ENTIRE COSMERE OPTIONED FOR MOVIES

[Argent he/him]

Just now, Wubdor said:

By themselves they'd be phenomenal movies. I hate them because they left out so much of the good stuff that I was hoping to see.

That's fair. From this standpoint, I doubt any of us (here, in this community) will be entirely satisfied with any Cosmere movie, regardless of budget, writers, or actors. It's just not feasible to translate everything from page to screen, things will be left out. Best to be ready and not expect everything.

[Wubdor he/him]

1 minute ago, Argent said:

That's fair. From this standpoint, I doubt any of us (here, in this community) will be entirely satisfied with any Cosmere movie, regardless of budget, writers, or actors. It's just not feasible to translate everything from page to screen, things will be left out. Best to be ready and not expect everything.

Yep, that's true. With my expectations so low, it can only be better, I guess.

[StormyQueen she/her]

Yessss. I like this. I may not be all together too hopeful about the quality. But, just...yesssss.

[Kered he/him]

I wonder how long it's going to take for us to start getting WAFO's along with RAFO's

[Pagerunner he/him]

What I enjoy most about the Cosmere (which, obviously, is what the rest of you must like as well) is the worldbuilding and potential for theorizing and predicting. Those attributes will not translate over well to the big screen. Characters will. Kaladin and Kelsier will not say and do everything they say and do in the books. Long explanations of magic systems will not fit. But powerful character moments, another one of Brandon's strengths, will fit in. There are some extremely cinematic scenes in Way of Kings - Gavilar's assassination, Dalinar's chasmfield fight, Kaladin's first bridge run, the battle on the Tower, and Taln's return will be the key moments a Way of Kings movie will be built around. The rest of the movie just needs to connect those scenes in a satisfying way. Most of Shallan's story is not as high-octane, and I think it would fit thematically with Words of Radiance (considering it's focused on her and all). Her and Jasnah's research into the Parshendi as Voidbringers is really resolved in Words of Radiance, as well, so I'd push her story out of the first SA movie, letting it focus on Kaladin and Dalinar. The second movie can calm things down, go for some more intrigue, and catch up on Shallan's story and then show how it impacts the other characters when she gets to the warcamps.

Edited October 27, 2016 by Pagerunner

[Argent he/him]

1 minute ago, Pagerunner said:

There are some extremely cinematic scenes in Way of Kings

Honestly, it's just as fair to say that there are scenes that are not cinematic. Even a conversation scene can be visually exciting because of how different Roshar is.

[WayneSpren he/him]

I personally think Reckoners would have been a WAY better first movie. However, the writers actually worked on something called "The Reckoning", so...yeah.

WoK could be a great movie, but they'll probably have to cut a LOT of stuff. For example, Adolin might not even be in it.

And we don't want that.

[Unknowingly he/him]

7 minutes ago, Argent said:

Honestly, it's just as fair to say that there are scenes that are not cinematic. Even a conversation scene can be visually exciting because of how different Roshar is.

Tha'ts actually another thing that is worrying me, Roshar and Scadrial are so different that there cant be many real world locations that they'll be able to film at, meaning there will be largely cgi sets, which will drain the budgets.

[maxal she/her]

37 minutes ago, WayneSpren said:

I personally think Reckoners would have been a WAY better first movie. However, the writers actually worked on something called "The Reckoning", so...yeah.

WoK could be a great movie, but they'll probably have to cut a LOT of stuff. For example, Adolin might not even be in it.

And we don't want that.

Huh of all the things I foresee them cutting out, Adolin is just not one of those. For one, he is the handsome one and producers love to have a handsome character: it draws people in. For second, he is at the center of the main love story and every action movie include one of those. For third, he is one of the major action related character and he serves as an antagonist to Kaladin. For fourth, his role is decisive in WoR. Adolin is just exactly the kind of character producers would love to have in any given movie.

What they would most likely cut out: Hoid, all interludes, Rysn, Lift, the majority of Szeth scenes except those where he interacts with the main characters, a lot of the bridge four action (it would be severely condensed), probably the flashbacks (or have a very reduce set of them), Eshonai (or have a very small scene)... I know the list is long, but movies are short.

WoK would not work very well in a movie format, IMHO. WoR would be better, but not WoK. It just doesn't have the right ingredients: it is missing romance.

[Massik he/him]

My connection is spotty right now, so I haven't read up on this, but...

everyone is talking SA movies, when this is for the whole Cosmere.c Wouldn't Elantris, Warbreaker and Mistborn be more logical choices to kick any movies off with?

There may even be something floating around for MB, since it was previously optioned.  

[The Invested Beard]

Wow this is exciting stuff. I knew it was inevitable, but it's cool to see it's finally happening. Here's hoping they can break the book-to-movie-not-so-good curse.

[Eki]

I agree that Mistborn would work much better as a movie. I was still hoping for Stormlight as an animated series... That would work much better with spren and the weird flora and fauna.

I'm REALLY worried WoK will get whitewashed, as well :/

[soyperson]

Just now, Massik said:

My connection is spotty right now, so I haven't read up on this, but...

everyone is talking SA movies, when this is for the whole Cosmere.c Wouldn't Elantris, Warbreaker and Mistborn be more logical choices to kick any movies off with?

There may even be something floating around for MB, since it was previously optioned.  

I'm looking more forward to the Mistborn movies!

[PallonianFire he/him]

4 minutes ago, Massik said:

My connection is spotty right now, so I haven't read up on this, but...

everyone is talking SA movies, when this is for the whole Cosmere.c Wouldn't Elantris, Warbreaker and Mistborn be more logical choices to kick any movies off with?

There may even be something floating around for MB, since it was previously optioned.  

The link says that they're fast-tracking WoK as the first movie.

[soyperson]

1 minute ago, PallonianFire said:

The link says that they're fast-tracking WoK as the first movie.

Yeah, that worries me. You can't fast-track WoK. That's a piece that takes time.

[Oversleep]

Let's see what the man himself has to say about the whole thing:

Quote

Brandon: Okay, before you all freak out too much, let's manage some expectations. I am obviously very excited, and am pleased with DMG. So far they have been very good to work with, and have involved me a great deal.

But understand that films and television take a LONG time and lots of luck to get off the ground. Usually, this is the process:

1) A studio or producer "options" a work. (They pay around five or ten percent of a negotiated purchase price to kind of "rent" the right to start development on a property.)

2). The studio or production company commissions a screenplay.

3) The screenplay goes through several revisions or drafts as needed.

4). The finished screenplay is used to attach a director or actors.

5) Based on the strength of the screenplay or talent attached, a studio funds and greenlights the film.

This is very simplified, of course. The thing to remember is that steps two through four often take years, and many properties under option never become films. The Wheel of Time got to step three and stayed there for years, and is now back to step two. Enders Game spent twenty years going through these steps over and over.

This is why you will often hear announcements like this, then hear nothing more for years.

I hope we will be reasonably quick, and DMG's enthusiasm and commitment has been excellent so far. I really feel they are going to make this happen. But do understand that we still have a long road ahead of us, and you will probably not get any good updates (beyond "all is well") until very late in the process.

Question: Thanks for the input! Could you comment on the fact that they're starting with Stormlight but only 2 books are out?

Brandon: Really, right now, most of what they are doing is saying, "what would this look like?" Getting a handle on the Cosmere is a big job, and so they are exploring everything too see what works best. Emperors Soul is what first drew them to me, so that isn't off the table either. I strongly suspect Mistborn will happen first, if we do get to the greenlight stage.
Source

Edited October 28, 2016 by Oversleep

[Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor]

Just remember that the key to happiness in life is managing your expectations.

[soyperson]

Just now, Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor said:

Just remember that the key to happiness in life is managing your expectations.

You sound like my best friend. 

[Arcoss]

I am very pessimistic about this, how exactly are they going to adapt a 1250~ page book into a two hour movie? The Game Of Thrones TV series is adapting 1000~ page books into 10 hour seasons and still leaves some things out

The way I see it, the result of this project will either be an over cluttered mess like Batman V Superman or a decent movie which has cut so many things out it might as well be it's own original work.

The only way I see this working is if they split each book into 5-6 movies and that doesn't seem likely in my opinion

Edited October 28, 2016 by Arcoss

[Jedal he/him]

When you try to view the article but an add for men's shaving cream comes up... Must be Wit playin his tricks on me...

[bdoble97]

The amazingly great news that Brandon Sanderson has sold the movie rights to all his comsmar book is so exciting. But the news that they are starting off with the Stormlight Archive book first raises grave concerns for me I really thought they would have done Mistborn first. Could be a cool urban fantasy trilogy. But the fact that they are doing SA first makes me get extremely nervous for many reasons. First things first there's only two books out so far. I don't want what happened to the Game of Thrones/  A Song of Ice and Fire happened to us  finding out what happens before the book comes out because the TV series has surpassed the books  I know Sanderson is a machine when it comes to putting out books but it  still gets me worried . Eeach book being well over a thousand pages gives me hope that mabe the first 2 book could be broken up into serval movies. I know it takes probley about a year to year and half to write a script. So by the time they are done with the script of movie #1 book 3 will be out.  But then going back to what I said previously if they take the first book in split up into two or three movies and the same with book 2 at this time we are 6 movies in and that's just two books how are we going to be able to get actors to play a single character for that long and not have them age?  If they do this and they keep the same actors by the time the whole series is done we're looking at how many movies and how old will the actors be ? Probley to old to be playing thier respected characters.  Don't get me wrong I would love to see 20 SA movies if they are done right but.  The way they could over come this issue would  CGI and motion captured like the Lord of the Rings did with Gollum. Higher Andy Serkis and I believe Toby Kebbell and then get whatever other actors that you would want to use and just have them all do CGI/motion-capture. People that may be skeptical on using this technology just look at the Jungle Book 95 version of that movie was all CGI. I'm not saying that they have to do all CGI they could do what War Craft did and build huge magnificent sets and then a lot of CGI as well. The more I read about this the more I think it actually could work but it still makes me very concerned that they doing Stormlight first. 

 

[Zackleaynts he/him]

For a 1k-pages book, wouldn't it be too much to squeeze into a single movie? Could the Way of Kings be divided and made into two or three movies? I haven't read the book yet.

[The Invested Beard]

1 hour ago, Oversleep said:

Let's see what the man himself has to say about whole thing:

This is awesome. So even Brandon thinks Mistborn will probably come first, that's good.

[AngelEy3 he/him]

I'll pay to see it. No question there. 

[soyperson]

Just now, Zackleaynts said:

For a 1k-pages book, wouldn't it be too much to squeeze into a single movie? Could the Way of Kings be divided and made into two or three movies? I haven't read the book yet.

To sum it up... it's a whole lot of book.