Movie/TV Stormlight Archive

[Chewbarker]

I keep thinking how great this would work for a Huge story like Stormlight. 

You run each character as an HBO season and then after each season release the movie. So season 1 is Kalidins back story and the first movie starts with him in the slave cart. Second season shallan and so for forth. I get that a lot of the book story telling goes hand in hand backstory/present, but, I feel that could be tweaked to work. 

Now it obviously couldn't be 1 season / movie a year, but if you did a season in conjunction with the movie release, it would still be really cool. 

 

Anyways... Just random thoughts. Cheers!

[Spoolofwhool]

18 minutes ago, Chewbarker said:

I keep thinking how great this would work for a Huge story like Stormlight. 

You run each character as an HBO season and then after each season release the movie. So season 1 is Kalidins back story and the first movie starts with him in the slave cart. Second season shallan and so for forth. I get that a lot of the book story telling goes hand in hand backstory/present, but, I feel that could be tweaked to work. 

Now it obviously couldn't be 1 season / movie a year, but if you did a season in conjunction with the movie release, it would still be really cool. 

 

Anyways... Just random thoughts. Cheers!

So you're saying run all of a character's back story in a season, then run the main story in a movie? I disagree with that idea. As you said, a large interesting point that the flashback characters have had so far is that we've seen them deal with their current issues in the main story, while slowly learning about their past issues via the flashbacks. Giving the whole backstory first would ruin it, since then we would just understand the characters from the start, without getting to slowly know them and understand the issues they have dealt with and how they are relevant to their concurrently written current issues. Also, I don't think the backstories have enough content to make a full season from it, and the main story would have too much content to fit a movie. It would be better just to do a seasons or movies of the book directly, if it were to be done.

Nonetheless, I think it would be interesting to see SA in a video medium. At the same time though, I fairly large part of me wouldn't want it to happen, since if it did I would go watch it, and chances are that it would destroy part of the magic of the series for me. On the other hand, Brandon seems like he would keep a close eye on the project if it ever went there so it probably wouldn't be that bad.

[The One Who Connects]

By backstory, do you mean like the flashback sequences? I'm not sure there's enough in those to constitute what people nowadays consider a "season." However, getting a feel for the characters before the movie helps them seem easier to understand.. it could work, it might not (kinda ninja'd by Spool)

Would the movies follow the story of the books, or specifically the "flashback character" from the preceding season? If it follows the main story, having those flashbacks already done could help with lesson the extensive length of the movies in concept.. I like that idea.

How would you handle the Interlude sequences? I only ask because I-Szeth (WoK) and I-Eshonai (WoR) follow rather closely with the actual story and would really have to be built into the actual movie.

[If.you.die.I.go.stupid]

HBO? Not enough sex in the story for them. Could be fun to guess where they might insert it.

[Sand Master]

I agree with @Spoolofwhool. However, I have also thought about SA as video, and I think it would be really cool to see it as a TV show. Only problem is, I wouldn't be satisfied unless they used the book as a word-for-word script, meaning it would have to be very long. Like, each episode is a chapter, and each season is a Part in the book. Meaning just the Way of Kings would be five seasons. Plus, it would have to have a lot of special effects, for things like chasmfiends, spren, and Surgebinding.

[Quadrophenia]

Dear God, the special effects budget necessary for Stormlight Archive... 

Game of Thrones is low-fantasy and even _that_ still requires a movie level budget that HBO tends to struggle with. They tend to get broke after one or two big episodes, forcing the rest to get a little low-key. Here, we'd have to take into account everything from surgebinding to shardplate, from parshendi to chasmfiends. It'd be a nightmare for some studios. 

Edited September 24, 2016 by Quadrophenia

[PantsForSquares]

32 minutes ago, Sand Master said:

I agree with @Spoolofwhool. However, I have also thought about SA as video, and I think it would be really cool to see it as a TV show. Only problem is, I wouldn't be satisfied unless they used the book as a word-for-word script, meaning it would have to be very long. Like, each episode is a chapter, and each season is a Part in the book. Meaning just the Way of Kings would be five seasons. Plus, it would have to have a lot of special effects, for things like chasmfiends, spren, and Surgebinding.

On the upside, that means that we basically get the coolest first episode ever.

[Spoolofwhool]

41 minutes ago, PantsForSquares said:

On the upside, that means that we basically get the coolest first episode ever.

Naturally. We'll get a beautiful episode of Szeth assassinating Gavilar, with epic special effects for the lashings, shardblades, and stormlight in general... then we'll get low-key ones for the rest of the season.

[Brightness Enna]

1 hour ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Naturally. We'll get a beautiful episode of Szeth assassinating Gavilar, with epic special effects for the lashings, shardblades, and stormlight in general... then we'll get low-key ones for the rest of the season.

Unless the prelude is the first.

...

Never mind. That's not long enough. The prelude could be a special trailer. And the first-episode-pretty-special-effects-very-little-for-the-rest-of-the-season would work well for part one of WoK, since the biggest need for computerized effects for that bit would be the scenery for the Shattered Plains and little glowing spheres. And highstorms. And some of the animals. Practical effects would probably run out of budget after just the Parshendi and gore.

[Spoolofwhool]

1 minute ago, Brightness Enna said:

Unless the prelude is the first.

...

Never mind. That's not long enough. The prelude could be a special trailer. And the first-episode-pretty-special-effects-very-little-for-the-rest-of-the-season would work well for part one of WoK, since the biggest need for computerized effects for that bit would be the scenery for the Shattered Plains and little glowing spheres. And highstorms. And some of the animals. Practical effects would probably run out of budget after just the Parshendi and gore.

True. Other than Szeth stunts, the only other need for special effects in WoK is around the end, when Kaladin fights at the Tower, and when Shallan is doing her stuff and Shadesmare. Since those would take place in later seasons, the budget should exist. Also what gore? Last I checked, Shardblades made very little.

[Brightness Enna]

5 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Also what gore? Last I checked, Shardblades made very little.

But Parshendi don't use Shards on most of their battles. I recall lots of bridgemen dying and being trampled and shot and, in general, bleeding. But I suppose I would amend my statement about the gore, since you don't really see a whole ton except in the heat of the battle. 

[Spoolofwhool]

1 minute ago, Brightness Enna said:

But Parshendi don't use Shards on most of their battles. I recall lots of bridgemen dying and being trampled and shot and, in general, bleeding. But I suppose I would amend my statement about the gore, since you don't really see a whole ton except in the heat of the battle. 

Mhm. It was being silly anyways. 

[PantsForSquares]

As far as spheres are concerned, they can be handled with practical effects. Glowing spheres wouldn't be that difficult to make, since you won't really be using close-ups for 95% of shots with them.

[Spoolofwhool]

7 minutes ago, PantsForSquares said:

As far as spheres are concerned, they can be handled with practical effects. Glowing spheres wouldn't be that difficult to make, since you won't really be using close-ups for 95% of shots with them.

True. Really, the only time when a close-up of spheres is necessary is when Kaladin is trying to buy the bandages with dun spheres, so no glowy effects. I can't image another time when you would need to see spheres close-up, except on first introduction.

[Brightness Enna]

24 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Mhm. It was being silly anyways. 

I thought so.  Sorry I sounded a little disgruntled.

14 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

True. Really, the only time when a close-up of spheres is necessary is when Kaladin is trying to buy the bandages with dun spheres, so no glowy effects. I can't image another time when you would need to see spheres close-up, except on first introduction.

When Teft is giving Kaladin spheres after the highstorm might merit a close-up. In addition, whoever's in charge of the cinematography may have some close-ups on transactions or other bits. 

[Oversleep]

I think animation would work great. It solves all the problems with the Roshar itself, Parshendi, Shards, highstorms... basically, everything visual.

 

[bdoble97]

High-end animation as realistic as it can be something like a Final Fantasy level of realism and animation. I could see it on Netflix but they usually do 13 episode seasons each season we have to be probably 20 to 30 episodes seasons which is a very tall order. There is a lot of work into animation shows. Just look at shows like Star Wars Rebels and its predecessor the Clone Wars how many artist they needed on that show and if there's going to be a SA show I want it to be as realistic as possible not cartoonish at all so I would think that would take even longer to draw up. 

[Oversleep]

21 minutes ago, bdoble97 said:

High-end animation as realistic as it can be something like a Final Fantasy level of realism and animation.

I'd see this either as a drawn animation like Avatar/Legend of Korra or realistic computer animation like, for example, Witcher trailers.

[bdoble97]

12 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

I'd see this either as a drawn animation like Avatar/Legend of Korra or realistic computer animation like, for example, Witcher trailers.

Personally I would be extremely disappointed if it was it like Avatar Legend of Korra. And much better suited as a realistic computer-generated Animation Show like you stated The Witcher trailers. I have never been a fan of cartoon shows they have characters that are supposed to be humans but they look like cartoons. I mean you look at the old GI Joe cartoon and they were very realistic-looking and you look at the Final Fantasy games and when they want them to look realistic it makes them look realistic

[Argel]

Hand drawn is the way to go, maybe with some 3D blended in. Absolutely not like the FF movies, or any of the other 3D ones out there. This is epic fantasy -- we need a medium that can do that justice, and being bludgeoned over the head with obvious 3D doesn't cut it. If it was up to me, I would prefer something similar to the Twelve Kingdoms or Moribito.

[bdoble97]

1 hour ago, Argel said:

Hand drawn is the way to go, maybe with some 3D blended in. Absolutely not like the FF movies, or any of the other 3D ones out there. This is epic fantasy -- we need a medium that can do that justice, and being bludgeoned over the head with obvious 3D doesn't cut it. If it was up to me, I would prefer something similar to the Twelve Kingdoms or Moribito.

If not animation like the final fantasy movies what do you think about the computer-generated character from Tron legacy that was based off of Jeff Bridges don't know how many years ago that was but by the time they would do a actual show for SA  the technology could be very well advanced for example of nowadays look at the deage Robert Downey jr. For that brief scene in Captain America Civil War. Or how about Dain Ironfoot in The Hobbit trilogy that was 100% CGI character.  I know that stuff is very expensive and we're talking about Hollywood feature-length films here but if it's going to be a animated series it would probably be cheaper because you're not trying to make it look 100% percent realistic even though that's what I would love. Another thought what about some of the DC animated Justice League movies or the killing joke that just came out that's more realistic looking.

[Sand Master]

Personally I wouldn't want it to be animated. Don't get me wrong, I love animated shows. In fact, I'd say that most of what little TV I watch is cartoons. But I don't think it would fit with SA. It's very gritty and serious (usually), and animation just doesn't lend itself well to that, in my opinion. It may also have to do with the fact that I always imagine it in my head as more live action when reading it, and seeing the same story in such a hugely different style would feel really awkward to me.

[Argel]

3 hours ago, Sand Master said:

Personally I wouldn't want it to be animated. Don't get me wrong, I love animated shows. In fact, I'd say that most of what little TV I watch is cartoons. But I don't think it would fit with SA. It's very gritty and serious (usually), and animation just doesn't lend itself well to that, in my opinion. It may also have to do with the fact that I always imagine it in my head as more live action when reading it, and seeing the same story in such a hugely different style would feel really awkward to me.

I'm not sure what to make of your use of the word "cartoon". I specifically mentioned Anime, and two by name, both of which were targeted at older audiences and neither of which felt cartoonish. It's not hard to find dark and gritty Anime. 

From a quick DuckDuckGo search:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Animesuggest/comments/305c01/gritty_dark_anime/

https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1wrzbn/violent_gritty_realistic_animes_like_attack_on/

I don't know why so many people want live action -- their won't be a big enough budget to pull it off right. It would almost be easier to drop the crustacean theme and just set it on an Earth like planet. If you want the Roshar of the novels then it will have to be animated, and even then budget could be a concern.

 

[Yata]

I don't like Arrow TV series (to be honest I hate it,but it's quite meaningles) but its format may probably work for a Stormlight TV series.

A "current time" and "flashback storyline" storylines who progress in every episode

Edited September 25, 2016 by Yata

[HelloMyNameIsDrBloodborne]

If they go the anime route, I hope it's heavily Westernized; as in: realistic and subtle portrayal of emotions (rather than shouting every single line and over-the-top emoting), smooth animation (none of that jerky, low frame-rate stuff that plagues most anime), no weirdness that isn't original Sanderson weirdness thrown in to appease fans of Japanese anime. Also, give it 45 minute to hour long episodes, market it as an adult fantasy drama, and put it on Netflix.

Edited September 25, 2016 by HarryLime