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Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe picked up by Apple TV

EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member



Article:
The streaming giant has closed what has been described as an unprecedented deal to land the rights to the Cosmere books, the fictional literary universe by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson.

The first titles being eyed for adaptation are the Mistborn series, for features, and The Stormlight Archive series, for television.

The latter already has producers involved: Blue Marble, run by former WME agent Theresa Kang, is attached to executive produce The Stormlight Archive television adaptation.

The deal is rare one, coming after a competitive situation which saw Sanderson meet with most of the studio heads in town. It gives the author rarefied control over the screen translations, according to sources. Sanderson will be the architect of the universe; will write, produce and consult; and will have approvals. That's a level of involvement that not even J.K. Rowling or George R.R. Martin enjoys.
 
EviLore said:



Article:
The streaming giant has closed what has been described as an unprecedented deal to land the rights to the Cosmere books, the fictional literary universe by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson.

The first titles being eyed for adaptation are the Mistborn series, for features, and The Stormlight Archive series, for television.

The latter already has producers involved: Blue Marble, run by former WME agent Theresa Kang, is attached to executive produce The Stormlight Archive television adaptation.

The deal is rare one, coming after a competitive situation which saw Sanderson meet with most of the studio heads in town. It gives the author rarefied control over the screen translations, according to sources. Sanderson will be the architect of the universe; will write, produce and consult; and will have approvals. That's a level of involvement that not even J.K. Rowling or George R.R. Martin enjoys.
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That bolded is what makes me actually interested. I'm all up to date with the Cosmere too so it's gonna to be interesting if this gets off the ground
 
"Get Sanderson on the phone. I need scripts for the first 2 episodes on my desk tomorrow! I'm not gonna have another George Martin situation here"

"Sir, he has written the scripts for the first TWELVE SEASONS already, he apologizes it took so long."
 
Good on him for being able to negotiate what sounds like thigh creative control over this, gives it at least a chance that it won't suck.

I don't really know how well The Stormligh Archive will work in live action though, unless they have a massive budget. It's one of the fantasy series I've always pictured more as an animation than a live action movie/show, not only because of the complexity of what they'll have to do with VFX (from environments to the way magic works to the setpieces), but also because a lot of his characters and dialogue just read more like out of a graphic novel or animated show to me.
 
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Fbh said:
Good on him for being able to negotiate what sounds like thigh creative control over this, gives it at least a chance that it won't suck.

I don't really know how well The Stormligh Archive will work in live action though, unless they have a massive budget. It's one of the fantasy series I've always pictured more as an animation than a live action movie/show, not only because of the complexity of what they'll have to do with VFX (from environments to the way magic works to the setpieces), but also because a lot of his characters and dialogue just read more like out of a graphic novel or animated show to me.
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Absolutely true. Mistborn felt like it was a novelized superhero fantasy comic. But that's exactly why that series could work incredibly well as a movie. The first three books could easily be turned into a great movie trilogy - but perhaps it would work better as a tv series.
 
Fbh said:
Good on him for being able to negotiate what sounds like thigh creative control over this, gives it at least a chance that it won't suck.

I don't really know how well The Stormligh Archive will work in live action though, unless they have a massive budget. It's one of the fantasy series I've always pictured more as an animation than a live action movie/show, not only because of the complexity of what they'll have to do with VFX (from environments to the way magic works to the setpieces), but also because a lot of his characters and dialogue just read more like out of a graphic novel or animated show to me.
Click to expand...

Roshar is my favorite planet in the Cosmere, it's gonna to be interesting to see how they adapt all the wild life and the setting itself to live action

What I would prefer is a big budget Prestige TV with each season being around ten episodes

While with the Mistborn books, especially Era 1 I can see being adapted into a movie trilogy
 
I'm hesitant of adaptations, especially fantasy, lately because so many franchises are being done dirty these days. Sanderson however has been very vocal about being in talks with various studios for many years now and holding off because he wants full control. I imagine his time as an advisor on the Wheel of Time adaptation has galvanised him against malicious producers. He's never openly stated that he hates that adaptation in such words, he's far too nice and unwilling to burn bridges for that, but he has hinted at it.

All in all I'm looking forward to this. It will be especially interesting to see how they bring Roshar to life. It's a very alien world which will be hard to depict without a lot of cgi and a high budget.
 
Mistborn was fun, but the guy really needs to learn how to write less. His later novels (Stormlight Archive) are like 1200+ pages.
 
The first 3 stormlight books are fantastic but they take a massive drop after that.

The first 2/3 of the fifth is utterly atrocious, if it wasn't for 2 characters… ugh.
 
Cyberpunkd said:
Mistborn was fun, but the guy really needs to learn how to write less. His later novels (Stormlight Archive) are like 1200+ pages.
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I haven't started reading him yet because I heard from too many people that he word vomits and barely edit out stuff, and that would drive me crazy.
 
I have read the first Stormlight book and enjoyed it.

But this guy and his fan base are so fucking annoying I'm just completely put off by the whole thing. That isn't fair and I don't care.

kpopSuperstar said:
I haven't started reading him yet because I heard from too many people that he word vomits and barely edit out stuff, and that would drive me crazy.
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I can't speak to all of his books but Stormlight was like 1200 pages and it reads pretty quick and lean. I don't even know what I would have cut.
 
They have enough material for the next 15 years, I think Mistborn (Era 1 and 2) can easily become 5 movies, Stormlight front half 6-7 seasons. With 2 more Eras of Mistborn coming and 5 more Stormlight books following after that. All that not to mention more than 9 standalone books that can all get miniseries adaptations. Cosmere is the largest fantasy/Sci-Fi universe the potential is genuinely limitless
 
near said:
Pretty cool of Apple to give him that level of creative control.
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Apple TV has been slowly building their brand over the years as the high budget artistic content streaming service.

More people need to be made aware of their high quality shows. They are close to surpassing the best of Hulu FX and HBO Max if they haven't already.
 
March Climber said:
Apple TV has been slowly building their brand over the years as the high budget artistic content streaming service.

More people need to be made aware of their high quality shows. They are close to surpassing the best of Hulu FX and HBO Max if they haven't already.
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This is a really creepy comment
 
Not a fan of Sanderson and his style of fantasy, but maybe the fact of putting it on screen will force an edit process that could improve things.
 
near said:
Pretty cool of Apple to NEGOTIATE that level of creative control.
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FTFY


I know the guy is a prolific writer but I have never read his stuff. I hear is earlier stuff is better than current. I like a good fantasy series and Apple shows are well funded. I hope it is good.
 
kruis said:
Absolutely true. Mistborn felt like it was a novelized superhero fantasy comic. But that's exactly why that series could work incredibly well as a movie. The first three books could easily be turned into a great movie trilogy - but perhaps it would work better as a tv series.
Click to expand...

Yeah I guess we'll see.
Haven't read Mistborn but I'm up to date with the Stormlight Archive and I just think there are many characters that are going to be hard to adapt to live action.

Sort of like what often happens with anime adaptations, where a character is fun and quirky in animated format but once you try to bring them into live action they become pure cringe.

Like this:
Cowboy-Bebop-Ed-Controversy.jpeg



NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt said:
Roshar is my favorite planet in the Cosmere, it's gonna to be interesting to see how they adapt all the wild life and the setting itself to live action

What I would prefer is a big budget Prestige TV with each season being around ten episodes

While with the Mistborn books, especially Era 1 I can see being adapted into a movie trilogy
Click to expand...

Yeah between the wildlife, the way plants work, the concept of spren and some of the powers that become more common later on, it's going to be a challenging adaptation to make it look like a bunch of fake blurry CG
 
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Froggo said:
No you just sounded like an AI Apple marketer
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You should look at a person's post history and behavior before randomly claiming they're AI.

However, because you've said that it's marketing I have questions for you. Let's say you have two well known, good hamburger chain restaurant spots near you and a third one opens up near them.

Over the years this third hamburger spot has been slowly improving constantly, from the seasoning to the way the burgers are cooked, the fries are more crispy, and they keep adding menu items that are also well made and taste great. However they simply aren't getting as much attention as the other two because those two have been around longer.

Now, you decide to check out the place and after trying them out you realize their quality might be better than the other two spots.

Would you ever tell people about this place?

Would you ever recommend it if they asked you for a great burger spot?

Or would you not say anything at all due to some odd fear that you are advertising?
 
Fbh said:
Yeah between the wildlife, the way plants work, the concept of spren and some of the powers that become more common later on, it's going to be a challenging adaptation to make it look like a bunch of fake blurry CG
Click to expand...

I can see them bringing Rosher to life using CG and it's what I prefer due to how alien the planet setting is in regards to some of the stuff in the books
 
NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt said:
I can see them bringing Rosher to life using CG and it's what I prefer due to how alien the planet setting is in regards to some of the stuff in the books
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They need to go full CG like the Spartacus show and shoot for a dreamy/stylized CG look. Any attempt to make a "photorealistic" aesthetic is gonna fail, I think, or be so expensive and time consuming that we'll get 1 ep a year. Plus the armor and swords would almost have to be cg to resemble anything from the books, its warhammer 40K meets star wars levels of fantasy action.
 
March Climber said:
You should look at a person's post history and behavior before randomly claiming they're AI.

However, because you've said that it's marketing I have questions for you. Let's say you have two well known, good hamburger chain restaurant spots near you and a third one opens up near them.

Over the years this third hamburger spot has been slowly improving constantly, from the seasoning to the way the burgers are cooked, the fries are more crispy, and they keep adding menu items that are also well made and taste great. However they simply aren't getting as much attention as the other two because those two have been around longer.

Now, you decide to check out the place and after trying them out you realize their quality might be better than the other two spots.

Would you ever tell people about this place?

Would you ever recommend it if they asked you for a great burger spot?

Or would you not say anything at all due to some odd fear that you are advertising?
Click to expand...
Oh wow a food analogy. Are you sure you're not AI?
 
Froggo said:
Oh wow a food analogy. Are you sure you're not AI?
Click to expand...
So you didn't look at my post history. You didn't engage at all with what I said. And you didn't even engage with the thread's topic.

thumbs-up-okay.gif


I think I'm being trolled here, so I'm going to do the smart thing and step away from this convo.
 
March Climber said:
Apple TV has been slowly building their brand over the years as the high budget artistic content streaming service.

More people need to be made aware of their high quality shows. They are close to surpassing the best of Hulu FX and HBO Max if they haven't already.
Click to expand...

Even the shows they made that I haven't liked still have a good quality to them

I haven't watched For All Mankind yet and I'm surprised there is a fifth season coming out. If this was any other streaming service other than Apple TV, they would be cancelled by the end of the first or second season

Look at Netflix, 99 Percent of Netflix Originals have been BAD in comparision to Apple TV, HBO Max, Hulu Originals/FX, Disney Plus etc
 
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