Adapting the Dresden Files.

[The Romulan Republic]

Yeah, I suppose its not necessary, although strictly speaking, neither is the Murphy/Dresden meeting (which was not shown in the books until well after the first book was published).

Although your approach probably does make more sense.

Another possible location for filming is Toronto- its often used as a filming location as well, and I believe it was used for the existing Dresden Files TV series.

Although filming on-location in Chicago would be ideal, of course.

[Steve]

Yeah, I'm still voting for animation. I think it'll let you do a lot more with the fantastical elements of the series since you won't have a CGI budget to worry about. And Harry could actually be over six and a half feet tall and Murph barely five and a half feet.

[Zixinus]

Regarding adapting the novels: What isn't important is to keep events as they happen in the books. What is important is to keep the character's natures, relationships and conflicts intact. Of course some changes have to happen and should happen with the new writing staff, but the important thing is to realize what makes the Dresdenverse itself and what doesn't. Another important thing to keep is mentality, rather than rigid following of the verse's rules as Butcher laid it out. Hollywood werewolves are bad (one of the worse episodes in the TV series) and Dresdenverse version is actually more creative.

Also keep in mind that a lot of things happen they way they do in the novels is to make a gripping, escalating adventure. You can stretch out things, shrunk some things or have altogether different things happen or even be allowed to devote to an entire episode to a topic, like Thomas's and Harry's relationship. Stuff that the mini-stories happen in.

Molly does not necessarily have to be rescued from Arctis Tor for her to be Harry's apprentice, the important thing is that Harry will risk himself tremendously to rescue and protect a girl that made the did the wrong thing for the right reasons.
What is also important from Molly is that she idolizes Harry, has a massive crush on him and still has a torch the size of Statue of Liberty's for him when he made things clear that it won't happen. She wants him and has some rather unrealistic notions about how that would happen, notions that she keeps even after Changes (that's another thing: Changes IS a big change in the Dresden formula). That when she discovers her magic, she doesn't just go to him. No, she hides it from him until things go out of control.
You don't have to have that happen and come out in a single episode, but can be a season-long arc. Harry can realize this relationship in pieces, plus leave space for the adapting writers to have their own ideas of how this relationship would look like.

Animation of some sort would be better than live because then series' settings switch between ordinary Chicago, special/fictional places of Chicago (Undertown, Mac's bar) to outright fantastical locations. You have supernatural characters next to ordinary characters fairly often. Harry fights regular people but he is more often fighting supernatural foes. Not good for a live-action series where you are burning trough special effects budget for each such scene. Not that much of a problem for animation. Plus stylization works well.

Another thing that would be good is that you can lay exposition out far better. You can have elements displayed one per episode rather than having to condense it or have their own drama like in the books. Dresdenverse has its own ideas about things, including werewolves.

[Zixinus]

Season 1 Episode 1: Harry's Origin. You use a teenage actor to portray that he is adopted and being trained in magic. You end the episode with him barely escaping He Who Walks Behind and making a desperate deal with his Godmother.

Season 1 Episode 2: He defeats He Who Walks Behind, and Justin... then gets clapped in irons and put on trial by the White Council. You actually have everything done in Latin (subtitled, but obvious Harry does not understand wtf is going on), and then gets taken in by Ebenezer. End the episode with Ebenezer yodaing him properly.

Episode 3: You start with about 10 minutes introducing Murphey with that issue with the troll on the bridge

2 years later, Harry is a fully licensed private eye. He goes through the beginnings of book 1. The episode ends with Susan and the Toad Demon.

I disagree. Such relationships are better established with flashbacks. Like when Harry visits Ebenezer for something. Even with a continuous TV or animated series, you want each season to have its own basis and one overall main conflict. If you set it out with teenage Harry and his ordeal, the average viewer will think that's what the novels and everything is about, which it isn't.

For Dresden, I think a "restoration of faith" is the PERFECT pilot episode. With a little expansion, it summarizes what the books are about very well: Harry stubbornly doing the right thing even though it carries him into increasingly bad and dangerous situations, with the temptation of saying "fuck it" hanging over him but always refusing to take it. Because, really, that is what makes Harry a hero.
Plus, it establishes Harry's relationship with Murphy which carries throughout the series. Murphy could then become a viewer-relatable character, a bit younger, more idealistic and naive (like the viewer) and be the straight-woman to Harry's smart-assery. For a TV series, they could play much more lose with the role of SI, making Harry a more regular partner for her. You could make Harry new to town too, with just getting his PI license.

Regarding the old TV series: there is one thing that the TV series did sort-of capture. We like to think of Harry as a long-coat wearing bad-ass. Really, he's a bit of a goof (his second-hand furniture, his choice of clothing, "Parkour!", etc.). They did manage to capture that part of his character well.

[Gaidin]

I always figured the best way to do it is a 13-16 episode season much like HBO does the length of Game of Thrones, and literally make the length of the story of the books or comic books episode-wise however long they need to be. Start with Welcome to the Jungle and run with it because that one actually makes a really good intro of Harry's conflicting relationship as a Wizard with Murphy's job as a Detective. The short stories are something of a mixed bag that depending on need may or may not be able to be moved around among the book timeline to fill out a season depending on how long it takes to tell a book's story, but, there you go. Stick with the comic/book timeline but let the short stories be a little more fluid unless they're obviously stuck somewhere. For reference: "The Warrior" obviously after Small Favor but before Changes if they need to play with the timeline for writing convenience.

Also, agree with Zixinus that flashbacks are the best way to handle anything before Welcome to the Jungle.

[LadyTevar]

There was a group that was trying to get a FanFilm up and running, and they had Jim's full permission. From what I understand, that's how Jim met his wife, as she was one of the actresses involved. I was following them on Facebook, but I've not heard much from them in the last year. Their Youtube account mostly has clips from the novels so far, and a few amusing character interactions.

A great example of their work "The Other Guy" :

[LadyTevar]

And then there's this one, between Harry and Blackstaff, after the events in Cold Days. I will point out that even in the novels, Harry says that "Magic looks like bad SFX", so they're living up to that one

[Steve]

I found out tonight that my aunt's neice has a friend involved in that production. And the same friend has apparently done online cosplay as Folly from the Cinder Spires.