My Thoughts on a potential Cosmere Tv-Adaption

[Amaror]

So movie and tv adaptions of some of Brandon's story have often been "in talk", but nothing has really come of it so far. Nevertheless I think that this is an interesting topic and I just want to share my thoughts on how an adaption like this would look. I will only focuss on his Cosmere-stories here, since I like them the by far the most.

1. Medium:

Currently we have two big mediums for screen-adaptions of various stories. The oldest form is the direct book --> movie adaption which can work well, as shown with Lord of the Rings for example, but has it's fair share of problems. More recently we had the Tv-series come up as a way of adapting other mediums to the screen. Examples include Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, both very successfull Adaptions. These have various advantages about movie-adaptions. For one the format allows for a much longer overall screentime allowing for more complexity in the adaption and makes it less likely that parts of the original story have to be cut because of time-constraints. It also allows watchers more time to get familiar with the characters, allowing for a larger ensemble of characters. And last but not least it also has more parallels to how the original stories will normally get experienced. You don't read a thousand-page book in one-go. You pick it up to read a bit here and there over a larger timeframe, similar to a Tv-Series. Overall I think that a Tv-Series is a much better approach to Brandons bigger book stories. I even think his novellas would fit better into this format. Instead of being stretched to a 2-hour movie they could just be made as an additional 1-hour episode of a season.

2. Name and Franchising:

A lot of people are currently looking for the "Next Game of Thrones" for a Tv adaption. But Brandons stories in the Cosmere are most often not huge stories similar to GoT, which would make it harder to make a real franchise out of them. The most likely candidate for a "Next Game of Thrones" would be the Stormlight Archives, but those are still a long way away from finished and as fast a writer as Brandon is, I think it is detrimental to the work if a adaption gets started before the original work is finished. What would be interesting however would be to use the Cosmere as the Franchise and have the individual storylines be seperate chapters in the overall work. Similar to how "Doctor Who" has different chapters in it's story of different incarnations of the Doctor, but still tells a continuous storyline. The Name, in my mind, would be something like: "Elantris - Cosmere Stories", followed by "Warbreaker - Cosmere Stories" just as an example. Another option would be to have it reversed like: "Cosmere Stories - Elantris". This would allow more consistency and would most likely be more recognisable after a while. The problem with this is that the word "Cosmere" doesn't sound like fantasy, while words like "Elantris" or "Warbreaker" do. And getting into something new with the wrong expectaction can be really off-putting no matter how good it ultimately turns out to be.

3. The first Story:

Another interesting topic is which of Brandons stories should be told first in this format. I have personally two favourites and I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both of them here:

Mistborn: The first Mistborn Trilogy would be a pretty good way to start in my opinion. Allomancy makes for a interesting and at the same time visually impressive magic system. Seeing Vin and Khelsier rush through the Air would be a good spectacle on the screen and would be a definite plus. Additionally we have a lighthearted and fun character in Khelsier, something which is always a good thing to get people invested in a story. There is a reason why so many people love Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. Another advantage is that Mistborn serves as a pretty good start into the Cosmere itself: The main protagonist is herself unaware of the magic in her world, which means that the viewer can discover it with her and we have her training with Khelsier as an excuse to have some vocal exposition about the system. Instead of having it happen in some characters head like in other stories. Additionally characters like Hoid come up more than once in the story introducing themselves to the viewers and the ultimate conflict also teaches the viewers about how the Cosmere works with Shards and Co.

What is a disadvantage for Mistborn in my opinion is the second book, most of all the Zane-Vin-Elend triangle we had there. The main problem with this is is that it could seem very irrational in a visual medium like Tv. Looking at it objectively Elend is the clearly better choice. One of the main reasons why Vin is drawn to Zane is because of her insecurities, which is very hard to portray if you can't explain it in text like you can in a book.

Warbreaker: Another possible first story would be Warbreaker in my opinion. It has some of the same advantages that Mistborn has: A visually impressive magic system. A funny, lighthearted character in Lightsong. And one character that learns the magic system during the book allowing for exposition about it. One thing it doesn't have is the thorough introduction to the Cosmere with Shards and everything. But one thing it does have above Mistborn would be that it introduces the "Cosmere Stories" format better. As the story could be wrapped up in a single season, it makes it clear that this format will feature a diverse number of stories with different interesting magic systems coming up all the time. Having Mistborn as the first entry would make many people thing that everything from now on will happen on this world which would be the wrong impression.

 

So these are my, highly rambling, thoughts on the matter. What do you guys think?

[mirahound she/her]

I think this is a really cool concept. Very well-thought-out and detailed.  My one concern is that the Cosmere chronology. IIRC, Elantris takes place 300 years before Mistborn or Warbreaker, so is it more advantageous to start with the most popular series (Mistborn), or the first in chronological order?

[Amaror]

On 29.7.2016 at 1:42 AM, mirahound said:

I think this is a really cool concept. Very well-thought-out and detailed.  My one concern is that the Cosmere chronology. IIRC, Elantris takes place 300 years before Mistborn or Warbreaker, so is it more advantageous to start with the most popular series (Mistborn), or the first in chronological order?

Thank you. I think the starting novel should be the one that's best adabtable to the screen. Cosmere chronology is after all something that's more in that background of those stories. The novels didn't release in chronological order as well after all.

[Elenion he/him]

4 hours ago, Amaror said:

Thank you. I think the starting novel should be the one that's best adabtable to the screen. Cosmere chronology is after all something that's more in that background of those stories. The novels didn't release in chronological order as well after all.

As long as you aren't trying to make worldhoppers appear to switch directly between adventures on Scadrial and Sel (for one example), the time difference really does not matter.

[Wychmire he/him]

I personally think that Mistborn would make a better TV Series/Movie mainly because 1) I might be allowed to watch it. And 2) I really want to see how Kelsier dies.

[Amaror]

11 hours ago, Wychmire said:

I personally think that Mistborn would make a better TV Series/Movie mainly because 1) I might be allowed to watch it. And 2) I really want to see how Kelsier dies.

Hmm? Why wouldn't you be allowed to watch a Warbreaker series? Is it the nudity? Do your parents not know that you have tons of nudity availible at your fingertips here on the internet anyway?

Additionally I think it would be possible to film warbreaker without too much nudity. The only place were that really happens is when siri kneels before susebron and you should be able to film that without showing any of the "bad places" that get you an m-rating. Like just show her with her shift from behind and how she drops it (With the camera high enough to not show her butt). Now everyone is aware that she is nacked, without actually showing what constitutes as explicit nudity.

I do agree that Mistborn would most likely make for some great scenes, but I think Warbreaker would have plenty of cool scenes as well. Like Susebron rescuing siri for example.

[Wychmire he/him]

Yeah. It would be the nudity. Although I am getting closer to the age at which they might let me watch Warbreaker should someone make it. Anyway even with that part cleared up I still think Mistborn would make a better movie.