Update on David Weber's Projects

Sad News! AND Happy News!!

David Weber was on Zoom meeting today (Essence of Wonder).

Said he hasn't started next Safehold book. He's working on collaborative projects now.

But he says he's talking to Radar Pictures(?) about a TV series based on the Honor Harrington series. They are also suppose to be talking to the BuNine folks for technical details.

So this is probably the Manticore Ascendant series, the Star Kingdom series, and sequel to Crown of Slave series ["which will be set immediately after Uncompromising Honor and follow Victor and Anton (and new recruits Damien and Indiana) as they go hunting for the core of the Alignment onion"]. And maybe a sequel to The Apocalypse Troll [collaborative project info from David Weber's Oct 19, 2019 posting]

Too bad about Safehold likely being a few years out. I really enjoy that serious.

With that said, I have come to the view that Weber should not be seeking to create a film adaptation of the Honorverse (TV included). Instead, I think Weber could put the focus on getting Safehold turned into a TV series. A basic 12 episode (42 minute) season could cover the series in 6, 7 seasons if condensed or a full 9 (1 per book) if expanded.

The thought would be that if (when) Safehold is a rating hit and revenue generator Weber would be in the position of attracting competition for the rights to the Honorverse. He could either sell to the highest bidder, or accept less money and partners who give him (or his designated agents such as Bu9) added control.

David has three college age kids and a wife who seems to have very serious health issues, and is both no spring chicken himself and has some of his own health issues. Unless you are in a position to write him large checks for his properties he's probably not very interested in that sort of advice.

The problem is, that Honorverse is science fiction and TV/Film producers avoid that area because of the high costs to make it good.

On the other hand, with Netflix, Amazon prime and other streaming provider there are new players that look like to make that risk, "The Expanse" is such an example.

I wonder if an animated series would be better. A problem for example for the star trek series was, that the sets needed to much place in the studios. Animated backgrounds need only harddisk space. Also, in honorverse the people are not aging in our therms (prolong), if a serie had success there would be the problem of aging actors, also avoideble with animation.

I wish David the best for his health and his family. I don´t know if he want the stress to be involved in a TV/film production, on the other hand a "wrong" interpretation of David´s books could also stressful for the author.

Also, there is the possibility that the copyright for film use is bought, but not used for a longer time.

Neat, jumping from second to fourth stage of the adaption slope in one go.

On a more serious side, Valerian shows that it's unfortunately not at all certain that moving from another medium to the big screen can repeat the success of the original.

Maldorian wrote:The problem is, that Honorverse is science fiction and TV/Film producers avoid that area because of the high costs to make it good.

On the other hand, with Netflix, Amazon prime and other streaming provider there are new players that look like to make that risk, "The Expanse" is such an example.

I wonder if an animated series would be better. A problem for example for the star trek series was, that the sets needed to much place in the studios. Animated backgrounds need only harddisk space. Also, in honorverse the people are not aging in our therms (prolong), if a serie had success there would be the problem of aging actors, also avoideble with animation.

I wish David the best for his health and his family. I don´t know if he want the stress to be involved in a TV/film production, on the other hand a "wrong" interpretation of David´s books could also stressful for the author.

Also, there is the possibility that the copyright for film use is bought, but not used for a longer time.

The first point made here is why I think Safehold might be a better first go for David. Safer from the perspective of studios, and if it is a hit studios will be more likely to finance the Honorverse and fully commit to it.

This could also be a good place for David to choose some members of Bu9 who he trusts and are willing to commit the time to serve as creative directors or some such title. Think of Kevin Feige with Marvel - a central clearinghouse that reviews and okays (or vetos) the scripts and gives direction. David could then be called on to give an answer if the Bu9 folks are in disagreement as well as final approval. That would probably reduce his commitment and still keep faith with the books.

kzt wrote:David has three college age kids and a wife who seems to have very serious health issues, and is both no spring chicken himself and has some of his own health issues. Unless you are in a position to write him large checks for his properties he's probably not very interested in that sort of advice.

I know I have spent plenty of money supporting him. Achieved addiction level to several other people I know as well... Looking forward to another Apocalypse Troll book

A post a while back, not this forum, I think said David had sold ~2million copies just in the Honorverse at roughly $1/book... when averaged between hardback/paperback. Does not include all other books written published. Do not think he is hurting for cash somehow. Not rolling in scrooge McDuck money bins, but not in the poor house either.

I think he is just BUSY, with LIFE s-) So, # of books being published by him has dipped recently.

Relax wrote:

A post a while back, not this forum, I think said David had sold ~2million copies just in the Honorverse at roughly $1/book... when averaged between hardback/paperback. Does not include all other books written published. Do not think he is hurting for cash somehow. Not rolling in scrooge McDuck money bins, but not in the poor house either.

I think he is just BUSY, with LIFE s-) So, # of books being published by him has dipped recently.

Well, there is the problem that Baen stopped paying him royalties a few years ago. I don't know if they caught up or not, but I'd heard that there a year when he got no money due to cashflow issues with Baen.

kzt wrote:

Relax wrote:

A post a while back, not this forum, I think said David had sold ~2million copies just in the Honorverse at roughly $1/book... when averaged between hardback/paperback. Does not include all other books written published. Do not think he is hurting for cash somehow. Not rolling in scrooge McDuck money bins, but not in the poor house either.

I think he is just BUSY, with LIFE s-) So, # of books being published by him has dipped recently.

Well, there is the problem that Baen stopped paying him royalties a few years ago. I don't know if they caught up or not, but I'd heard that there a year when he got no money due to cashflow issues with Baen.

Science fiction is NOT selling well. Baen does Sci-fi so... yea; I can see a there being a problem. Not sure this is going to change as state of technological progress in the world has plateaued massively over last 40 years. Maybe if Space X can get the BFR working and get to moon mars there will be an uptick, but pretty much ever "big" section of physics, engineering progress was figured out by 1980 and pretty much nothing new since other than making things nano scale.... It is really hard to get excited about nano scale technology. To me it is exciting, but to the layman? Nope. Not sexy at all.

Relax wrote:Science fiction is NOT selling well. Baen does Sci-fi so... yea; I can see a there being a problem. Not sure this is going to change as state of technological progress in the world has plateaued massively over last 40 years. Maybe if Space X can get the BFR working and get to moon mars there will be an uptick, but pretty much ever "big" section of physics, engineering progress was figured out by 1980 and pretty much nothing new since other than making things nano scale.... It is really hard to get excited about nano scale technology. To me it is exciting, but to the layman? Nope. Not sexy at all.

Huh? What world are you living in that doesn't have big engineering projects and physics discoveries? The LHC is massive and the three gravitational wave detectors (two from LIGO and one in VIRGO) are also kilometres long to measure a tiny space contraction. The proof that gravitational detectors work is as revolutionary to astronomy as radioastronomy was 80 years ago.

Twenty five years ago, we didn't know a single planet outside our solar system. Now we know thousands.

We've also mapped the entire human genome in the last 20 years. We have computing capacity to map a virus' genome in less than a day.

Though I'll grant you that the we're still missing the staples of sci-fi: fusion power production and fast, interplanetary ships.