Adapting Mistborn: The Final Empire for Film

[Jofwu he/him]

I'm sure most of us want the book to be changed as little as possible if it were made into a movie. But film is a completely different medium than a book. You've got to make some changes in how you tell the story, and you've got to fit the whole thing into a time limit.

If you were tasked with fitting Mistborn: The Final Empire into a 2-3 hour movie, what changes would you make? What liberties would you take?

Bonus points for doing the rest of the trilogy.

[Tsidqiyah he/him]

Sadly the parts that may need to cut are some of the parties and the crew's free evenings. I think these parts are important but they are also slow. 

I know i am likely going to be hated over this one but if the movie is about Vin, a lot of Kelsier's solo activities will need to be cut and referenced to by dialog. This would also help reduce the violence content if that is a concern. Mistborn could easily have the top rating (R in the States) if the director wants. The mass executions could do it by themselves, though the first one will likely be cut for the time.

If instead we focus on Kelsier we would see a lot less of Vin and Elend which personally undermines the sequels, and Vin is awesome in her own right. They need to give her screen time.

Though if they split the book into two movies it could work better with less cutting... this one is my vote.

[Ironeyes]

Mistborn TFE actually already has a project team working on it. Someone over at Dragonmount posted the following links: 

http://thewertzone.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/brandon-sandersons-cosmere-universe.html

http://thewertzone.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/mistborn-movie-gets-writer.html

I for one am excited. Having some of the same people who worked on the Marvel universe doing the Cosmere sounds like a dream come true. 

[Andy92]

I don't think they'll have any issues making the movie PG-13. You can be "tasteful" with some of the scenes by not explicitly showing some of the violence in detail. I doubt they'd actually show someone getting spiked point blank during a Hemalurgy scene.

All of the major action scenes should make the cut. I would open the movie with Kelsier during the prologue of the book where he attacks a noble house. You need to include all of the big pieces like Vin running from/getting wounded by the Inquisitor, Vin killing Shan, Kelsier killing the inquisitor and facing down The Lord Ruler, Vin killing The Lord Ruler, etc.

Some of the characters in Kelsier's crew would probably have to lose some screen time for the sake of time. I feel like the movie would tend to focus on Vin's personal story a little more than the Skaa revolution (just assuming Hollywood's mindset). You would have to hit the highlights of the noble parties without spending too much time there. Show the scene with Elend reading at the table and frustrating Vin, but keep the party scenes mostly centered on Elend and Vin. There wouldn't be enough time to show all of the intermingling and social games all of the different houses are playing with each other.

I think the story can be done pretty well in 2-3 hours. You unfortunately lose out on a lot of the character building that makes the book special, but I think you could at least tell the stories of Vin and Kelsier well enough.

[Tsidqiyah he/him]

IIRC Sanderson said the script from a few years ago didn't include the prologue but had a new scene with Reen and Vin before his death.  It better introduces Vin.

[Nashan’Elin he/him]

If I were adapting TFE, I think I would have to cut out most everything with Camon in the beginning. Vin scamming the nobleman in the beginning would be cut as well, Soothing him, etc. I'd also get rid of Kelsier's interaction with the skaa before he attacks the nobleman's house. Most of Mistborn training, except for the first time, would probably have to be removed. I think that either most everything that takes place in Club's shop or Renoux's mansion would be removed, just doing scenes from one of them. Vin's pewter drag would have to be taken out as well.

Kelsier visiting the skaa rebellion would have to be removed, maybe even the entire skaa rebellion, as they become much less useful after they are destroyed. Instead of that whole scene, maybe it could just show Ham and Kelsier seeding a few rebellious groups among the skaa to prepare for the uprising. I know it would take away from the story as a whole, but I feel that when there are too many plots in a movie it gets hard to keep track of them all. 

With all of this gone, more attention could be put to character development, with the balls and meetings of the crew. Spook, Sazed, Breeze, and the rest could get more screentime. The action scenes could be given full attention, without cutting them shorter. 

But that's just the ideas of a guy who's never even thought about adapting a movie before. *shrug*

[Yezrien]

WARNING: I'm about to make an extremely lame (and slightly graphic) play on words.

I think they'll have to castrate the story. By which I mean... they must remove the balls.

Most of them, anyway. The whole subplot about "Valette Renoux" infiltrating noble society will have to be trimmed down considerably. This is going to be an action movie, with an epic allomancy training montage. ("Time is racing t'ward us / to avenge... the skaa! / Let's go kill that bastard / up in Kre... dik Shaw!) It would be absurd for our heroine to learn all this awesome magic from her amazingly charismatic mentor... only to spend half the movie hobnobbing with socialites. 

Vin's primary role in the grand plan is "Badass Mistborn #2." She's Kelsier's backup, his secret weapon against Inquisitors, and (secretly!) his successor as the leader of the revolution. Playing dress-up for espionage should not be a major focus.

There can be one ball. The iconic one, where Vin meets Elend. It happens in the first half of Act Two, right after the training montage. Vin's learned lots about allomancy, and she's finally got some self esteem. She's not a weak little urchin anymore -- she's a powerful mistborn! Ready for a mission to help the resistance! And Kelsier's got just the thing: an essential mission, and one that will require two mistborn at the top of their game. The mission: to steal atium from Keep Venture.

It's a heist. A spiritual trial-run for the climactic heist on Kredik Shaw. It'll require a partial core crew: Vin, Kelsier, Sazed, Breeze, and maybe Dox. The plan is to strike during a ball, when there are holes in the security. Vin and Breeze will attend as guests, impersonating nobles. For Vin, that's a total curve-ball... but she's up for the challenge. Once the ball is well underway, Kelsier will attack the keep from outside, drawing Straff's hazekillers to the outer battlements -- and away from the atium in the inner sanctum. Then Sazed and Breeze create a distraction in the main hall, while Vin sneaks off and goes for the atium. Probably has to fight a couple of coinshots. Her first real test.

But, of course, before the signal is given, she'll be encouraged to mingle, listen for valuable intel... and have a meet cute with a certain son of the host...

Afterwards, when Kelsier hears that she hit it off with Elend, he'll think that's great! She can play him. Pump him for information. He encourages her, under the Valette guise, to arrange little dates and meetings. A conversation here, a dinner there. She could meet his friends, and learn about their subversive ideas, realize that nobles aren't all bad... 

But more balls will not be necessary. 

After the ball-heist, she'll spend most of her time with Kelsier. She'll help him inspire the troops, and back him up on some smaller prep missions. This can almost slip into another montage: conversations with Elend, intercut with Kelsier-capers. She falls progressively more in love with Elend, while growing progressively more appalled by Kelsier's callous, brutal bigotry. An ironic juxtaposition, mainly of images, that builds tension within the Vin-Kelsier relationship, which is, of course, the emotional core of the movie.

If it's handled right, adapting TFE should go pretty smoothly. It's a classic hero's journey origin story, like The Matrix.

I'm much more concerned about WoA, which actually has a lot of the same problems as The Matrix Reloaded. There's a really interesting, super-important plot twist at the very end... but everything leading up to it is basically filler. (The Zane relationship and the Kandra mystery plot are fine, but all the political bickering and army-posturing become irrelevant as soon as Vin finds the Well.)

Edited February 2, 2017 by Belzedar

[nervousnerd he/him]

I'm not sure I would really worry about the violence. At least in the States, the ratings boards are very lenient with violence in a lot of cases. Shooting coins and not guns will work for it, I think.

My main worry is that these movies are not going to be very long at first. If they aren't sure about the audience (which they won't be starting out), they usually don't want to alienate them with a 3 hour run time. This is why I wish they started with some of the shorter books.

I'm not sure what can be removed. The balls are sort of necessary to introduce Elend and to help Vin discover who she really is. I think the Skaa rebellion in necessary for us to believe Kelsier's plan. I think if we thought from the beginning that it was just the crew versus the God then it would leave use either believing that TLR is weak or that there was never any tension for the crew.

[Andy92]

3 hours ago, Tsidqiyah said:

IIRC Sanderson said the script from a few years ago didn't include the prologue but had a new scene with Reen and Vin before his death.  It better introduces Vin.

I could see that working from a film standpoint. Probably introduces Vin and her overall story on screen better than her time in Camon's crew would. 

[Jofwu he/him]

2 hours ago, Belzedar said:

"Time is racing t'ward us / to avenge... the skaa! / Let's go kill that bastard / up in Kre... dik Shaw!"

LOL

2 hours ago, Belzedar said:

There can be one ball. The iconic one, where Vin meets Elend. It happens in the first half of Act Two, right after the training montage. Vin's learned lots about allomancy, and she's finally got some self esteem.

The problem with this is that, in my opinion, her romance with Elend is hard enough to believe as it is. The movie would have to develop their relationship somehow beyond what we see in the book, and cutting balls is going to make that more difficult.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

12 minutes ago, jofwu said:

2 hours ago, Belzedar said:

There can be one ball. The iconic one, where Vin meets Elend. It happens in the first half of Act Two, right after the training montage. Vin's learned lots about allomancy, and she's finally got some self esteem.

The movie would have to develop their relationship somehow beyond what we see in the book, and cutting balls is going to make that more difficult.

Either of you can feel free to remind me of the proper order of events, as I have not read the book in a long while. Perhaps some sort of montage-esgue thing could be done.

Have Act 2 play out normally, since the only big scenes are the Ball at Keep Venture and Kel & Vin trying to break into Kredik Shaw. For Act Three, you could have smaller scenes: Sazed translating the Journal, Vin talking to Kel about Mare, a shortened Ball at Keep Elariel (no dancing scene, get called to Lady Shan's table first) she left this party in a rush anyway iirc. Kel's "informant" chapter, Marsh's seeking lessons, small snippet of Kel/Vin reading the journal(Alendi voiceover) ... um... jeez lots of stuff happened in Act 3

[Jofwu he/him]

I think you need at least 2 balls. One where they meet and one where she ends up fighting Shan. Granted, the second doesn't have to actually spend a whole lot of time on the ball itself. A creative montage might be necessary.

There are probably ways to develop Vin and Elend outside of the balls. Maybe he comes to visit when she's recovering? Maybe she makes a shopping trip into Luthadel (perhaps cover for some other activity) and runs into him briefly.

I just think their relationship is already pretty close to a cliche, shallow, young adult fiction romance. And I *really* don't want a movie to take the easy way out by going that direction.

[Yezrien]

1 hour ago, jofwu said:

The problem with this is that, in my opinion, her romance with Elend is hard enough to believe as it is. The movie would have to develop their relationship somehow beyond what we see in the book, and cutting balls is going to make that more difficult.

See, I think cutting the balls would actually make the relationship more believable. If she and Elend spend time alone together, without all of high society watching them, she can be herself, and expose more of her own personality. Elend can fall for Vin, and not for Valette. In fact, in my version, I'd have Elend walk in on Vin fighting the coinshots and stealing the atium. Have him learn who she is right off the bat. That way, he can demonstrate his goodness by accepting her, and not turning her in. And their relationship can progress without being based on lies.

1 hour ago, Andy92 said:

5 hours ago, Tsidqiyah said:

IIRC Sanderson said the script from a few years ago didn't include the prologue but had a new scene with Reen and Vin before his death.  It better introduces Vin.

I could see that working from a film standpoint. Probably introduces Vin and her overall story on screen better than her time in Camon's crew would. 

Showing Reen with Vin is probably a good idea. If we see Reen early on, then he can appear to Vin throughout the series as an hallucination, which will play a lot better than whispers in her mind. And living life on the street with Reen is definitely a better character intro than Camon and his crew. Camon's prominence in those early chapters is so weird in retrospect. We spend so much time with him, but he's completely irrelevant to the story at large. In other words, he's exactly the kind of time-wasting that a two-hour movie can't afford to include.

But I think the book's prologue should stay in. It's like the prologues in The Matrix, Star Wars, and Inglorious Basterds. A plantation is a great way to visually (and therefore quickly) establish the setting. Slavery in a world of ash. A noble in fine clothes, lording over it all. And then Kelsier shows up, wins us over with his charisma, and demonstrates the spectacular magic that exists in this world.

I'd add an Inquisitor, though. There's a part in that prologue where the Obligator mentions one, and it sends a shiver down Tresting's spine. That's fine for a book, but on film, I think we need to see the inquisitor, accomanying the Obligator. The Inquisitor is the Final Empire's version of an Imperial Star Destroyer, and it tells us that the bad guys are more disturbing than mere slave-owning tyrants. Kelsier can watch from a distance... but even he won't make his move until the Inquisitor goes away. That shows us how terrifying they are.

But if I recall, that older script opened with a quick retelling of the legend of the Lord Ruler. A partial backstory prologue, like LOTR. Which is also a fun idea, but probably not necessary, considering time is a factor.

40 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

Either of you can feel free to remind me of the proper order of events, as I have not read the book in a long while. Perhaps some sort of montage-esgue thing could be done.

Have Act 2 play out normally, since the only big scenes are the Ball at Keep Venture and Kel & Vin trying to break into Kredik Shaw. For Act Three, you could have smaller scenes: Sazed translating the Journal, Vin talking to Kel about Mare, a shortened Ball at Keep Elariel (no dancing scene, get called to Lady Shan's table first) she left this party in a rush anyway iirc. Kel's "informant" chapter, Marsh's seeking lessons, small snippet of Kel/Vin reading the journal(Alendi voiceover) ... um... jeez lots of stuff happened in Act 3

Sorry, I should have made this clearer in my first post. I'm not talking about the divisions in the book. Brandon split TFE into five 'parts,' but a screenplay is generally structured in three acts. All of Brandon's novels do follow the traditional three-act structure, but the second act is always expanded into several act-like units. This is why adapting his work is going to be so tricky. 

In TFE, Part 1 is Act One, and Part 5 is Act Three. Parts 2, 3, and 4 are all Act 2.

Edited February 2, 2017 by Belzedar

[Shadeshadow227]

4 hours ago, Belzedar said:

I think they'll have to castrate the story. By which I mean... they must remove the balls.

("Time is racing t'ward us / to avenge... the skaa! / Let's go kill that bastard / up in Kre... dik Shaw!)

Upvote for those two things alone...I rusting love puns, even horrible ones, and that song/chant is hilarious.

[Koldun he/him]

Some of the same people who worked on the Marvel movies huh. Wonder what that would be like...

(Spoilers for both Mistborn Trilogies and Secret History)

Spoiler

Kelsier, in Southern Scadrial, in Eyespike form, sees a woman he just vaguely remembers from his time among the dead.

Khriss: The Survivor. You think you're the only great hero in the universe? Mr. Kelsier, you've become part of a bigger Cosmere. You just don't know it yet.

Kelsier: Who are you?

Khriss: Khriss, one of the agents of the 17th Shard. I'm here to talk to you about the Adolnasium Intiative.

 

 

 

It had to be done.

Edited February 3, 2017 by Koldun
I may have messed up the spoilers a bit, so I'm correcting it

[Ironeyes]

@Belzedar TBH it rubs me wrong to remove the balls like that. I see this as more of Vin's story with a backdrop of the heist, and less of the heist which happens to involve Vin. Her struggle to reconcile her new roles as allomancer and noblewoman with her old one as a thief gives the story human appeal, and the intermixture of allomantic training with spying on nobles at their parties paints that struggle perfectly.

If anything, I'm in favor of the "training montage" being replaced with a "training and partying montage" that shows how playing both roles affects her. It could also highlight the differences between the two: a scene of her in a yellow dress on a brightly lit dance floor with a handsome young nobleman, followed by a scene of her in an ash-covered mistcloak on a shadowy rooftop with scar-covered Kelsier. A scene of her ingratiating herself with a new social circle followed by a scene of her kicking Ham's butt in a spar. And best of all, of course, the emotional fall out with Elend followed immediately by Vin cutting down his fiance in a brutal duel... The juxtaposition is just beautiful in my head. 

If I had to choose which subplot to cut out, I'd pick the skaa rebellion. Not that it isn't important, but it's tough to translate to film because it ends up being mostly political. Same reason George Lucas had trouble with the Star Wars prequel trilogy and decided to go with the original trilogy first. 

[Yezrien]

@Ironeyes, I knew I'd face a little backlash when I suggested cutting the balls, but you've made some points I didn't anticipate.

See, you hit the nail on the head with this comment:

4 hours ago, Ironeyes said:

. I see this as more of Vin's story with a backdrop of the heist, and less of the heist which happens to involve Vin.

That's exactly right. That's what the novel is. But you say it like it's a good thing. 

(This is the part where I get crucified.)

Spoiler

There are two plots in TFE: the Vin plot, and the Kelsier plot.

The Vin Plot is about a girl who grew up on the streets, an urchin, used and abused by everyone around her. She was ground into the dirt and convinced that she's worthless. Then, one day, she's told that she's special. That she's more than other people, not less. She can be strong. She can defend herself, and live without fear. She can be dignified, and beautiful. She learns that she can be whoever she wants to be. She even learns to love, and to fight for love. And she kills a demigod because he killed her friend.

The Kelsier Plot is about... well, the world is ruled by an evil overlord and his decadent nobles. 90% of the population lives in slavery and degradation. But there's a glimmer of hope! A hero has been born among the slaves -- a man who holds the very same magic power as the overlord and his nobles. A symbol of hope, this man gathers a ragtag crew of scrappy resistance fighters. He plans a revolution -- to kill the overlord, topple the nobility, and free his people from the centuries of slavery. Tragically, he doesn't live to see his victory.  Instead, his heroic sacrifice inspires others to rise up and achieve his dream.

They're both perfectly fine stories. The problem is that they feel disconnected. Vin is so wrapped up in her own character development, she sometimes seems oblivious to the epic struggle between good and evil that's going on all around her.

Vin doesn't care about the plight of the skaa. She's never lived on a plantation, or worked in a sweatshop. She's been abused, but only by her fellow skaa. The skaa-noble divide is distant, alien to her. All she knows is the divide between herself and everyone else.

She doesn't join the fight because she wants to free her people, or because she hates the Lord Ruler. She just has nowhere else to go.

So yes, Vin has a lovely arc, with lots of character development. But here's a beautiful juxtaposition for you: While 'Valette' is learning dance steps and sampling caviar, innocent people are being starved, beaten, murdered, and raped. Somewhere, within walking distance of those glitzy ballrooms, a nobleman killed a skaa woman, just to make sure he didn't get her pregnant.

Vin and Kelsier both know about that. But only one of them is passionately committed to doing something about it. 

The Kelsier plot -- the heroic good vs. evil plot -- is what'll make the movie. That's what moviegoing audiences want to see. The Matrix. Braveheart. Fury Road. Any story about Exodus, or Robin Hood, or resistance fighters in Vichy France. Or Star Wars. (The good one.)

And for Vin to be the hero of this tale... she needs to be a part of it. She needs to take it seriously. She needs to want the Lord Ruler dead, and the skaa liberated. A good protagonist is motivated, and actively pursue goals. She needs to spend more time fighting bad guys, and less time dancing with them. 

The balls just don't feel like they're advancing the plot, so a protagonist (and an audience) who cares about the plot would find them too frustrating to be any fun. I think we'll need to come up with some other excuse for Vin to spend time with Elend. Again, maybe she meets with him in secret. 

Or maybe, better still, we could give Elend a more important role in things. Make seeing him a part of the plan. Make him someone Vin has to deal with, for the good of the cause, forcing her to get over her bigotry, and accept that nobles aren't all bad. Thus she surpasses her mentor. She started out hateful, like Kelsier, and surely they bonded over it, but she proves herself the bigger person by  rising above it.

 I'm not sure how yet, but Elend should be more than just someone she meets at balls. He should be a part of the plot. Maybe he starts helping the rebels, or he finds useful intel in old banned books.

 

 

4 hours ago, Ironeyes said:

If I had to choose which subplot to cut out, I'd pick the skaa rebellion. Not that it isn't important, but it's tough to translate to film because it ends up being mostly political. Same reason George Lucas had trouble with the Star Wars prequel trilogy and decided to go with the original trilogy first. 

You're talking about the army in the caves, right? And by "mostly political," you mean the army gets destroyed, so it never actually does anything? Because that's a good point. We could cut that out, and just have Ham do some recruiting inside Luthadel, training little cells of fighters. Instead of all the drama of the army being killed, maybe one of the cells gets raided by Inquisitors during a training session, and Ham himself gets killed. That would have a lot more punch, since he's more likable than Yeden. And I think the subsequent books can survive without him.

And on the George Lucas point... I think you're giving him too much credit. But this isn't really the place for that rant.

Edited February 3, 2017 by Belzedar

[The One Who Connects he/him]

18 hours ago, Belzedar said:

Sorry, I should have made this clearer in my first post. I'm not talking about the divisions in the book. Brandon split TFE into five 'parts,' but a screenplay is generally structured in three acts. [..] In TFE, Part 1 is Act One, and Part 5 is Act Three. Parts 2, 3, and 4 are all Act 2.

Oh this. I'm used to people using Part/Act largely interchangeably so I didn't make that connection. I thought you meant part 2 of the book because, quite conveniently, your "Act 2" statement mentions both the Venture Ball and a training heist for the one on Kredik Shaw, which also takes place in Part 2.
I am somewhat curious why you put Parts 2, 3 & 4 in Act 2. That basically makes Act 1 translate 8 chapters+prologue, Act 3 deal with 5 chapters+epilogue, and Act 2 have to do something with the remaining 26 chapters of the book. It just doesn't feel like a logical split point to me.

Here's hoping I finish this edit before you see the post: I'd organize it a little differently, just to make it more even. Act 1: Parts 1 & 2 (15+P) Act 2: Part 3 and 1/2 of Part 4 (15) and have Act 3 handle the rest (8+E) The Split points would be when Sazed brings Vin back from Kredik Shaw(Part 2 end), right after the Vin vs Lady Shan fight(Chapter 30 end), and then the rest of the book

12 hours ago, Ironeyes said:

If anything, I'm in favor of the "training montage" being replaced with a "training and partying montage" that shows how playing both roles affects her. It could also highlight the differences between the two: a scene of her in a yellow dress on a brightly lit dance floor with a handsome young nobleman, followed by a scene of her in an ash-covered mistcloak on a shadowy rooftop with scar-covered Kelsier.

I like this idea, but I'm debating whether it would work better as small scenes in a montage or some of the more important scenes from the Balls and Training in a back and forth format.

8 hours ago, Belzedar said:

They're both perfectly fine stories. The problem is that they feel disconnected. Vin is so wrapped up in her own character development, she sometimes seems oblivious to the epic struggle between good and evil that's going on all around her.

I do somewhat agree with you here, but I think that it might be on purpose. After all, she only really gets the will to act after Kelsier dies. It feels similar to what happened to Coulson in Avengers. They were disparate figures doing their own thing until he fell, which drove them into action. She is still a little out of the loop, until she realizes that her world is literally crumbling around her.

Edited February 3, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[Spoolofwhool]

A lot of good ideas which I'm agreeing with. Overall there's really only one element I hope they keep: Vin's homicidal hat trick.

(RIP Elend's fiancee, god, siblings and father)

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by Spoolofwhool

[Andy92]

One thing that I don't think has been discussed much in here, how much emphasis does Sazed get in this movie? Thinking about his character in the grand scheme of the trilogy, he's the Hero of Ages. He struggles a lot with his faith in the later part of the trilogy, but the way he finds hope in the religions he studies is a huge part of the story as a whole. I know his character doesn't have as large of a role in the first book in comparison to Kelsier and Vin, but he's definitely an important character to show early on so the audience isn't surprised by his importance at the end if there turns out to be 3 movies. 

[Yezrien]

6 hours ago, The One Who Connects said:

I am somewhat curious why you put Parts 2, 3 & 4 in Act 2. That basically makes Act 1 translate 8 chapters+prologue, Act 3 deal with 5 chapters+epilogue, and Act 2 have to do something with the remaining 26 chapters of the book. It just doesn't feel like a logical split point to me.

The three-act paradigm that I'm talking about is a model of story structure. Each act -- and, importantly, each act break -- is defined by specific events and turning points in the story.

Here's my reasoning for dividing the book the way I did:

Spoiler

 

Act One introduces the main characters, the world they live in, and the problem they're going to solve. It ends on a point of no return, where the main character definitively passes from "normal life" and "business as usual" into the story proper. It's often a threshold-crossing, or a fateful decision.

So I'd say Part 1 lines up pretty well with that. It shows Vin getting dragged from her normal life with Camon's crew and into the wonderful world of Kelsier. It ends (roughly) when she agrees to stay, and joins the crew. Neo takes the red pill. the commitment is made, and the Journey can begin.

Act Two is the journey, which has ups and downs (and often an emotional high-point, right in the middle), but ultimately ends in failure. It starts with the hero immersed in a world of new experiences, forced to adapt and learn new skills. This process often entails shedding illusions and discovering who you really are. You demonstrate that growth by achieving some kind of interim victory -- passing a test, so to speak. But there's a price to be paid for that victory. The bad guys slowly close in, and then something really, really bad happens. The end of Act Two is the lowest point, often called the "Low Point," the "Crisis," or the "All-is-lost moment." In Campbellian fantasy tales, this usually manifests as the loss of the mentor character. Morpheus is captured. Obi-Wan dies. Han Solo dies. If you've read TFE, you know where I'm going with this. 

That new world she's immersed in is allomancy, friendship, and [grudging sigh] ballroom etiquette. The midpoint-victory is stealing the logbook. The bad guys closing in is basically a series of misfortunes -- the destruction of the skaa army, Marsh's death, public executions -- culminating in the classic low point: the death of Kelsier. 

Act three begins with despair and utter hopelessness, which is then broken by a plot twist or a realization. There is hope. We can do it. And then, in a desperate climactic battle, they do do it. 

That's Part 5 to a T. The crew is breaking up, convinced that their plan can't work without Kelsier. But then OreSeur delivers their deliverance, and the final battle begins.

 

So, based on that analysis, I'm pretty confident that the act breaks occur after Parts 1 and 4. 

But you're right: this does make the proportions a bit wonky.

(page counts from my physical copy)
Act One: 168 pages (26.5%)
Act Two: 403 pages (63.4%)
Act Three: 65 pages (10.2%)

Whereas the conventional Hollywood wisdom goes like this:
Act One: 30 minutes (25%)
Act Two: 60 minutes (50%)
Act Three: 30 minutes (25%)

Comparing those two breakdowns, it looks like TFE's third act is way too short. But in my opinion, act three is actually paced perfectly. It might be little short, but not by much. The real problem is that Act One is too long, and Act Two is way too long.

So to trim this thing down to movie-appropriate length, Acts One and Two both need to drop some weight. And if you ask me (which, as I'm quite aware, no one did), the biggest reservoir of unnecessary flab is the balls, and the associated Hose War subplot. In the end, the House War doesn't end up being that important. The day is won by Vin (who killed the Lord Ruler), Marsh (who killed most of the Inquisitors), and the big skaa uprising -- which was probably destined to succeed, House War or no House War, because of their enormous numerical advantage.

@Andy92 That's a good point about Sazed. It occurs to me that one of his most important roles in TFE is to teach us about feruchemy, and help us understand the Lord Ruler's compounding. That's critical stuff, because the climax wouldn't make any sense without it. But on screen, it'll look like a whole lot of convoluted exposition. It'll be a real challenge to adapt without boring and confusing a casual audience. 

 

Edited February 3, 2017 by Belzedar

[Koldun he/him]

Here's some more

Spoiler

A monstrosity approaches the group, summoned from beyond by Odium. Kelsier turns to Szeth, who is striding towards it, "Szeth, now might be a really good time for you to start crying." Szeth turns to Kelsier, "That's my secret Kell. I'm always crying." As it charges forward, ten heartbeats pass and the blade drops into to his hand and he swings.

Spoilers for Way of Kings

Edited February 4, 2017 by Koldun
Yeesh, El

[Koldun he/him]

As for Sazed's role, he'd have to be involved, but not too involved so as not to tip of non-readers as to his true identity. He could be a sort of secondary character at first, the kind that gets his screen time mostly form group shots, and a couple of individual scenes. In order for the movie to be successful, it'll have to appeal to and surprise non-readers as well. I'm a fan of Sazed, for sure, but he might have to be saved for the next two movies. There is one other part that might have to be cut out, and that's probably going to upset some people. They might have to cut out a lot of the epigraph parts. We might only get to see those logbook entires where the characters read them, not on a regular basis like in the books. Unless they managed to somehow work it in, like having someone narrate it. But then, people would notice the voice difference between him and the Lord Ruler, and that might alert some people to who the author really is.

[The One Who Connects he/him]

3 hours ago, Koldun said:

We might only get to see those logbook entries where the characters read them, not on a regular basis like in the books. Unless they managed to somehow work it in, like having someone narrate it. But then, people would notice the voice difference between him and the Lord Ruler, and that might alert some people to who the author really is.

Honestly, I think we all expected the chapter epigraphs to get cut, in Mistborn and in Stormlight. At least in Mistborn, they are plot relevant so I agree with you about having a voiceover. Probably just a short reading, the important segments and all, etc.
After all this time, I never considered that Alendi and TLR would have a different voice... good point

[Koldun he/him]

Maybe they could play it off as "God can change his voice" or perhaps, they make the Lord Ruler CGI, to show that his youth is fake, but get a real actor to play his Eleventh Metal version.