Mistborn Screenplay News & Information

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

1 minute ago, Raphaborn said:

In addition to being an obvious breach of one of the laws of Allomancy. One metal or all

But Atium isn't just a normal metal, it's condensed, solid Investiture. The rules might (and, in some sense, should) play differently with it.

1 minute ago, Raphaborn said:

just except Lerasium (because it is the origin of Allomancy

That's fair, Lerasium does cause people who burn it to become Mistborn, but 1. That's a side effect and we don't know for sure what the True Power of Lerasium is (though given that the Mists and Lerasium are both the same Investiture, I'd say it's fair to assume you could burn Lerasium as a fuel for any Allomantic effect). And 2. It's also solid Investiture that can be burned by anyone, even non-metalborn (because of their innate connection to Preservation due to being created by him, which is also true of Ruin, so... That's in favor of Atium being burnable by any metalborn).

1 minute ago, Raphaborn said:

and because humans have more Preservation than Ruin

True, humans do have more Preservation than Ruin, but they still have Ruin in them. And Atium provides the Investiture itself, not Preservation, so the Connection to Preservation isn't being used when burning Atium.

1 minute ago, Raphaborn said:

and Lerasium has different qualities than Atium).

True, but that could be attributed to the mere fact that the metals originate from different Shards' Investiture. Gold has different qualities than, say, Cesium. And they're both made of the same stuff! Quarks/Gluons and Electrons crammed together into atoms with a particular amount of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. Imagine if atoms could be made of stuff other than Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons! That would be WAY different!

[Elegy he/him]

Yeah, the atium change seems a bit weird. It should be possible that Harmony already changed the mechanics of Allomancy so that anyone (edit: well, Mistings!) could burn atium - noone has atium, so noone would have noticed by now. I don't really see how the atium change is necessary if it's already so easy to make it canon in the books.

Other than that, I don't mind the changes at all. Sure, the feeling of the story will be very different, but I think these changes fit with the new medium. A film adaptation should be way more focused than the book due to its length, and having more of a clear-cut antagonist in the center is a good way of doing that, in my opinion. That said, I've never been eager to see Mistborn adapted, so I'm probably generally less affected by the changes than those who really want it to happen.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Elegy

[aneonfoxtribute]

The more I think about it the less I feel that the atium change will actually work. If he keeps it in I'll have to see the payoff but it'll have to be really good for me to not think it's a mistake

[Raphaborn]

44 minutes ago, Halyo_Alex said:

But Atium isn't just a normal metal, it's condensed, solid Investiture. The rules might (and, in some sense, should) play differently with it.

That's fair, Lerasium does cause people who burn it to become Mistborn, but 1. That's a side effect and we don't know for sure what the True Power of Lerasium is (though given that the Mists and Lerasium are both the same Investiture, I'd say it's fair to assume you could burn Lerasium as a fuel for any Allomantic effect). And 2. It's also solid Investiture that can be burned by anyone, even non-metalborn (because of their innate connection to Preservation due to being created by him, which is also true of Ruin, so... That's in favor of Atium being burnable by any metalborn).

True, humans do have more Preservation than Ruin, but they still have Ruin in them. And Atium provides the Investiture itself, not Preservation, so the Connection to Preservation isn't being used when burning Atium.

True, but that could be attributed to the mere fact that the metals originate from different Shards' Investiture. Gold has different qualities than, say, Cesium. And they're both made of the same stuff! Quarks/Gluons and Electrons crammed together into atoms with a particular amount of protons and neutrons in a nucleus. Imagine if atoms could be made of stuff other than Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons! That would be WAY different!

Atium and Lerasium do not need symmetry. It is not because they are both god metal that they need to have similar rules. They are of different Shards, were created for different reasons, have different properties (Atium is Mental and Temporal, Lerasium Enhancemnt and Physical) and exist in different quantities. Still, if this was the first book and the series book did not yet exist, I would prefer that everyone could burn Atium (not even just all the Mistings), perhaps even that the main power was different. But there are exceptions in all magical systems and this Atium quirk already exists and is part of the story (and even defines part of the story). So fixing it for the movie seems pretty unnecessary.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Raphaborn

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

I just wonder if Ham will be named Hammond or if her full name will be different. Hammond just sounds very male to me.

[Spren of Kindness she/her]

14 minutes ago, Toaster Retribution said:

I just wonder if Ham will be named Hammond or if her full name will be different. Hammond just sounds very male to me.

Maybe make it her last name?

[Use the Falchion]

5 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said:

I just wonder if Ham will be named Hammond or if her full name will be different. Hammond just sounds very male to me.

Keep it as Hammond and throw in the stereotypical line that "my father wanted a son," and then play with the trope with her commenting on how, with her strength, he re-evaluated his concepts of what being a man means or something like that. Or "my parents thought they were having a boy, and then I popped out." Either works as a sly reference to Ham being a man's name in the books. 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

11 hours ago, Raphaborn said:

Shalan being more developed is a good thing, but kinship with Elend sounds forced. Isn't Straff and Zane enough now, will we have another member of Elend's family as the villain?

The logical consequence would be to merge Shan and Zane and hence the politically sensitive part about a harem to breed allomancers. Eliminating Zane if you will. Eliminating Straff would turn Elend into a house lord. That is unlikely to work, if you want to keep him unmarried. So if you wish to cut people, it would have to be Zane. In fact, you could make Straff into a Mistborn. That would explain even better why he is disappointed about a non-allomancer son and makes replacing him with a younger allomantic daughter plausible.

[Dancer]

I wonder if this Atium change is a hint as to what he is going to do in the books. Like everyone has said already, it is clearly within Harmony's power to change the Spiritwebs of all Scadirans to be able to burn Atium without being a Mistborn. Maybe this will be the significance of the return of the "Lost Metal."

Edit: If he is changing it so every Aollomancer can burn Atium does that mean every Ferring would be able to store it as well?

Edited June 24, 2020 by Dancer

[Elegy he/him]

4 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

The logical consequence would be to merge Shan and Zane and hence the politically sensitive part about a harem to breed allomancers. Eliminating Zane if you will.

First, that's an interesting idea and I like the thought. That said, it might be hard to make the first film feel strong on its own with Shan surviving and then staying important in the series. It would be a loose end and it would also make her have way more presence than Lord Ruler, which I wouldn't like. Still, a good idea. But second, the whole concept of the Final Empire politically sensitive, it's an oppressive, brutal dictatorship that enslaves the largest part of its population. That's the point of it, that's why it's evil and that's why the audience is inclined to see Kelsier as a character worth rooting for despite his maniac tendencies. So, I don't see much inherent profit from removing the parts that make the empire's actions potentially offensive to the viewers, because they should be.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

1 hour ago, Elegy said:

That said, it might be hard to make the first film feel strong on its own with Shan surviving and then staying important in the series.

She need not survive. Make Straff himself the villain of part 2. Mistborn vs. Mistborn.

[Nathrangking he/him]

 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Though, if every allomancer can burn atium, how can it still be plausible that Scadrians consider gold a god metal?

[Use the Falchion]

8 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Though, if every allomancer can burn atium, how can it still be plausible that Scadrians consider gold a god metal?

Will they consider it a god metal? Are there ramifications for it NOT being considered one in Era 1? I honestly can't remember. I just thought they considered it more like "weird and useless" rather than a god metal.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

4 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

Will they consider it a god metal?

I doubt it. They have a good definition of a god metal. Mistings can burn it in addition to their metal.

4 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

Are there ramifications for it NOT being considered one in Era 1?

Somebody may get the idea of looking for alloys of gold.

4 hours ago, Use the Falchion said:

I honestly can't remember. I just thought they considered it more like "weird and useless" rather than a god metal.

Yes, so useless that Kelsier showed Vin atium first. Yet the problem is that a systematic of 8 ordinary alloys and two god metals which do not have alloys looks symmetrical enough to be acceptable.

But eight ordinary metals, one god metal governed by other rules and the odd gold is far less systematic. It may invite research. Would just dropping gold out of common knowledge work? That is Kelsier and the crew discover on screen that gold is an allomantic metal and that causes them to discover the eleventh metal? Just an old book telling you about an eleventh metal would be a bad reason to research atium due to its cost, but if it tells you about a new metal that is something else entirely.

[Raphaborn]

22 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

I doubt it. They have a good definition of a god metal. Mistings can burn it in addition to their metal.

Somebody may get the idea of looking for alloys of gold.

Yes, so useless that Kelsier showed Vin atium first. Yet the problem is that a systematic of 8 ordinary alloys and two god metals which do not have alloys looks symmetrical enough to be acceptable.

But eight ordinary metals, one god metal governed by other rules and the odd gold is far less systematic. It may invite research. Would just dropping gold out of common knowledge work? That is Kelsier and the crew discover on screen that gold is an allomantic metal and that causes them to discover the eleventh metal? Just an old book telling you about an eleventh metal would be a bad reason to research atium due to its cost, but if it tells you about a new metal that is something else entirely.

A new question is: can everyone burn Atium alloys? Because that will probably make Kelsier think that more Atium alloys are available.

[Dancer]

1 hour ago, Raphaborn said:

A new question is: can everyone burn Atium alloys? Because that will probably make Kelsier think that more Atium alloys are available.

That is what I am worried about. If that is the case it would mean that every Allomancer is essentially a Mistborn when it comes to Atium's alloys. Hopefully if he does change the way that Atium works he makes it so that only pure Atium can be burnt by all. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by Dancer
grammar

[+Oltux72 he/him]

Just now, Dancer said:

That is what I am worried about. If that is the case it would mean that every Allomancer is essentially a Mistborn when it comes to Atium's alloys. Hopefully if he does change the way that Atium works he makes it that only pure Atium can be burnt by all. 

So, just to clarify, a Misting could burn:

• the metal you are a Misting of
• atium
• the alloy of atium and his metal
• lerasium

[Raphaborn]

4 hours ago, Dancer said:

That is what I am worried about. If that is the case it would mean that every Allomancer is essentially a Mistborn when it comes to Atium's alloys. Hopefully if he does change the way that Atium works he makes it so that only pure Atium can be burnt by all. 

Perhaps a Misting can only burn its Atium alloy. So only an Augur and a Mistborn could burn Malatium.

[ZincSpeed]

So like a lot of the posts above I don’t like the atium changes, but I had the idea that maybe the fact that mistlings can burn atium is the book 3 reveal and everyone just assumes that only mistborn can burn atium. (This doesn’t make sense because he told us about it already but still a cool idea.)

[Halyo_Alex he/him]

8 hours ago, Raphaborn said:

Perhaps a Misting can only burn its Atium alloy. So only an Augur and a Mistborn could burn Malatium.

I like that. Keeps things balanced while still mixing things up enough to make it interesting.

[Use the Falchion]

The Mistborn screenplay has been taken off the progress bar. No reasons as of now, but part of me doubts it's because Sanderson is having troubles with it. The Progress Bar has always done double-duty - to show fans how far Sanderson has come on any given project, and to display any upcoming/recently released projects. Soon Brandon will have projects that have a higher importance value than a Mistborn screenplay (Rhythm of War, Songs of the Dead, Dawnshard, and relatively soon Skyward 3), so for the sake of the site (and the fans) they probably took it down. 

[Duralumin_Ferring]

Most of the changes don’t bother me too much but I hate the idea of gender-swapping Ham. There are three big things that Ham does in the book that sticks out in my mind. Those being his traditionally masculine character and where they choose to subvert it, his friendship with Breeze, and how he’s used to explain how pewter functions. 

Ham fills the traditional role of the big guy. Visually, this is clear by him being a tall, muscular, man. A stereotypical rendition of his archetype. And while he is a traditionally masculine guy, the stereotype is subverted by him being an enlightened thinker which adds depth to his character. If you make him a woman, he would be subverting his archetype in a much less interesting way. We’ve seen countless physically strong female characters and uncovering parts of his character would just feel less interesting if that was the first impression the film gave you of him.

Then there is his friendship with Breeze. So often, strong male friendships in media are confused for romantic ones. Any time male friends are willing to be real with each other and have a deep bond where they both care about each other, they’re “theorized” by the fan base to be secretly gay. The lack of evidence is taken as evidence. However, I think Ham and Breeze are a great showing of how good, deep, friendships between men should look and that is something rare to see on screen in the modern day. It would be a shame to miss out on that. 

Additionally, Ham serves a role in Vin’s journey and the part that sticks out most to me is when they’re training with pewter. Ham has been shown as “the strong one” throughout the whole book until he’s training with Vin and points out that pewter doesn’t give you a percentage increase to your physical abilities but instead a flat number. This allows Vin to actually be better with pewter because she’s smaller and weaker than Ham who is the stereotypical strong man. By making Ham a woman, it makes this feel less special and interesting. This moment helps prove that Vin’s hardships give her strength and we shouldn’t take that from her. 

[jamesbondsmith He/him]

Is he still doing the Mistborn screenplay? I'm halfway through Way of Kings in my re-read in preparation to read Wind and Truth and I'm getting really annoyed with his dialogue.

It's like the old tale of Harrison Ford telling George Lucas 'you can type this stuff but you can't say it'. I think a lot of novelists forget that people write and speak very differently. So many could do with a table read to actually figure out what sounds natural.