Difficulty of Adapting Brandon's Work to Screen

[Guest Jacob Santos]

I apologize for the length of a possibly irrelevant topic, but the discussion about the possibilities is intriguing to me and I would like someone's opinion. Given the life of Hunger Games, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, I thought it might be an interesting topic.

I love watching books as movies. Of Mice and Men movie (1992) was excellent as a movie and captured the life of the book wonderfully. It is nice to see events acted out and interpreted. The problem are that smaller books are easier to adapt or at least books where subplots can easily be cut to focus on the main central plot and essence of the story as opposed to removing major plot points and working around them.

For every Harry Potter (arguable but whatever), Game Of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, there are plenty of poorly adapted and ruined movies sharing the same name but none of the story of the books they were supposed to adapt.

As Anime

I kind of wish a Japanese anime company would capture the rights of Mistborn and Stormlight Archive. The action and magic would work wonderfully in that medium barring the "fan service" (which I think a condition of contract would be that no fan service be allowed).

The wire-work involved with having a teenager (20-something playing a teen) would be potentially convoluted and probably just make it CG (like third Matrix movie) anyway. Anime quality has come a long way to that of Disney quality with visuals, combining CG art with contemporary creating some truly beautiful scenes. Alas, cost cutting could potentially hinder the scenes of action (most Naruto episodes), but again with the right backing, some Naruto fight scenes were truly remarkable and the quality that would be awesome for Mistborn.

The questions are ones of quality, length and content of the cartoon series. If anime could Mistborn fit into a 13 episode arc or would it require 26 to 52 episodes to complete? Is Mistborn and other Brandon books popular in Japan or Korea to justify the expense of investing several million dollars? Probably not, but doesn't mean it couldn't happen with the right (potentially American) backers, market and producers who care about the story being done right.

I think even with South Park, Family Guy, Simpsons and others that cartoons are still very much viewed as a child's medium. Also the quality of the shows are not on par with some of the best well done anime series in Japan, but even then ranges depending on which studio, team and budget. While Brandon's works are "clean" I believe the audience is still very much adult and in my unsupported opinion would want a live action adaptation.

As Movies

Meh, would it at all be possible to tell Mistborn in a movie? Yes, by tossing out majority of the story and focusing on one of the characters (probably Vin). It would be annoying, truly annoying, since if they focused on Vin, then Kelsier and Elend would be regulated to side characters only showing up towards the end or replaced or combined. Most likely Elend would not show up at all, Kelsier would receive very little screen time as a mentor. The dynamic of the crew would be wasted as it would be either off shots or left out completely.

Or the movie would focus on Kelsier and Vin would be a side character left to take up the mantel and defeat the evil overlord. It would be the suck, but I think with the right writer and director it could work.

The stand alone books I think have a better chance to be movies, since much of the events in Elantris and Warbreaker could be removed to create an coherent story. A Warbreaker movie could be about the quest of a strong woman defending her country and seeking to protect her sister from enemies.

The problem is that if the Cosmere is taken as a whole and not as one offs, then the integrity of the universe the stories take place will be corrupted, if not destroyed completely. Certainly, it could be done in a way that removes the elements or leaves the Cosmere elements open-ended for another series to take hold. However, do you remove Hoid's appearance from the two movies since he is a "side" character given the scope of the stories as standalone novels or do you break from the coherence of the story to include a seemly unimportant character distracting momentary from the story?

Also Lightsong would probably be removed completely from the story with what might be only a brief appearance at the end, but probably no appearance.

Another problem is casting Hoid, which for Cosmere purposes would be better played by the same actor throughout the movies. I mean, it isn't exactly important, you would either know him (if portrayed at all) by the end credits or by his actions if you've read the books.

As Live Action Series

If I was a producer, I would market the books as a single series spanning the different planets and books. It would be difficult as it would require licensing all of the books in the Cosmere and finding writers dedicated to adapting as closely as possible. Also, the other problem is one of production costs. The stories could require a lot of money either in sets or CG in a sort of "300" movie fashion. Either the CG would be laughably bad or bad compromises might have to be made to limit production costs.

The series could be woven as Hoid's journey (like the Doctor) through the Cosmere with some mystery surrounding the whole affair since we really don't know Hoid's intentions. It would be interesting or simply hack Warbreaker and Elantris into 13 episode arcs, naming the series differently, but keeping the same Hoid actor for each essentially separate series. The 10-13 40 minute episodes, should do enough justice to the multiple arcs of Warbreaker and Elantris to satisfy fans and interest an wide audience. I think however that Mistborn or Stormlight Archive would have to be adapted first since they should be the more interesting of the stories.

What I would like to see really are the characters lamenting and emoting as they do in the stories. The internal and external conflicts that the characters face in the books would be better felt and visualized in a longer series as wonderfully done in Game of Thrones. I simply don't imagine that the stories would be as compelling without the priest's transformation and truly multidimensional character progression. Too much would be left out and while the other characters grow, they mostly stay the same. It would serve as a Disney-esque movie where the Priest is a villain and the "star-crossed" lovers find true happiness in the end. That rust is boring, but could be super cool as well.

I don't know, I think any adaption of the books in whatever form, I'll probably watch. I might be disappointed with the removals and changes, but as long as the action is tight, I'll be content I think.

[Aethling]

IF you can do LOTR as a series of movies, you could do Mistborn, Elantris, or Warbreaker.

Of the three, Warbreaker may be the easiest as you wouldn't really require all that much CGI. The returned are essentially human. You can do Clod with makeup. About the only thing actually requiring CGI would be the changing colors and the final scene with the palace battle.

I do not know how well it would work as a series for any of them. Just look at how Legend of the Seeker butchered the SoT books. The series itself was a good little diversion, but anyone that had read the books could tell MAJOR differences.

[LevenThumps]

It would be fun to have it as a movie, but it would be really hard to interconnect them like the books are. As cool as it would be, they would probably have to keep them in their own little worlds.

[Ilidsor]

I've always thought that Alloy of Law could be made into a really good crime drama show. It could be a mix of Person of Interest(action + continuing storyline), Castle(humour), and Heroes(just because of the powers). I would watch that in a second.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Ilidsor

[Aethling]

Some of the stuff compounding allows would be pretty hard to do with the budget of a TV series. Alloy for TV would essentially be Gunsmoke with powers. No, I am not old enough to have seen firstrun episodes of Gunsmoke, but the reruns were very popular in the 80s.

The CGI/special effects required for a Mistborn,Elantris, or SLA based series would probably be prohibitively expensive. While I would prefer a Warbreaker movie, it could probably be done rather inexpensively for TV. Almost no special effects would be needed other than the occasional costume or the color change during awakening.

Whether or not we actually want it to happen is another story. Hollywood has a habit of butchering good books when turning to movies or TV. Do we really want a tall, blonde, buxom girl playing Vin or having Vin and Kelsier being father/daughter, brother/sister, or even lovers? How about Vin and Kelsier being the same age? All of those would probably make more fans want to puke, and there wouldn't be much Sanderson could do to stop that stuff either.

Also, Hoid may not have to be played by the same actor across different series. He is describe quite differently at times, if I remember correctly.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Aethling