“Jamie Fraser” by Captivated2 @ deviantart.com (http://captivated2.deviantart.com/#/d56lung)
Think I’m putting the cart before the horse?
After all, “Essential Entertainment” toyed with Outlander fans for years; EE optioned the books for a movie or tv series back in 2008. They worked with “Randall Wallace” (who wrote the movie “Braveheart”), and “Ann Peacock” (screenwriter for ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ 2005 ) who actually wrote a screenplay for a feature film.
We waited, and waited, and EE did nothing.
Part of me was hoping it was taking so long because they were deciding to do a cable tv series vs. a feature film, but I had doubts as to whether any project would be completed in my lifetime, or ever. (Granted, there is a camp of Outlander fans who would just as soon not see the books translated to film, believing no actor could ever do ‘James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser’ justice. And while I’m the first to admit that Jamie is a complex character with many, many layers of emotion, I believe it can be done.)
Plus it was so frustrating to see a cable series like HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ which I ADORE (based on “George R. R. Martin’s” ‘A Song of Ice & Fire’ books) have so much success, knowing with every fiber of my being that Outlander could achieve that same level of success and more, if only EE would DO something! In the end, they did nothing, ‘Essentially’ depriving the world of Jamie & Claire and there was no help for it. UNTIL that is, Ron Moore took an interest in it…
It was the ‘squeal’ heard round the world:
Diana Gabaldon posted on facebook July 17th, 2012:
“WELL, ALRIGHTY, THEN…
Yes! It _is_ true; while final contracts aren’t yet signed, we do have a deal with Sony Pictures for development of a cable-TV (as in HBO, Netflix, Starz, Showtime, whatever…that kind of thing) series.”
And when it was announced on July 17th, 2012 that Ron Moore closed a deal for the rights to Outlander and would be pitching it to cable networks the following week, I was EXCITED! I mean REALLY excited, ESPECIALLY when he tweeted this:
“Big fan of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander books for many years, excited for the opportunity to do a FAITHFUL interpretation!”
Big fan? Faithful interpretation? Tell me more!
“Ronald D. Moore” is best known for his Emmy nominated work on ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ (a show close to my heart- I wanted Jean-Luc Picard to be my father, had a crush on “Number One” William Riker & wanted to BE the empath-counselor Deanna Troi) & most recently ‘Battle Star Galactica,’ where he did get an Emmy in 2008 while serving as Executive Producer (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0601822/bio)
Star Trek: The Next Generation? Battlestar Galactica? EMMY? I mean, really- could this get any better? You bet your kilt it could! Diana Gabaldon said THIS later that week on the Compuserve forum:
“Actually, Ron and his chief production assistant came out and spent a weekend (not an hour, not a day <g>) with me last month, discussing the books, the characters, various approaches, structural principles–i.e., where it might be best to break the content of a book for a season, an episode, etc.–the background from which I wrote the books, asked if I had any out-takes or background material written for any of the minor characters that might be useful, etc., etc. He’d read everything, including THE EXILE. <g>.”
outlanderfan.com 