Mistborn show NOT movie

[RadiantNights]

I think the Mistborn series would be much better as a show than as a movie. Movies always leave out so much of the juicy plot twists and the subtle foreshadowing that the books do. Game of thrones proved this to be true when the first season was pretty much word for scene perfect to the book and everyone loved it.

So picture this... The show could be like lost kinda in that the Lord ruler would kinda be like Jacob, mysterious leader who nobody really knows and the well of ascension would be like the islands mysteries. Plus it could be like arrow where vin suddenly becomes a vigilante and has a double life as this newcomer to court. Finally it could be like the matrix with keisler showing vin how to be super amazing and killer.

A lost/arrow/the matrix show sounds right up my alloy and would be the most incredible show ever. Simply put this series has way to much info to be crammed into a movie. I would really hate to see this as the next Eragon which was so bad I cried a little on the inside.

[Jaaaaaade]

I instantly thought of Stargate Universe here. On one of the special features someone says 'It's a show, but it feels like we're filming a 20-hour long movie.' It's one show where you never feel like they've skipped out on anything

Would any of us even complain during a 20-hour long Mistborn movie anyway? I think it should take at least as long to watch as it does to read.

[Plastic Misting]

It wouldn't work at all, pacing-wise.

 

The only reason why it works for Game of Thrones is because there are so many separate stories with so many mini cliff hangers. They could just slice up the plot so some story arcs have a slow part while an other story arc has a climax or a cliffhanger in the same episode. This wouldn't work with Mistborn.

[Haradion Drogon]

You know, when I read the title, I thought you were talking about a stage show. I instantly thought "Mistborn, the west-end Musical", and thought. "huh?"

[Tarion]

The problem is, IMO, that US TV networks aren't set up to do this sort of thing.  The things that succeed on TV wouldn't work with Mistborn.

I can't see it fitting into 24 40 minute episodes.  And I really can't see Sanderson signing off on it getting the HBO "boobs and cliffhangers" approach.

 

It'd work better in the style of something like Sherlock (3 hour and a half episodes).  Do it on the BBC where ratings aren't the only driving force.  In fact, I'm hoping that Feel Films are going to have a lot of success with the Rivers of London adaptation, and lead to a lot more adaptations being picked up.  

 

That said, I think Alloy of Law might work better.  It's got a better flow for TV, it doesn't need quite as much infodumping (You don't need to know every metal and every magic system.  Know the powers of a couple of Twinborn and you're most of the way there) and the world is a less work to do right.  

Edited January 25, 2014 by Tarion

[Quiver]

With how popular cop shows are, a television show based on Alloy of Law or the second Mistborn trilogy might be interesting. Are there any magic-based procedurals? I've seen the occassional cop show which has a bit of a sci-fi bent to it, but fantasy hasn't really gotten into that field on-air.

[Oudeis]

With how popular cop shows are, a television show based on Alloy of Law or the second Mistborn trilogy might be interesting. Are there any magic-based procedurals? I've seen the occassional cop show which has a bit of a sci-fi bent to it, but fantasy hasn't really gotten into that field on-air.

 

Dresden Files. Lost Girl. There might be others.

 

I agree, it would have to be a mini-series, not a full-running show that could go on for five seasons. Hulu and Netflix, even Amazon Prime are starting to do things like this. Sometime in the next few years, Netflix is gonna run separate mini-series...es, for Daredevil, Powerman, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones, ultimately culminating in a combined Defenders mini-series... or that one might just be a movie, I'm not certain.

 

Point being, american television is starting to evolve, thanks to things like streaming television. We're getting closer to some of the BBC-style programs, longer individual episodes, fewer episodes as a whole, with one over-arching story that gets told in six or seven hours broken up, rather than trying to sit through three hours of cramped storytelling. I would actually prefer if the Mistborn "movie" were made this way, instead.

 

I would also want a spin-off web series that explores what you can and cannot do with allomancy called "Mistbusters."

[Cracknut]

With how popular cop shows are, a television show based on Alloy of Law or the second Mistborn trilogy might be interesting. Are there any magic-based procedurals? I've seen the occassional cop show which has a bit of a sci-fi bent to it, but fantasy hasn't really gotten into that field on-air.

There are lots of urban fantasy cop/detective shows. Supernatural, Grim, Sleeping Hollow(or something like that), Blood Ties(if I remember correctly), Lost Girl might be one of those as well(judging from first 2 or 3 episodes), etc.

Have to agree with Tarion, Sherlock style would be better for Mistborn but I think it's better to have 2-3 hours of high quality movie than a show. As far as I know it would be impossible to do Mistborn with average show budget and it would never be more popular than GoT(because GoT is friendlier to normal people), which most likely requires less budget.

Not sure about second and third books but first book would make an awesome movie and 2.5-3 hour movie would do a nice job of not missing anything important.

Edited January 25, 2014 by 213

[thecatinthehat]

Would any of us even complain during a 20-hour long Mistborn movie anyway? I think it should take at least as long to watch as it does to read.

But still, the Mistborn trilogy is a comparatively short reading.

[Shardlet]

I think it would be best served as a mini-series in 3 or four parts.  The story doesn't seem to lend itself to an episodic format like a regular series.

[RadiantNights]

I don't know you guys I think they're is plenty info to make it into a full 24 episode multi season show. They would have to explain the magics and the history and the culture.

I don't know if you've read/seen the sword of truth show/books but they kinda combined books and told the audience stuff they wouldn't have found out till later books and it made the story move different. I think if Sanderson wanted to he could write it a little differently for the show

And I know everyone is picking actors to play in a live action movie but I would be totally OK with an animated show or Anime. They would make the effects so awesome

[Oudeis]

I don't know you guys I think they're is plenty info to make it into a full 24 episode multi season show. They would have to explain the magics and the history and the culture.

I don't know if you've read/seen the sword of truth show/books but they kinda combined books and told the audience stuff they wouldn't have found out till later books and it made the story move different. I think if Sanderson wanted to he could write it a little differently for the show

And I know everyone is picking actors to play in a live action movie but I would be totally OK with an animated show or Anime. They would make the effects so awesome

 

You make a semi-valid point... which is that books don't always translate well, scene-for-scene and word-for-word into movies (or TV shows). I realize no fan ever wants to hear this, and nerdrage will ensue, but I loved the first Percy Jackson movie because it broke so much from the book. Because that's the truth. I might be alone in this on this forum, but a very small yet vocal minority of people watches Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter and thinks, "Wow, that thing from the books sure totally just happened there!" Most people are like, "...What on earth? Why is that person doing that? Do those two people know each other? What did that spell just do? Wait, it's christmas? Two minutes ago the semester had just started!" The few who've already memorized the books understand what's going on. Everyone else is just there to see Orlando Bloom with fabulous hair.

 

The plain fact is, books do not transliterate well into movies. Especially Mr. Sanderson's books, which as he mentions constantly in his own annotations, take place largely inside the heads of his characters. Unless we want a movie that is three hours of exposition with an hour of action, they'll have to make changes, and I say more power to them. Keep true to the underlying spirit of the books, change it significantly from "a story best told via book" to "a story best told via motion picture," and put it on the big screen. I will spend the criminal $10.50 that my local movie theatre charges to see that movie. Will it be "exactly what happened in the books"? No. Is it possible for something to be different from the novels, yet still very good? Yes. Yes it is.

[Awory]

Personally I think the TV/miniseries idea is much better than a movie. I was recently listening to the book on a road trip and thought about how the scenes would fit into a movie, and decided that too much would be left out. The character development, especially in Vin, would probably be half hearted. Since there is so much internal dialaogue, there would need to some exposition or flashbacks.

 

One thing that would ruin any adaptation of the books: Turning Mistcloaks into trenchcoats.