The Dusty Wheel Show released their Trailer for the upcoming premier of their fan "cut" of the storied, and often maligned, Wheel of Time TV Pilot "Winter Dragon" which aired five years ago on FXX. The Premier of their "cut" of "Winter Dragon" will take place on Wednesday, September 2nd, at 11am EDT on YouTube. Check out the Trailer, and then read on for more of the Wheel of Time TV Pilot story.
Just yesterday, John Fallon from WinterisComing.net, summarized the history of The Wheel of Time TV Pilot and it led to The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime TV Series. The story is a long one, and worth reading, but this summarizes the most dramatic moment when speaking of Red Eagle Entertainment and Harriet McDougal, Robert Jordan's widow:
It almost seems as if she was counting down the days until that contract expired, at which point the rights to her husband’s story would revert to his development company Bandersnatch Group, Inc. Unbeknownst to McDougal, Red Eagle Entertainment was working another angle. On February 8, 2015, in the dead of night, aired a sloppily produced pilot episode for a Wheel of Time show called “Winter Dragon,” which roughly adapted the prologue to The Eye of the World. It was 22 minutes long, starred Billy Zane as Ishamael, and was made purely so Red Eagle could fulfill the letter of the contract and hold onto the rights to The Wheel of Time a while longer, even though it had no intention of actually making this into a TV show. It’s also godawful.
As John outlines, since the release of The Wheel of Time TV Pilot, fans have had mixed reactions, though mostly negative leaning towards despondent. An example of this sentiment can be experienced in Daniel Greene's minute by minute review of "Winter Dragon" The Wheel of Time TV Pilot Review - (Winters Dragon).
What will The Dusty Wheel Show's "cut" of "Winter Dragon" bring to fandom? Will "Winter Dragon" be reborn? We'll have to watch and find out.
Just watched the Dusty Wheel Cut. Very well done. I also haven't seen the original in a long time. There's more music in this cut than I remember there being which adds more beyond the poor dialogue. Also it seems like there was a whole singing segment mostly cut out, and just quickly pieced in later.
Congrats on a great take!
It was really well done. I don't remember the original too well but I think they made it make a lot more sense for the non initiated. I just imagined Dragonmount rising up in the Prime pilot. Maybe they will start with the flashback as well.
Can't wait to see Billy Zane return to this career-making role in the upcoming Amazon adaptation.