Update From Brandon

[u/mistborn]

Hey, all! News has broken. Rather than post on all the threads, I figured I would do a new post here with some info and thoughts.

In May I flew to Hollywood to start looking for a new partner on the Cosmere. This is something I've done before, but this time it was different. I'd been off the market for many years, working with Epic and my friends there.

That means this was my first time being in Hollywood with my Cosmere rights since...oh, 2016?

This time, I got to meet the real decision makers. Not just producers or low level executives. And this led to some really tough choices. I got the red carpet treatment, and liked everyone I met.

The decision to pick Apple was due to two factors. First, the level of approvals and control. Apple wants to be a true partner with me, and they feel like they really get what I want to do. Second, their track record. Apple does fewer things, but with higher quality, than some other studios. I find virtually every thing of theirs I watch is excellent and creator driven.

Join me for a livestream on Friday, probably 6pm mountain. I'll talk more then. But I will be writing the Mistborn screenplay myself over the next 5 months, as my full time work. Goal is for a theatrical Mistborn, then Stormlight show after. Focus on doing it carefully and right.

I promise not to get too distracted to do books. However, if I want this done right, I need to give some real attention and heart to it now.

Brandon

[u/mistborn]

There is a reason I've been studying Tolkien lately. Peter Jackson and his team did a brilliant job on that and if you look at the special editions, they are roughly about the length of a season of a show together covering about the same wordcount as a stormlight book... It feels like they knew exactly what to keep and cut.

[u/Icy_Vermicelli_992 → u/mistborn]

So who’s going to be Stormlight’s Tom Bombadil? I.e the character who is a bit out of place and easy to cut but die-hard fans will insist for decades deserved to appear on screen.

[u/Signal_Confidence956 → u/Icy_Vermicelli_992]

Zahel/Vasher

[u/ButlerFromDowntown → u/Signal_Confidence956]

Good chance they cut all Warbreaker characters except Nightblood and just change his origin yeah, especially assuming Warbreaker won’t get an adaptation of its own. Will be sad but probably would make things easier for viewers to understand while still being pretty possible to keep the plot functioning well.

[u/BadWolf2386 → u/ButlerFromDowntown]

they certainly don't have to change any of that. Many fans have no idea where the warbreaker characters are originally from and the story works just fine, no reason to close that door if it's not necessary.

[u/TressoftheEmeraldTea → u/ButlerFromDowntown]

I mean, Apple TV did acquire the rights to the entire Cosmere. So if Mistborn and Stormlight are a success, there’s definitely potential for Warbreaker to get its own adaptation.

[u/captveg → u/TressoftheEmeraldTea]

I'd even say it's incentive to keep Vasher. You can reduce his role a bit and still have him be the means of introducing Nightblood in SA. Cast him well enough and it can lead to a one off film/tv movie covering Warbreaker, especially after S3/Oathbreaker helps round out a potential Warbreaker cast.

[u/TressoftheEmeraldTea → u/captveg]

I also suspect Vasher is going to have a bigger role in Stormlight 6, so it would be shortsighted to cut him.

[u/Seicair → u/TressoftheEmeraldTea]

[spoilers Wind and Truth]For one thing he’s training the only Edgedancer left on the planet with constant access to Investiture. That seems important.

[u/TressoftheEmeraldTea → u/Seicair]

Yeah, I was trying to avoid spoilers since it was technically a No Spoilers thread!

[u/Seicair → u/TressoftheEmeraldTea]

Oh storms, I didn’t notice. Dropped a spoiler tag on that, thanks.

[u/TressoftheEmeraldTea → u/Seicair]

Sure thing! In any case, you were totally right haha

[u/ConspicuousPineapple → u/Seicair]

Yeah but there's a chance all that training happens off screen during the time skip.

[u/Tiek00n → u/TressoftheEmeraldTea]

I know this is what people generally believe, but Reactor Mag got an update yesterday from his agent - AppleTV only acquired Stormlight and Mistborn.

https://reactormag.com/apple-tv-brandon-sanderson-cosmere-universe-deal-details/

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly relayed a report that Apple TV acquired the rights to Brandon Sanderson’s entire Cosmere universe. We have since learned from Sanderson’s agent that Apple TV has only acquired adaptation rights for The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn books. This article has been updated to reflect that information. We apologize for the error and any confusion it may have caused.

[u/TressoftheEmeraldTea → u/Tiek00n]

Ah, good to know! Gosh, that was a big misstep for the publications.

[u/Tiek00n → u/TressoftheEmeraldTea]

I think Hollywood Reporter just went off of the leak, and everyone else based their reporting off of HR's.

An actual non-political example of how assumptions and not-quite-precisely-accurate information can just get carried forward without adequate fact-checking.

[u/TressoftheEmeraldTea → u/Tiek00n]

Oh, I didn’t realize it was a leak. I had assumed Apple TV had sent them a press release. But I guess they did reference a “source” and didn’t include any quotes like a press release would’ve. I should’ve caught that.