 We do not pass up an opportunity to talk about first law. Take that Pierce Brown, which is insane. Classic Abercrombie optimism. It's gonna be awesome. You better not mess up. I have had so many requests to talk about the best served cold adaptation that was just announced. And on this channel, we do not pass up an opportunity to talk about first law. So without further ado, here is a tiny bit of actual information and a pretty substantial amount of speculation. So what do we know about the adaptation of best served cold? Basically nothing. But here's what we do know. We know that it's going to be adapted by itself. It's not part of a series. It's not going to be part of like the trilogy. They're just doing best served cold. No mention of an adaptation of anything else. It is a movie, not a TV show. Rebecca Ferguson is to play Monza Mercado. No other casting has been announced, suggested or speculated about officially. Tim Miller is set to direct it. Tim Miller also is said to have worked with Joe Abercrombie on the script, but Joe Abercrombie is the one who wrote the script. And that's it. That's literally all we know. Okay, so as a huge, huge, huge fan of first law and a best served cold, best served cold used to be my like official favorite in the world of the first law. It isn't now partly because, you know, we have had new books come out and also on reread. Like I don't think the rereadability of it is like as great as some of the others, but I do really love best served cold. So obviously like an adaptation of anything first law related is going to come with like a bit of trepidation cause like it's something that I hold so close to my heart that I'm like, yeah, better not fuck this up. So ideally in my perfect world, I would have an announcement about a first law TV show, not a movie. And it would be like nine seasons, you know, one season per full length book that we have. Then there of course is the fact that best served cold while it is a standalone in the world of the first law, it does stand on the shoulders of the original trilogy. There are characters from the original trilogy. There are events from the original trilogy that color what goes on and what the kind of status quo is in best served cold. So if they are they going to include content in this film from the trilogy? And if so is the content that they include going to kind of like poison the well and make it impossible then to adapt the trilogy because they've like kind of already spoiled it or kind of already included it, you know, kind of like picking out bits of the trilogy and just kind of like, you know, like just like taking stuff out of it and now we can't have the trilogy adapted. That would be terrible. Rebecca Ferguson is like not at all how Monza is described or how I would picture Monza. Monza in the books is certainly younger than Rebecca Ferguson is, although in adaptations of this nature, typically characters are aged up a bit but she's considerably older than Monza. From what I recall Monza's age is never outright specified but there are a lot of context clues that can give you a pretty good idea around about what her age probably is. So like late 20s, maybe early 30s but that's like on the very older end of how old she would be. Monza is described as like being much more kind of of being darker, like dark haired and maybe not sworthy but it's very clear that this part of the world that this is taking place is heavily inspired by Italy. So there's the vibe that she would probably look kind of Italian and all the art of her that I've seen. And again, the way she's described is kind of like being dark haired and dark eyed. That's not at all how Rebecca Ferguson looks. Rebecca Ferguson looks very like Northern European, very fair with like light hair and light eyes. So she doesn't look at all. She's older and like fairer than Monza is supposed to be. And of course we don't know any of the other castings. So we know Rebecca Ferguson and that's it. But if you've read Bessar of Cold, you know that even though it is like Monza's book, it's really an ensemble cast as like is true of the most first law. And so what we'll make or break it is the ensemble which we know nothing about. So honestly, in a Bessar of Cold adaptation, you could have like a pretty crappy Monza and still have a great film if the rest of the Mary band are amazing casting choices and well written. So basically the part of it that we know about is the part that kind of like will affect the quality almost the least. I'd be much more interested and stressed about the casting decisions for shivers, for Casca, for friendly, for more veer, like those characters, like who they cast, that's what's going to make or break it. Okay, so Joe, what he said on his blog about this announcement. Now, before anyone gets too excited, take it from a man who has been hurt often in the past. There's plenty of shit that can go wrong and it's never a sure thing till you're sat there watching the opening credits and hey, maybe not even then. So classic Abercrombie optimism. But I am quite hopeful about this. I have told the story a few times. I argued with Pierce Brown author of Red Rising about where people could start with first law. If they don't start with a trilogy, where could they start? I believe was the question. I forget if he posed it or someone else posed it. But that was what we were trying to determine is if you don't start with the blade itself, could you start somewhere else and where would that be? I said Bessar of Cold. Pierce Brown insisted the heroes, which is insane. And I'm taking this as vindication that Joe agrees with me that Bessar of Cold is a better place to start. Take that, Pierce Brown, regarding Rebecca Ferguson's casting. I know I was just critical of it, but I do think Rebecca Ferguson has the right vibe. I think other than aesthetics, which age and hair color and eye color, those are all just aesthetics in terms of her ability to act and the types of roles that she's had before. I think she's very much like a possible like mindset type. It would never have occurred to me like in a fan casting kind of scenario to choose her. But we've seen her play cunning and ruthless characters. We've seen her play characters in action films. Like she can do action, like violent action. She's just generally a very good actress. So I think she could bring a lot to the character. And again, a lot will depend on who they cast alongside her and what her chemistry is like with the other characters, with the other actors. But I think Rebecca Ferguson's like acting ability and yeah, like things other than how she looks, she'd very, very much be capable of doing Monza justice. I also do think, even though I said, oh, but best of cold, it like stands on the shoulders of the trilogy, which it does. Best of cold, I do think is the most standalone of the stand-alones, hence my position on it when I argued with Pierce Brown. It's like, even if you think the heroes is a better book, it really doesn't make sense to start with the heroes if you'd know nothing about this world. Whereas best of cold, I think it's better. It's a better experience if you know something about the world, but you can pretty easily read best of cold, not having heard anything before. So I think it will make the most sense as a jumping in point for people to not need context. And also is the least likely to ruin things because it kind of takes place in isolation more and doesn't affect the world map that much. It does a bit, but not as much. So like having best of cold be adapted is the least likely to ruin the possibility of adapting the first law trilogy or any other stories within this world because it does take place more in isolation than the others do and affect less pieces of the map, less characters on the board. It's much more of like this like offshoot side story. Also, even though I would prefer an announcement about the original trilogy being adapted, I deal into a TV show, but even into a trilogy of films, even though that's what I would love to hear. If we want to start with best of cold, okay, let's start with best of cold. And if this wets the appetite of the people for more first law, then, you know, I look forward to the crowd wisely deciding that we should get more first law adapted. I also think even though, again, I think my preferred would be a large, big budget, large scale TV production a la Game of Thrones, that is still the exception of not the rule TV while it has become capable of doing basically film like quality in terms of scale and scope and effects and budget and costuming and all that. It is possible now where it never was before to get a TV show like Game of Thrones, which like basically would have just, that would have only been possible in film before. So that is possible, but still that is the exception. Majority TV shows don't have the budget, don't have the costuming, don't have like the huge production that a film would. So in order to do first law justice, you do need to have a pretty big budget, a substantial crew, a substantial effects and costuming and locations and all this kind of thing. There is just a much higher likelihood that you're gonna get what you need resource-wise in a film than with a TV show. TV show could do it and in a perfect world, you get a TV show that has the kind of budget that it needs and the kind of production that it needs and the kind of talent that it needs. But if we're just looking at like odds of getting it right, you know, I'd rather have a film that has much more, a higher likelihood of having that kind of budget and resources to pull that off than ending up with like a half-assed a la Witcher adaptation of first law. So basically, I'm pretty excited that we're gonna get a first law adaptation. What? I mean, I'm just over the moon about it. Is it exactly what I've hoped for? Obviously, no. I want a TV adaptation of the original trilogy starring Sam Clathlin as Glakta and Tom Hardy as Logan Ninefingers. But is this more than I hoped or dreamed of us hearing announced so soon? Heck yes. Also, Joe Abercrombie himself wrote the script. So it's gonna be awesome. I am of course available to consult on casting decisions and whatnot if they need my extremely valuable input. But yeah, I mean like, I'm hyped, let's get hyped. Like I'm so excited. I'm dying to hear more. I know that like we probably won't hear more for a little while because like they can't announce things until they are pretty set in stone until contracts have been signed and money has been put on the table. But like the fact that we got this announcement is already pretty indicative of how certain things are, even though Joe is like, well it's not certain until the credits roll, which like I appreciate it. You have to be realistic about these things. I'm so excited to hear more when they announce further casting decisions and where they're gonna shoot it, how they're gonna shoot it when it's gonna come out. I'm so, so excited. I do wonder what this means for Joe's current writing projects, which seem to have not been going all that well. Maybe this is why, maybe his mind was on scripting Besser Cold, which like I always want him to prioritize first law. So I'm not mad about it. But yeah, let me know in the comments down below your thoughts about this adaptation. Are you excited about it as well? What do you think about the casting of Rebecca Ferguson? Do you think she's got it in her to be Monza? I think yes. Well, let me know if you disagree. Let me know your ideal casting choices for the rest of the characters. Like who should be her shivers? And again, I think I have ideas about like an ideal casting, you know, like who would be my shivers in a perfect world. But like when you already have your Monza, then you also have to like think about, okay, maybe I think this person could be good as shivers. But would they be good as shivers with Rebecca Ferguson as Monza? Like is that, would they work together? Cause she's the part that we know for sure. So like, who would be a good shivers opposite her? Who would be a good Koska opposite her? Who would be a good Morveer opposite her? So let me know if you have any casting ideas. And yeah, I look forward to hearing more about this and chatting more about this. And in the hopefully near future, doing a book to film review of the movie best served cold. Ah, so excited. Anyway, yeah, let me know your thoughts. I post videos on Saturdays, other end comes as well on Saturdays. So like and subscribe to my Patreon if you feel so inclined, and I'll see you when I see you. Bye.