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Wheel of Time TV Pilot Producers Sue Robert Jordan's Widow For Defamation

Posted by samzenpus on from the plot-thickens dept.

An anonymous reader writes The tale of the late-night Wheel of Time pilot that aired in a paid infomercial slot on FXX has taken another odd turn. Producers Red Eagle Entertainment LLC and Manetheren LLC have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for central California against Harriet McDougal (widow of James Rigney, who wrote the Wheel of Time novels under the pen name Robert Jordan), her company, Bandersnatch Group Inc., and twenty unnamed other persons ('Does 1-20'). The suit alleges that McDougal's statements about her lack of involvement in the pilot's production constitute breach of contract, slander, and interference with contractual relations and prospective economic relations; the suit demands declaratory relief and a jury trial.

8 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Pen name? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Robert Jordan wasn't his name?? All those years... And I didn't know.

  2. WTF is this doing on slashdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Really? What is this shit? Does anyone care?

  3. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by halltk1983 · · Score: 4, Informative

    They're doing it to prevent her from reclaiming the film and television rights, and selling them to someone else. It's always been about the money for them, for the last 7 years. It's a damn shame that people ever believed that they were fans that intended on doing something worthwhile with the rights.

    --
    Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
  4. Re:What a reason to sue by halltk1983 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Having met her, spoken with her, and knowing people that know her well, that's not a fair assessment. She genuinely cares about the material. She was the editor for it all, and she knows it better than anyone other than perhaps Jim's assistant Maria. Saying she's just his wife / widow is very unfair, and saying that she's unhelpful is just untrue. That said, the ebook delay was inconvenient to many of my friends, but there's just something about holding hard bound epic fantasy that enthralls me, and makes me not care for the ebooks.

    --
    Watch for Penguins, they eat Apples and throw rocks at Windows.
  5. Re:What a reason to sue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    From Good eReader

    In an incredibly stupid decision, the late Robert Jordan’s wife has caused the last Wheel of Time book, A Memory of Light, to be delayed until April after the print book is released this week. Originally it was scheduled to be delayed for a full year. According to Galleycat, this has, so far, resulted in 119 one star reviews (now up to 122) on Amazon. I suspect that this one star reviewer’s comment is typical: “I instead will search internet when I get home and will be paying the first industrious individual that has scanned the book and offered for sale.” I think that a lot of people will be looking around certain sites for scanned copies.

    The actual author, Brian Sanderson, says that this decision was neither his nor Tor’s. On his blog he states:

    This is not my decision or Tor’s decision, but Harriet’s. She is uncomfortable with ebooks. Specifically, she worries about ebooks cutting into the hardcover sales. It isn’t about money for her, as the monetary difference between the two is negligible here. It is about a worry that her husband’s legacy will be undermined if sales are split between ebooks and hardcovers, preventing the last book of the Wheel of Time from hitting number one on either list. (Many of the bestseller lists are still handling ebooks in somewhat awkward ways.)

    As the last books have all hit number one, she doesn’t want to risk one of these not hitting number one, and therefore ending the series on a down note. (Even though each Wheel of Time book has sold more than its predecessor, including the ones I have worked on.) I personally feel her worries are unfounded, and have explained that to her, but it is not my choice and I respect her reasoning for the decision. She is just trying to safeguard Robert Jordan’s legacy, and feels this is a very important way she needs to do so. After talking about the issue, we were able to move the ebook up from the originally planned one-year delay to instead come out this spring.

    After they came out in ebook form I threw out my collection of the hardcovers (the library didn’t want them) and bought them all in ebook format. As to the last book, given her attitude, I either won’t buy it at all or will find a free copy somewhere. When will people learn that defying the consumer is never a good business tactic. She has probably done more to hurt her husband’s legacy by this ill-conceived action than she can imagine. From now on Robert Jordan’s Memory of Light will be remembered by the reading community as the source of an ebook that the author’s wife didn’t want the public to have. I think I’ll go over to Amazon and, for the first time, leave a 1 star review.

  6. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to the CEO of Red Eagle Entertainment:

    1. Their rights were about to expire.
    2. They did it without FXX's knowledge which was achieved by purchasing a late-night infomercial time slot.
    3. He claims it was high budget but the results, if you've watched the pilot, says otherwise...In other words is was terrible beyond measure.

    He also goes on to claim that they plan to do a blockbuster quality movie adaptation and boldly says that he plans to directly challenge the Game of Thrown series on HBO.

    To me it seems like Red Eagle Entertainment has some serious grandiose delusions most especially if their contract is about to expire, if not already, and have gone to battle with the wife of the author which will likely end with them losing any chance of further working with Robert Jordans' literature ever again...

  7. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Maxwell'sSilverLART · · Score: 4, Informative

    The estate is a separate legal entity from any person. Contracts that flow into the estate remain binding upon the estate. Ergo, she doesn't need to have signed it; it's still binding upon the estate.

    The distinction that people seem to be missing is that nobody is squelching her freedom of speech as an individual, but rather as a beneficiary of the estate. Again, remember that the estate is its own legal entity. She's not being sued as J. Random Person, but rather as somebody who profits from that estate. As a beneficiary, she's also subject to its contracts. If she breaches those contracts, she's subject to suit in her capacity as beneficiary, and can be forced to disgorge her profits from the estate.

    (Note: I practice in probate law.)

    --
    Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
  8. Re: Welcome to the U.S. of A. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This seems to me extremely unlikely.

    My uncle dies. He wrote a book and has a significant estate. In his will he leaves me the revenue from that estate.
    I don't see how I could possibly be bound by any contracts involving that estate at all.
    Unless there is some agreement that the estate has signed that says the revenue will be cut off to me if I say negative things against the estate. In which case suing me is completely pointless. I still have nothing to do with it. You would need to sue the estate to get it to stop paying me the revenue. I've not agreed to anything at any point whatsoever.

    So I don't see how I could be sued as a beneficiary of the estate. The estate being sued yes, but me, no. I still have nothing to do with it.
    Yes, likely the widow is more heavily involved in a more complex arrangement but I don't see how its possible to subject a non-involved party to a contract simply because they receive a windfall.

    It seems like over-reach to me. I don't see the legal basis for claiming the individual as a participant in the contract.