New Take on Cosmere Movies

[Khyrindor he/him]

So, apologies if anyone else has mentioned this before, but it just occurred to me and I wanted to see what you all thought about it.

 

What if there were movies set in the Cosmere, that weren't book adaptations? Say, for instance, Brandon has an idea for a new story but doesn't have time to write it in completion, so does a rough screenplay and hands it over to professionals to adapt. Then, he works as a producer to make it part of the Cosmere canon.

Personally, I don't know how likely it would be in the long run, especially now that movie adaptations are (hopefully) being considered seriously. But, I think it would be a great way to introduce the Cosmere to the big screen, which might then make it more likely for the adaptations to be better funded (if the initial movie went well). 

 

Admittedly, I don't know as much as many of you do when it comes to the movie industry, so I'll give you the floor to shoot it down or mull it over to your heart's content. Is Brandon's name big enough that the movie would be well-received? Would you like a movie set in the Cosmere without having a book on which to judge it? What would you potentially like to see?

[Mierinx he/him]

I'm against the idea of adapting books to the movies because they totally destroy the book. You can see a lot of examples of it around; Chronicles of Shannara and Game of Thrones being two.

But what you are suggesting, that the idea of Cosmere on a screen would be nice, but again, without the bigger scene, plots and characters, I think it wouldn't make much sense to the people who have limited/no knowledge of the books. 

For Sanderson, it would also mean more "time." He is already packed with a lot of things. The idea is good but I cannot see how it can be implemented

[Draginon he/him]

I'd been toying with an idea similar to this with a six part story but having Parts 1, 3 and 5 be in book form but Parts 2, 4 and 6 would be movies. I know this would take a lot of cooperation with a studio but it would be so fun to do, and a big troll to fans 

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

7 hours ago, Mierinx said:

I'm against the idea of adapting books to the movies because they totally destroy the book. You can see a lot of examples of it around; Chronicles of Shannara and Game of Thrones being two.

This is very subjective. In some instances (Lord of the Rings and Narnia) I feel like the adaptions are an improvement on the books. GoT has also improved some things but messed up a lot as well, so I still consider the books better, but the show is still good. My general point is that the quality of adaptions is a very subjective issue.

As to the OPs question, I think it could work. I can see it being controversial among the fans and Sharders, but it would be doable. We already have White Sand as a comic, so going one step farther and do something like Silence Divine or Dark One as a movie could work. That said, analyzing it for clues would be a lot harder, and the movie can't be hardcore Cosmere, for the sake of general moviegoers.

[Khyrindor he/him]

If they took a page out of Marvel's playbook, you can pack a lot of little easter eggs in there. Have a Hoid scene, mention in world by characters that it's part of a bigger universe. And a post-credits scene could help a lot in the right circumstance.

 

On the topic of movie adaptations, I generally accept that nothing can be perfect, and as it's a different medium, some things would have to be different. I'm on board with a Mistborn adaptation, and if all goes well, a Cosmere cinematic universe would be amazing. This idea I had is an offshoot of that, acknowledging that a lot of the time, adaptations don't work out, and fans don't support it 100%. With a movie set in the Cosmere that isn't an adaptation, that eliminates the obvious problems and just leaves the feasibility of taking something like that on. I feel like if Brandon did that, he'd have someone (perhaps someone new) in Team Sanderson spearhead most of the project so Brandon can keep to what he's good at (writing really fast), and then he can check in and make sure there's no problems or contradictions in the grand scope of things. 

[Silverblade5 he/him]

13 hours ago, Draginon said:

I'd been toying with an idea similar to this with a six part story but having Parts 1, 3 and 5 be in book form but Parts 2, 4 and 6 would be movies. I know this would take a lot of cooperation with a studio but it would be so fun to do, and a big troll to fans 

He already did it. It's called Infinity Blade 

[Draginon he/him]

1 hour ago, Silverblade5 said:

He already did it. It's called Infinity Blade 

But that's a game that he himself didn't write, just the books. My version would be that I write all six parts, including the scripts, so that it's one complete series alternating mediums.