Cosmere Adaptation Announcement

[Frustration]

12 minutes ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

Random thought in my head:

canonically rosharians are taller than the people on Scadrial.

At some point these people will interact.

In order to keep fans happy, the same actors will have to be used across all movies for a character.

so… how are they going to manage that? Get exclusively people from Arabian peninsula over 6 5’ for stormlight? And then cast only people under 6ft or something for every single other movie/TV show?

Stilts would be quite useful.

Or they could just do funky camera work, see Harrison Ford.

[SheepAreFluffy]

Unless this just quickly blows up and nothing comes from it, I do think it's pretty much inevitable that this is going to mean that Sanderson releases fewer books. There are only so many hours in a day and Sanderson is already something of a workaholic so I can't imagine that he could squeeze in writing screenplays and overseeing adaptations and still do all the work on books that he was doing before. It just doesn't seem possible.

The question here is what ends up getting sacrificed. I think that we will still get the big important central Cosmere books. Mistborn eras 3 and 4 and the Stormlight back half both seem sure things. They may end up happening more slowly than they would have otherwise, but they will probably still happen. I think that Sanderson is just too committed to seeing his work through to a conclusion that he won't be willing to drop these.

I also think we'll still get stand-alones and secret projects popping up here and there. These seem like they'd be the easiest (least hard?) books for him to find time for in the middle of other projects, and Sanderson is always going to keep on having cool ideas for stories that he's just itching to tell.

What I really worry for are the books in the middle ground between these two. The ones that are said on the major shard worlds but aren't as integral to the main plot lines of the Cosmere. I'm thinking things like the potential cyberpunk Mistborn books, Nightblood, The Night Brigade, Horneater, maybe the Elantris sequels, and so on. To me, these feel like the corners that are most likely to end up getting cut.

And honestly, I'm a little bit sad about this. I'm not really that much of a watcher of either films or television, and if I had to choose between any of those books or these screen adaptations, I would choose the books, easily. Brand new stories excite me more than retreading old ground, and I just prefer books as a medium to the screen. I may still end up watching and enjoying the adaptations, but they definitely don't excite me as much as new books would...

...but that's OK. Sanderson does not owe me anything. He should spend his time how he chooses to, not how I want him to. I mean, this is an incredibly obvious thing to say, but given some of the online discourse around certain other authors, it is apparently something that needs to be said. Regardless of how we all individually feel about this news, I mostly just hope that we can all be respectful of people with differing opinions and of Sanderson himself.

[+Slowswift]

2 hours ago, Mistfallen Soldier said:

Random thought in my head:

canonically rosharians are taller than the people on Scadrial.

At some point these people will interact.

In order to keep fans happy, the same actors will have to be used across all movies for a character.

so… how are they going to manage that? Get exclusively people from Arabian peninsula over 6 5’ for stormlight? And then cast only people under 6ft or something for every single other movie/TV show?

John Rhys-Davies is very tall. Gimli is not. No CGI was used when filming Frodo and Gandalf together. Filmmakers can be very, very clever. 

[lordofsoup]

Brandon’s books have always been violent.  He just never went into excessive detail so it can be overlooked.  I don’t think many books can top the sheer amount of gore the inquisitors created.  

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

I want it here, right now, on the record that I was a Brandon Sanderson fan before the movies.

[alder24]

This news is certainly encouraging but I’m not overly excited yet. I’ll wait for that after adaptations are well in production. After all, it’s not the first time Brandon sold his rights and things are happening around movies, but this time it certainly seems very promising and I think we will finally see some movies. I really hope this won’t end like the Wheel of Time, which I honestly don’t even know what happened to after S2. 

I’m happy to see Brandon maintaining huge creative control over the show and him writing the screenplay, but at the same time I’m a bit worried as writing for movies is vastly different from writing books. Although Brandon is the kind of person who works with specialists and listens to others so I don’t think I have to worry much about it. It sucks however that his schedule is getting overfilled, we’ll probably see SA6 later than expected and I think he won’t have that much time for writing novels in secret (not to mention Rithmatist or Nightblood, goodbye my love).

As others have already said, I do hope his adaptations won’t end up being overly sexualized, but violence is appropriate, especially for Mistborn. We did see heads exploding and bodies being chopped to unrecognizable levels, not to mention the brutality of Hemalurgy. I want to see Steel Inquisitors in their full terrifying glory. I love them as antagonists. There will be many changes and deviations from books, but with Brandon in control, I hope it won’t go wrong. I do feel that changing the Atium plot in TFE like he talked about earlier in WoBs will happen as it just works better. 

We’ll still have to wait years for any big news about this project and everything can happen in the meantime. I remember Brandon talking somewhere that the last Mistborn adaptation got to the point where he was hearing actors read the lines and yet it still got cancelled. That’s why I want to hear some definite announcements first before getting excited.

[Qianweilian He/him]

10 minutes ago, alder24 said:

We did see heads exploding and bodies being chopped to unrecognizable levels, not to mention the brutality of Hemalurgy. I want to see Steel Inquisitors in their full terrifying glory.

Straff getting chopped in half...

10 minutes ago, alder24 said:

not to mention Rithmatist or Nightblood, goodbye my love

I think we’ll get Nightblood, I’ve pretty much given up on Rithmatist. He’s busier and busier every day with the Cosmere, I don’t think Rithmatist has a change of getting written until after Stormlight is finished.

Edit: Or if we get another pandemic. That would work too.

Edited January 29 by Qianweilian

[Immortal Platypus]

10 hours ago, CoderDrag0n8 said:

And why is that?

They are the Words Of Brandon, yes?

to add on to what other people have said, they are somewhat canon, but of a lower status. In addition, WOBs have changed sides of support (I'm pretty sure) as Brandon thought something, then changed his mind. Generally, they're fairly consistent, but shouldn't be taken as law.

8 hours ago, Frustration said:

Stilts would be quite useful.

Or they could just do funky camera work, see Harrison Ford.

the Lord of the Rings movies did that sort of camera work, with different sized sets, stunt doubles, forced perspective, etc. the primary actors for the hobbits were normal height. 

12 hours ago, TwinStorm said:

lol

I just put up a post which was directly inspired by Thaids 2500 in style on TLT

be curious to see what you think

I'll take a look at it, what page is it on?

although, I don't have the context, but I'll look anyway

11 hours ago, dannnex said:

brother no offense but you've been here for a year and a half

you are the new members

based

but also, a year and a half is decent time, certainly not as long as almost a decade, but still. 

[Cosmer]

The Kelsier casting is truly so important...already expecting them to weave the Secret History story throughout WoA and HoA so he gets more screen time. 

[ParaTulip fae/faer (declines as she/her)]

9 hours ago, Frustration said:

I wouldn't be too against it myself. I generally don't have a huge issue with violence, but liquidating someone's head with bits of skull and brains in a way that doesn't look like a cheap slasher film using red Kool-aid, while also not being vomit-inducingly realistic is(I think) going to be tricky.

I think you just shoot the scene so that it is mostly implied. A shot of the camera moving towards the guy's head, a splash of red against a wall with the shadow of the now headless man still holding Vin on it. The next shot is closer to the ground, maybe some blood dripping and then the corpse falling which we cut just as the remains of the head enter the frame. Cut to reaction shots. Then a shot from behind Vin until she can wipe her face off or something. This is easier to do in anime since you can shift things into pure silhouettes, and considering how much CGI will be needed to pull off the falling ash, the mists, the iron/steel movement, Atium, and other stuff it might not be a terrible idea to do some kind of stylization in scenes of intense violence. 

46 minutes ago, Immortal Platypus said:

the Lord of the Rings movies did that sort of camera work, with different sized sets, stunt doubles, forced perspective, etc. the primary actors for the hobbits were normal height. 

But then for The Hobbit they just tended to shoot everyone on green screens and composited them together. 

[TheOneKEA]

My only negative thought about this announcement so far is Apple’s current policy of not releasing all of its content on physical media. I believe strongly in owning the media that one consumes, and when it is available for sale I try to get a copy for myself. If the Cosmere works produced by Apple are not available in physical form, I will be sorely disappointed.

[Qianweilian He/him]

15 minutes ago, TheOneKEA said:

If the Cosmere works produced by Apple are not available in physical form, I will be sorely disappointed.

I think this is only going to happen if Brandon has a clause in his contract that requires it.

[TheOneKEA]

20 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

I think this is only going to happen if Brandon has a clause in his contract that requires it.

If Brandon is willing to take questions during his livestream tomorrow, I plan to ask him about this topic.

[Aliroz-The-Confused]

3 hours ago, TheOneKEA said:

If Brandon is willing to take questions during his livestream tomorrow, I plan to ask him about this topic.

Oh.  If there are questions, I'd like it if somebody would ask whether or not he still wants to keep the story open to the interpretation that the characters are living certain standards, or if he wants to close that door.

Because I really really want to be excited for this, but if he doesn't intend for it to be accessible in that way or engaged with like that then I'd rather know ahead of time so I can process the disappointment and then enjoy it in the way that I enjoy his other works and not be disappointed from a false expectation that I'll be able to connect with it like I connected to the original Mistborn trilogy and Elantris; and if he actually does intend for it to be accessible in that way and open to being something I can feel truly included in, I'd like to know ahead of time so I can enjoy the hype/anticipation/inclusion/prospect-of-representation.

Edited January 29 by Aliroz-The-Confused

[Conure1243 He/Him]

Can't say I'm sure about how the visuals will look, but I do have hope for the idea in general. At least until given reason not to.

Edited January 29 by Conure1243

[Duxredux he/him]

I'm thinking through TFE and I'm having a hard time imagining a way to minimize the scene where Kelsier takes the crew and makes them watch the executions. It's a powerful scene in the book and serves as backbone for motivation for the crew and is a caution specifically about ignoring horrible realities that happen to other people by looking away. It's possible to have the sound of the axes and the spray of the fountain turning red without seeing the act but... there's a disconnect there that I suspect people would feel even if they couldn't point out why. 

They probably could get a lot of mileage with ash obscuring the blood and viscera. I imagine black ash falling constantly would absorb and hide blood quite quickly and effectively. That might reduce the full effect of Camon, Vin's old crew, and the evidence of Marsh's promotion while still being accurate.

That said, and if the count matters, I am in the low tolerance for visual violence camp. It just doesn't improve the story for me  if not being outright nauseating.

Edited January 29 by Duxredux

[TwinStorm He/Him]

7 hours ago, Immortal Platypus said:

to add on to what other people have said, they are somewhat canon, but of a lower status. In addition, WOBs have changed sides of support (I'm pretty sure) as Brandon thought something, then changed his mind. Generally, they're fairly consistent, but shouldn't be taken as law.

the Lord of the Rings movies did that sort of camera work, with different sized sets, stunt doubles, forced perspective, etc. the primary actors for the hobbits were normal height. 

I'll take a look at it, what page is it on?

although, I don't have the context, but I'll look anyway

based

but also, a year and a half is decent time, certainly not as long as almost a decade, but still. 

page 4324

yeah im not sure how hard it'll hit without context but im still proud of it

[Immortal Platypus]

14 minutes ago, TwinStorm said:

page 4324

yeah im not sure how hard it'll hit without context but im still proud of it

I looked at it, and judging by the reactions, some crap has happened since I left. But any time a character dies, it kinda hits. Probably more so if I had context  

[TwinStorm He/Him]

31 minutes ago, Immortal Platypus said:

I looked at it, and judging by the reactions, some crap has happened since I left. But any time a character dies, it kinda hits. Probably more so if I had context  

yeah lol I get that

now I get to take a nice long break since my main characters arc is almost done lol

[Frustration]

2 hours ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:

Oh.  If there are questions, I'd like it if somebody would ask whether or not he still wants to keep the story open to the interpretation that the characters are living certain standards, or if he wants to close that door.

Because I really really want to be excited for this, but if he doesn't intend for it to be accessible in that way or engaged with like that then I'd rather know ahead of time so I can process the disappointment and then enjoy it in the way that I enjoy his other works and not be disappointed from a false expectation that I'll be able to connect with it like I connected to the original Mistborn trilogy and Elantris; and if he actually does intend for it to be accessible in that way and open to being something I can feel truly included in, I'd like to know ahead of time so I can enjoy the hype/anticipation/inclusion/prospect-of-representation.

I make no promises as Friday is really packed for me but I'll see.

If you have a YouTube account you could probably ask yourself.

[Aliroz-The-Confused]

46 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I make no promises as Friday is really packed for me but I'll see.

If you have a YouTube account you could probably ask yourself.

I don't know how to put it into words, though.

[Myst He/Him]

5 minutes ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:

I don't know how to put it into words, though.

We can help, just put the general gist in this(or another thing) and we’ll help, if you’d like us to

[Aliroz-The-Confused]

I guess the gist is in my posts in this and the last two pages with regards to the applicability and accessibility of the work as LDS fiction and as representation and with interpretation and whether or not I'm allowed to be a Cosmere fan in the same way that the people who get direct and explicit representation are, and that WOB about how he said it's okay to interpret the work the way I do but I don't know if that will apply to the new one.

Spoiler

I guess I feel like how someone might feel if he or she deeply related to Renarin and Rlain but was roughly 87% certain that the adaptation was going to be different in a way that did not include the possibility of that connection or those themes or that representation.  Or someone who related to the mental health themes and was roughly 87% certain that the adaptation would remove the themes of redemption and trauma and depression that he or she had taken great comfort from and found meaning in (for example, having Kaladin's depression be magically "fixed" halfway through The Way Of Kings, or having Shallan have only one identity and removing everything about her childhood).

Spoilered for tedious metaphor that's more context to why the question matters than it is relevant to the question.

Edited January 30 by Aliroz-The-Confused

[Myst He/Him]

14 minutes ago, Aliroz-The-Confused said:

I guess the gist is in my posts in this and the last three pages with regards to the applicability and accessibility of the work as LDS fiction and as representation and with interpretation and whether or not I'm allowed to be a Cosmere fan in the same way that the people who get direct and explicit representation are, and that WOB about how he said it's okay to interpret the work the way I do but I don't know if that will apply to the new one.

Okay…. My attempt at turning this into a question:

Since the movies will be canonically accurate, it seems that the movies will shut down some interpretations of your work. How do you plan on balancing your view against your fans interpretation?

Okay, did I get at least what you’re asking? Or did I miss a part?

[Aliroz-The-Confused]

That doesn't say what the interpretation is, though, or how it has to do with inclusion.

Edited January 30 by Aliroz-The-Confused