love and feel like you’re right there with them on their journey.

I hope that helps. :)
orchardist

The appeal to me:
- Seriously above-age production value. The shooting in NZ makes the setting it’s own character. Like LOTR, it gives you a feel of a real “different” world. In general there is much more of a LOTR feel for me than an Xena feel.
- Compelling plotlines with real consequences. The reset button is hit often regarding the main love story but it still manages to progress in an understandable fashion.
- Excellent characterizations. Not two-dimensional and they show progress along the way. More importantly, the good guys are good guys. No useless dragging the hero’s through dark spaces. Even when they are challenges with moral dilemmas, their inner goodness remains intact. They make mistakes, show human weaknesses, and struggle with the right choices but it’s a consistent yet developing characterization. No “lightswitch personality developments”. It’s all earned and again, no Anakin Skywalkers (good people who fall from grace while we watch hopelessly). In this fashion, the series is a hopeful series where doing the right thing may be difficult but it’s clear it’s the right thing — no useless punishment for being a good guy.
- Out of the park action sequences. The fighting is far better than one would expect on a TV show. The use of “bullet time” where appropriate gives at least two or three “cool shots” each episode. It’s just FUN to watch.

So in sum: Good production value, good characters, good plot, and excellent action sequences. Who could ask for anything more?
ivyteainn

Obviously we need to convince ABC to find another avenue to broadcast the show. Writing ABC may help, I would urge everyone to do that. Send a letter. Don’t wait, be proactive. I also get a direct mailing of the new shows through ABC, you can too. Probably, though I don’t know this, they watch that numbers that view the program through that site. As to the Tribune stations, boycott them, don’t watch them. I disagree with others, you need to let them know that you are angry with them. Keep sending them e-mails. I also disagree with the notion that they can’t change their minds. Don’t let them off the hook.
http://divinaitaliapraia.com.br/wordpress marcrav

Hi, I’m from Brazil and I got to know the show only two weeks ago. I watched all episodes from first and second seasons through these two weeks and found the show amazing. It’s not an ordinary fantasy show. The plots are very well written. The actors are very good. And the notion of truth and justice that comes with the three mains characters, especially Kahlan, is very important to be shown in television. Also, all the principles in the use of magic can be applied to the real life. Anyone who is tuned with the real mysticism knows that the way that this theme is treated in the show is a nice example of guidance. At last, It’s very pleasing seeing an beautiful actress like Bridget managing to build up such a strong and delicate character, at the same time, like Kahlan, whose beauty comes much more from her acts then from her aesthetics; she is a real actress instead of just another beautiful woman on the screen. By the way, all the cast is very, but very powerfull. We can’t compare them with the cast of Hercules or Xena. For someone (I’m 36) who grew up reading The Lord of The Rings, The Mists of Avalon and Foundation The Legend of The Seeker is a diamond amongst dust in the world of television.

Congratulations! Mariana Craveiro