iwot productions

iwot productions
Logo used in the season 1 credits (2021)
Type	Production company, brand management
Founded	2003 (as Red Eagle Entertainment, dissolved in 2020) 2008 (as REE Productions)
Works	The Wheel of Time (TV series) Winter Dragon (2015 short) Age of Legends (upcoming film)
Producers	Rick Selvage Larry Mondragon
DBA	Red Eagle Entertainment, LLC Manetheren, LLC Red Eagle Games see #Associated names and sister companies for more

iwot productions limited, formerly Red Eagle Entertainment, is the production company for the Prime Video television series The Wheel of Time and multiple upcoming projects including the live-action film Age of Legends, the animated film The White Tower, and an immersive adaptation. Red Eagle Entertainment, aka Manetheren, LLC, is the production company for the the 2015 short film Winter Dragon.

Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon are the producers with iwot productions. They co-founded the company Red Eagle Entertainment in 2003 "to identify and develop projects for film, television and other media." Selvage is chairman and president, and Mondragon is executive vice president. In 2008, they created a sister company, REE Productions, which was renamed iwot productions in February 2021.

Associated names and sister companies

iwot productions' associated names and sister companies:

• Red Eagle Entertainment, LLC - Filed July 21, 2003. On the same day this LLC was renamed, a second Red Eagle Entertainment, LLC was filed September 27, 2004; it was subsequently suspended on September 4, 2018.
  • Manetheren, LLC - Initially renamed with the misspelling Manetheran on September 27, 2004, and corrected on December 29, 2004. Suspended February 4, 2020.
• Red Eagle Publishing - Used for the New Spring comic book c. 2005.
• Red Eagle Games - Filed December 6, 2006. Suspended November 3, 2014.
• REE Productions, Inc. - Filed March 17, 2008. Note that REE is an acronym for Red Eagle Entertainment.
  • Cuendillar Productions, Inc. - Renamed on February 5, 2015.
  • iwot productions limited - Renamed on February 11, 2021.
• AOL Productions, LLC - Filed May 7, 2021. Note that this is a limited liability company for the production of the Age of Legends film.
• Ta'veren Productions LLC- Filed March 9, 2022.
• Trolloc Productions LLC - Filed March 9, 2022.
• True Source, LLC - Filed February 14, 2024 and announced February 15, 2024. A join venture company between iwot productions and D1srupt1ve for the One Power AI.

About

Red Eagle Entertainment logo

iwot productions began as Red Eagle Entertainment, LLC, often shortened to just Red Eagle. The company was legally renamed to Manetheren, LLC in 2004 but continued to do business as Red Eagle Entertainment. The company was legally suspended in February 2020. Selvage and Mondragon had created a second company in 2008 that was renamed to iwot productions on February 11, 2021; this is the company legally attached to the television series and related projects.

About Red Eagle Entertainment, from their press release in 2004:

Red Eagle Entertainment builds global value in franchise entertainment properties through a comprehensive program of licensing and brand management. Based in Los Angeles, Red Eagle scours the creative landscape for compelling literary works, original story concepts and under-leveraged brands and entertainment properties and acquires projects for development into motion pictures, television, electronic games, consumer products and more.

Company mission, from their website in 2006:

Red Eagle Entertainment, LLC (“Red Eagle”) is an intellectual property and global brand management company with a special focus on the media and entertainment industry. The mission of Red Eagle is to identify, qualify, acquire and commercially exploit a diverse portfolio of high-value, branded entertainment properties. The Company will licenses these properties for use in live action and animation feature films, television programming, comic books, graphic novels and other print media, the Internet, video games and other interactive media, and a wide variety of consumer products and services.

Red Eagle is developing its properties for a global audience by undertaking film and television production and print publishing through a combination of third party licensees, wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures with leading production companies and studios.

Red Eagle carefully manages each of its entertainment properties as “global brands.” This view of entertainment content as a “brand” is central to Red Eagle’s value proposition for its licensors— strategies that balance the realization of short-term gains with the protection of a property’s long-term market value. Accordingly, Red Eagle seeks to preserve the integrity of its portfolio while optimizing the overall return that can be generated from the careful, managed and global exploitation of each property in a wide variety of media, products and services.

The Company has selectively acquired rights to a wide array of new and under-leveraged entertainment properties having compelling storylines, richly developed characters and striking themes and settings. Examples of such entertainment properties include published literary works, original story concepts, unpublished manuscripts and licensable brands and characters. In general, each entertainment property sought by the Company will have the universal appeal that is needed to capture the hearts, imagination and pocketbooks of a global audience.

About Red Eagle Games and iwot productions, from a 2022 press release:

iwot productions limited, and its sister company, Red Eagle Games, are creating immersive audience experiences using transmedia storytelling to create a transcendent global franchise centered on Robert Jordan’s acclaimed work of fantasy fiction, The Wheel of Time. iwot productions has joined with Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios in the making of “The Wheel of Time” television series, now available on Amazon Prime in more than 200 countries and territories. Red Eagle Games is the exclusive worldwide licensor of interactive products and services based upon The Wheel of Time. For further information, contact info@iwotproductions.com.

Credits

Film and television credits for iwot productions and sister companies include:

• Winter Dragon - 2015 short film
• The Wheel of Time - 2021-ongoing TV series

Additional credits for iwot productions and sister companies include:

• A 2022 remaster of The Wheel of Time 1999 video game  (book spoilers!) originally released by Legend Entertainment, it was remastered by GOG, Nightdive Studios, and Red Eagle Games
• The graphic novel adaptations New Spring  (book spoilers!) and The Eye of the World  (book spoilers!)

Upcoming projects from iwot productions and sister companies include:

• Age of Legends - an upcoming live-action prequel film, the first of a planned trilogy
• The White Tower- an upcoming 3D animated prequel film
• The Wheel of Time immersive adaptation, upcoming
• One Power, which will provide AI-power products and services for The Wheel of Time franchise
  • The Guide, a mobile app that runs on the One Power AI

Abandoned projects from iwot productions and sister companies include:

• The Wheel of Time main series film adaptation
• Video games - Multiple video games were planned for development following the creation of Red Eagle Games in 2006, but none were released.
  • First Banner of the Rising Sun was an Aiel-themed mobile game planned by Red Eagle Games and Jet Set Games. It was announced in 2012 and abandoned later that year after its kickstarter failed to raise funding.

Television series development

Film attempts

In 2004, Robert Jordan sold the TV, film, video game, and comic book rights for The Wheel of Time book series to Red Eagle Entertainment.

On March 12, 2004, Red Eagle released a statement about their intent to create a film based on the first book The Eye of the World:

LOS ANGELES – Red Eagle Entertainment™ LLC has acquired the exclusive, worldwide production and distribution rights to Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World™, the first novel in his best-selling The Wheel of Time™ series. In addition to licensing the property for film and television production, Red Eagle Entertainment will manage a comprehensive ancillary portfolio that will include the development of related video games, toys and other consumer products and services. The announcement was made today by Rick Selvage, chairman and president, Red Eagle Entertainment. Red Eagle Entertainment is in discussion with potential production partners to develop a motion picture based upon The Eye of the World.

On June 15, 2006, Red Eagle again stated their interest in creating a film: "Red Eagle Entertainment is also developing a live-action feature film based upon THE EYE OF THE WORLD, the first full-length novel in THE WHEEL OF TIME series."

By 2007, Robert Jordan and fans were tired of no movement yet on an adaptation. On August 22, 2007, Jordan wrote a blog post, showing some of his frustration with Red Eagle:

I hear things now and then floating out in the air. For instance, I hear that word was floating about ComicsCon in San Diego that I am displeased with Red Eagle. Too true. Too very true. In a few more months that last contract they have with anyone on God’s green earth that so much as mentions my name will come to an end and we can see what happens after that. You see, among other things they forgot an old dictum of LBJ back when he was just a Congressman from Texas, when he famously, or infamously, said “Don’t spit in the soup, boys. We all have to eat.” Worse, Red Eagle though they could tell me they spit in the soup, or pee in it, if they wanted to and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop them. You can’t apologize your way out of that with me, not that they tried. There isn’t enough money in the world to buy your way out of it with me. Not that they tried that either. So they get no further help from me. Once they are completely out of the picture, we’ll see what happens.

In August 2008, Red Eagle re-sold the rights to Universal Pictures for a "seven-figure" sum. With Universal, Red Eagle intended "to develop as a big-budget, live-action film for a theatrical release to a global audience." Universal had "the rights by contract to make a miniseries or movies of The Wheel of Time books, and they [had] seven years to get the first movie into theaters." Universal developed a film script based on The Eye of the World but did not proceed with the adaptation, and the rights returned to Red Eagle.

Sony Television

In 2014, Sony Television developed an interest in the property as an ongoing, big-budget TV series. They discussed the project with Red Eagle and with Harriet McDougal.

Winter Dragon

On February 8, 2015, Red Eagle released Winter Dragon, a 22-minute short film that aired on the FXX Network in the United States during an infomercial timeslot. The short film was created in order for Red Eagle to retain the TV and film rights for the series, which were due to revert to the Robert Jordan Estate (the Bandersnatch Group) on February 11. Red Eagle argued that airing this short pilot constituted getting a TV or film series into production and thus they should retain the rights.

Legal discussions followed between Red Eagle and Harriet McDougal with the Bandersnatch Group. Shortly after the release, Harriet McDougal made a statement on Facebook that the pilot "was made without [her] knowledge or cooperation", that she "never saw the script", and that "no one associated with Bandersnatch Group, the successor-in-interest to James O. Rigney, was aware of this" or "informed of this in any way". Red Eagle responded with a slander lawsuit, claiming McDougal was involved with discussions about the pilot and that this was a breach of contract over the nondisparagement clause of the agreement, stating that "McDougal's public comments have harmed Manetheren's ability to enter into new contractual relationships, such as with Sony, both by calling into question the propriety of Manetheren’s rights in the Property and by causing public opinion to set against any film or television production that Manetheren might authorize."

On April 18, 2016, the Robert Jordan Estate issued a statement confirming that the legal discussions had been resolved satisfactorily and that a TV adaptation of The Wheel of Time was being developed with a "major studio".

Amazon Studios

On October 2, 2018, it was confirmed that Amazon Studios had given the greenlight for The Wheel of Time television series to begin production, with Sony Pictures Television and Red Eagle Entertainment still attached to the project.

Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon later shifted the production company from Red Eagle Entertainment (Manetheren, LLC) to iwot productions limited.

The Wheel of Time series premiered on Prime Video on November 19, 2021.

Trivia

• Red Eagle Entertainment and Red Eagle Games were named after the Red Eagle Banner  (book spoilers!) used by Manetheren in The Wheel of Time series.
• Manetheren, LLC was named after Manetheren in The Wheel of Time series.
• Cuendillar Productions, Inc. was named after Cuendillar in The Wheel of Time series.
• iwot is a play on the iPhone and Apple's related i-branded products, with WoT being the common acronym for The Wheel of Time.

External links

• Iwot productions at the Internet Movie Database
• Manetheren at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview, November 7 2008: Interview with Red Eagle Entertainment
• Interview, May 17, 2010, Tor.com: JordanCon: Interview with Red Eagle Entertainment by Richard Fife
• Dragonmount: Adam's Wheel of Television: A History of the Wheel of Time Media Rights by Adam Whitehead. November 24, 2020.