Ask HN: I Want to Make “The Chronicles of Amber” into a TV Series. How?

I wish you well in your quest! I'd love to see this series get a second life.

Not trying to be a jerk here, but unless you're a seasoned tv writer (and if you were, you wouldn't be asking this), it's pretty unlikely that something you dashed off quickly turned out that well. Maybe it is good, but to get produced it needs to be great. Have you read the Game of Thrones pilot script? That was pretty good, and without an option or a name writer attached it has to be better than that.

Also, you did this in the wrong order. You get the option first, then you write the pilot, unless it's a pure spec not intended to be produced, e.g. written just as a writing sample to get a staff job.

Almost every writer and showrunner in hollywood has a "passion project" like this that they would love to get made one day. And just as often, they can't do it even with a few shows under their belt and tons of connections.

Not sure why you're asking this on a startup news site. If you want, put on your flame-resistant armour and ask this again at in the forums at donedealpro.com. Post some sample pages there for critique. You'll get a lot of flak, and there's a lot of trolls on there, but you'll also get some good advice from people working in the industry.

All of that said, I hope you prove me wrong. You're right about one thing, it is a great series and would be a perfect fit for TV (well, except for budget, some of those settings would be unfilmable due to expense).

If you want, email me 5-10 pages from your pilot and I'll be happy to give you honest, constructive notes.

Maybe they were just trying to blow you off, but if someone else already owns the option on the original material you're stopped before you even get started. You're definitely welcome to have written your screenplay adaptation, but until you get the TV rights to the original material from whoever owns them, you don't really have a legal leg to stand on for making a commercial adaptation. If I were you, I'd try to track down who owns the rights, and see if you can't sell them your adaptation. Or try and negotiate purchasing the rights.

I'd suggest creating a website that talks about your plans, how you would approach the TV show making process. What are the types of things that you would do, what are some plot lines, how would you show the story's "card mechanic" visually? Build a community so that there is fan devotion not just to the idea, but to you and your implementation of it.

email me @ the address on my profile.