Pros of CO being a movie:
One complete product that can be watched in one sitting
Theatre release? Maybe? (I know this is already wishful thinking by itself but humor me)
I feel like it’s just such a Thing to make a movie out of adaptations
It’s easier to get into movies I find. No coping out after an episode or saying “I’ll watch the rest later”.
There’s probably more but my mind went blank the minute I started typing
It’s a rather dense book, and very likely things will be omitted or moved around in order to make things flow better
(On that note, when I did try my hand at writing a script for class, I shuffled a few events around. I believe the dragon attack came before the truce, for example. It worked better for pushing the traditional 3 act structure)
Movies that are direct-to-streaming in the event of no theatrical run can fly so far under the radar that they disappear. Even theatrical flops make headlines for BEING theatrical flops
It would be harder to secure the budget required for all the effects in the story (like magic) (movies generally have bigger budgets)
Pros of CO being a series
Ability to really explore the story, granted more time
Less rearranging of story beats, and instead just trying to fit things into an episodic structure
TV shows are in right now. Want something made? Pitch it as a show.
Weekly episode drops keep the hype up for extended time
Probably easier to showcase switching character perspectives and characters that aren’t present physically (Lucy) instead of relying on other ways of getting similar info across
Cons of CO being a series
Inherently smaller budget means more constraints on effects
Genre shows have been shafted for the past decade, meaning any studio would likely only want to pay for 6ish or so episodes MAXIMUM, likely less
The way studios decide what shows to renew is usually based on initial watch figures after the first episode or two, so if it’s not immediately a hit it’ll succumb to the “canceled after one season” epidemic
There are so many arguments for each really, these are just some. Also I’m throwing this into the void because really, I’m just one guy begging the film and tv overlords to give a queer book from a decade ago a chance
Also it’s worth noting that usually 23-episode shows are for episodic television, and that serialized shows (like CO would be) usually have fewer episodes by default, but I could campaign for like 13 episodes (which is what shows like Breaking Bad, Ozark and Mad Men had (which, granted, are completely totally different, but they’re the first things I think of when it comes to serialized narratives (as opposed to things like the early seasons of Supernatural, which were 23ish episodes but episodic (where each episode followed a formula))))
Edit: for reference, I’m imagining live action because I love live action fantasy. If it’s done well.
I got my degree in screenwriting and god damnit I’m going to use it
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