Legend of the Seeker

Raimi considered adapting the first book into a movie or a five-part miniseries, but later settled on making a weekly television series after speaking to the books' author Terry Goodkind.

Raimi, who had produced Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess with Tapert and Ned Nalle, saw this as an opportunity to return to the first-run syndicated television business.

However, the syndicated television business had diminished after the loss of crucial foreign markets around 2000.

ABC Studios agreed to fund the project and greenlit the production for 22 episodes in March 2008, after it was cleared for broadcast to stations representing 84% of the United States, with Tribune Broadcasting being the primary launch group.

The show, which is heavily action-oriented and requires visual effects, was given a "network-sized" production budget of US$1.5 million per episode.

Originally named Wizard's First Rule (after the first book in The Sword of Truth series), the show was retitled to Legend of the Seeker at Goodkind's suggestion since the producers wanted to differentiate the show from the books, it would have been too restrictive for them to only include plot lines from the first book, and because this would allow them the opportunity to cover the story within all the books in the series.