Legend of the Seeker

Filming of Wizard's First Rule, the first book in Terry Goodkind's popular The Sword of Truth books began this week.

But the 22-episode series has been renamed Legend of the Seeker - apparently to avoid religious concerns among American audiences about scorcery.

Executive producers Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert told a comics and fantasy convention of the name change, and announced the New Zealand actors, Entertainment Weekly reported.

The syndicated series from Disney-ABC Domestic Television and ABC Studios, will premiere in the United States on the weekend of November 1. The series marks ABC Studios' first foray into broadcast syndication, and has already been sold into stations covering 95 percent of the American market, according to TV Week.com.

Each one hour episode will have a New Zealand director and the series will be shot in the Auckland region over 36 months. One of the episodes will be directed by New Zealand actor Michael Hurst who starred in the original Hercules TV series.

The series is based around a backwoods guide, Richard - played by Australian actor Craig Horner - in Westland, the only part of the world which contains no magic. While investigating the mysterious murder of his father he rescues a woman, Kahlan Amnell, (played by American actress Bridget Regan) who has crossed over from the "magic" side of the world, and does battle with an evil dictator.

Raimi said Australian actor Bruce Spence will play Richard's best friend Zedd, Jay Laga'aia will play a boundary warden Chase, and Craig Parker will play the series' villain, Darken Rahl.

Parker spent four years on Shortland Street after being cast as Guy Warner in 1992, and won international attention after being cast as Haldir, one of Lothlorien's elves in the first two parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Laga'aia played David Silesi in four series of the television drama Street Legal and Captain Typho, in two Star Wars films, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Tapert, who filmed Hercules and Xena, Warrior Princess in New Zealand and married his star, Lucy Lawless, in 1998 showed people at the convention a clip from the show's filming around Auckland.

I for one think it is great to have something like this on television. Good versus evil with the trio cast here is fun to watch. The special effects are terrific, and I like how the episodes are going. I love the wizard, the Seeker is awesome, and the Confessor makes my husband want to watch! Love it! Keep it coming!

It definitely reminds me of the Hercules/Xena type show, and I was always a big fan of those. This show is an update of those with an entertaining new cast, based on great stories by Terry Goodkind - how could it go wrong? The only thing I see wrong is that it isn't in wide enough distribution.

I heard about this series by a friend that said "Just don't read the comments before you see it". Of course, that was the very first thing I did, and let me tell you how afraid was after I read them!! I though this series was going to suck big time, but had to see it by myself and guess what - I loved it! OK, it's not phenomenal, but it's quite good. I was kept interested, the photography was awesome, the costumes, too. I've only just seen the first two, but I sure am going to see the others and if they continue like this I'll be a fan. I'm not sure if I'd would of liked it had I read the books that this series is based on, but I think I would have. I've always been good at separating the books from their interpretations to the theater or television. When I watched "Legend of the Seeker" I watched the show for itself and therefore I enjoyed it very much. It's good entertainment for a fantasy series and I was actually quite surprised by the excellent performance of the actress Bridget Regan.

When I first heard about the TV series, I knew it was an adaptation of a book. At first, I didn't want to watch it thinking that the TV series is surely not as good as the book. Of course. Surprisingly it is charming and captivating to watch. It is like an addiction, you want to watch it again and again.

I like all the main cast. Craig Horner as Richard from my opinion is a good actor(hunk!haha) and Bridget Regan as Kahlan was doing a really good job as the confessor. The wizard Zedd has a good sense of humour (kind of weird at first). I enjoyed the series so far.Can't wait for the next episodes..

OK here is the bottom line: Wizard's First Rule is a mature adventure filled with both intense violence and extreme sexual content. To put this miniseries on a channel other than HBO or other unedited station would be compromising the original drama and story line of WFR. If this show is put on a channel where it will not be able to show the Demmin Nass content, the sexual scenes between Richard and Kahlan, and the gore of the seeker's battles, then it should not be created in the first place. If you do not agree with what I am saying. then you obviously and sadly do not fully appreciate the artistic beauty of what Goodkind writes. A great deal of drama and feeling cannot be portrayed within WFR without the mature content. But then again, it will still never compare to actually reading the novel.