DMG Entertainment has made a licensing and film deal for the rights to Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere novels, according to Variety. The group is already fast-tracking an adaptation of the first volume of the Stormlight Archive fantasy epic: The Way of Kings.
Due to the scope of Sanderson’s universe, DMG has likened this acquisition to obtaining the rights for a comic book universe, as many of Sanderson’s book series are contained within an overarching “Cosmere”. While the Cosmere contains such varied properties as The Stormlight Archive (epic fantasy), Mistborn (urban tech fantasy), White Sand (graphic novel adventure), and more, readers have only been given small hints as to how these massive epics tie together into a singular universe. (Sanderson’s next book, Arcanum Unbounded, out on November 22nd, will shed further light on the connections between these worlds.)
Although the Stormlight Archive books are first in line for adaptation and have already been assigned script writers, DMG is also seeking writers for an adaptation of the initial Mistborn novel The Final Empire.
A few words from Brandon Sanderson on the development:
“The people at DMG aren’t just producers or financiers. They’re fans. From the first moment we met, I knew they understood my vision and goals for the Cosmere, and I’ve been excited to work with them in bringing their vision for the universe to the screen.”
Screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, a team responsible for several “Saw” franchise films, have been selected to adapt The Way of Kings, with Sanderson and Joshua Bilmes of JABberwocky on board as executive producers.
Want to know more? Let’s Talk About Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere.
So, we get to start fantasy casting, right?
Of course, I wonder how they’ll do SA 3-10, since they haven’t been written yet, and I’d really hate for them to get made before the books are out.
(And oh boy do I hope they do this right….)
AAAAHHH!!!!
Its really unfortunate these wont be TV shows. There is no way you can adequately fit a 1000 page book into a 2 or even 3 hour film. I don’t have high hopes for these films at all. Which is sad because Sanderson is my favorite author of all time.
This is great news! I am glad to hear that Sanderson has a say in the films, because I think that will add a new level of awesomeness to them. That might solve the SA 3-10 problem; Sanderson will set stuff up right.
I would have hoped they’d be able to draw more experienced screenwriters than the guys who brought us “Saw”. Still, it’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
What?!!! Movie rights for the cosmere?!!! This is epic!!! Surprised they’re doing SA first, as I think Mistborn would be easier place to start.
Sad indeed! I would have preferred a TV series, for a single film can’t, undoubtly, cover the entire story of the first book.
How can they start screenwriting for Stormlight, when not done yet? Even assuming Brandon’s amazing writing pace, I don’t think the writing will be able to keep pace with the way Hollywood wants movie series to be produced. Avoid the problem GoT is having with GRRM, and start with Mistborn, a completed series.
I’m a HUGE Sanderson fan but I’m very confused by the odd decision to start with Way of Kings. Especially when Mistborn has such obvious potential and has a completed trilogy.
Combine that with the weak resumes of the screenwriters, and I see a straight to SyFy future for this project unless it languishes for a while.
Hey don’t forget Peter Jackson did Bad Taste and Dead Alive before bringing us Lord of the Rings, just saying.
Plus those guys worked on Pacific Rim, which was pretty awesome.
I’m glad that Brandon said they are fans. I don’t think I can stomach another Hobbit3 betrayal.
Anxious for the movies. . . But prepared to buy the merchandise :/
Way of Kings really should be done in at least 3 films. There’s that much awesome going on in that book. Just sayin’.
@12 Rylie H – It would make sense. Brandon has said that each book is really a trilogy.
I hope Sanderson has the nous to keep control of his creation in the way that Rowling or the Blessed Sir Terry did, it would be a shame to see a travesty along the lines of the “Dark is Rising” film.
I would have thought that a video game franchise would have been more appropriate, given the nature of Stormlight.
Mini-series!!! Think Game of Throns level awesomeness.
We have been here before. I will believe that these films are being made when I can buy the tickets.
Yes, it will still be some time in the making, and with movie deals, you just never know whether it will get made or not.
For those who like to play the game, we’ll have a dreamcasting thread up before too long.
@17 So… essentially you’re crying out “I’ve been here before!”, then. Journey before destination, my friend.
Put me in the camp that would prefer television, and the camp that is surprised at starting with tWoK. I’d have thought Mistborn as well (I’d prefer Elantris, but Mistborn is bigger).
@18– Casting? My, my, my. All I can say is that Hoid needs to be young, because he is going to play the part for a very long time.
I agree with many, I’m worried that Sanderson will not be able to keep up with the demands of Hollywood! I’m worried it will force him to shorten the books and change them to speed up the output. You can’t have the same actors play a role for 20 years and not age?
I would do all 3-6 mist borns then jump into the Stormlight.
Either way sooooo excited to see all of it!
@@@@@ 21 – This is why we need get on with cloning projects. Actor over-aging will never be an issue again!
I love Brandon Sanders and his imagination!And could not be more excited about getting the movies out, not just because it will make great film, but also because all my friends who had not read the books will finally get to fan girl with me. I am sure that the movies would attract more new fans to the books and that would be awesome.
Even though I know these movies won’t be out for years, just knowing that at same point I will be able to see the Cosmere on the silver screen makes me insanely happy.
Somewhat less hyped for the directors though (Saw, really?), but I’m willing to reserve judgement.
Mistborn I can definitely see working on screen, ala Matrix. It was designed for a visual medium.
I don’t get it with starting at Way of Kings. I haven’t read it yet, and now I’ve even more reason not to.
This has potential for major awesomeness. Like the others, I so hope they won’t screw it up. With Brandon on board and having a say, I really hope they won’t.
And jumping ahead to dreamcasting, I’m still rooting for Luke Pasqualino as Kaladin :)
3 movies per book sounds about right for the Stromlight, and if that is their intention then Im all for it, but if they cram it into one it will fail miserably… Much better if it were a solid TV show . The mistborns could go either way but you might be able to pull it off in one move per book if they were LOTR type epic long movies….. dont wuss out go BIG or go HOME
I’m not too worried about the writers. Even Joss Wheden crapped out anAlien Resurrection.
I’m not too worried. Having something “with a screen writer” does not mean – filming starts next month.
The company could start adapting the screen writing, and rightly decided – nope, too big. Let’s partner with a TV studio for the SA. This will take awhile. Meanwhile we’ll keep full control of Mistborn and produce it.
So we will probably get MB before a SA. While I’m excited to see Keliser and Vin on screen, I’ll really enjoy seeing Wax and Wayne on screen.
Films take years, even after rights are bought. So this a great news. I hope all of Dragonsteel receives great Christmas bonuses for their work.
But I don’t think we’ll see a Cosmere film for 3-5 years. The plus side of this is my oldest child, will be old enough to enjoy them with me by then.
Slight Cosmere spoilers:
Overall: Great News! The Cosmere books are by far my favorite books to read and Brandon Sanderson my favorite author. Some of the scenes in these books were so….something (powerful/visual/emotional) and I remember thinking, “this scene would be amazing in a movie” (Kaladin jumping at the end of the bridge as the bridge gets put into place at the end of The Way of Kings comes to mind).
Right now I’ll consider myself cautiously optimistic/hopeful. I do have some concerns, namely:
-“Saw”….I never saw the movie, it looked too bloody, disturbing, and grotesque for me. I really hope that a film adaptation retains one of Brandon Sanderson’s book’s best qualities in my opinion, Adult fiction that isn’t riddled with intimate details of blood, gore, and sex. Brandon’s books have intensity. Sex and violence happen, but his books still remain something that I am comfortable reading and that I’d feel comfortable having my kids read. The making of an inquisitor in the Mistborn books is a great example. The process is disturbingly violent, and you understand what it entails, but you never actually read in great detail, as some poor sap has spikes pushed through him into another person. You understand what is happening without getting too intimate with the horror, blood, fear, stench, and unsettling-ness of it all.
-Length/Scope of SA: As with others, I am concerned about both the length of The Stormlight Archive books as well as the scope. It seems like it would be difficult for anybody to make a movie that accurately represents that awesomeness that is the SA. While not as bad as the Wheel of Time, this series still has a very large cast, which would be both difficult for an audience to get to know in 2-3 hours as well as cost prohibitive to the producer as more actors means more money.
-DMG? This may just be my own ignorance, but I hadn’t heard of DMG before today. A quick google search revealed a couple of movies that I had heard of and one that I liked (Iron Man 3). I’m ok with less well-known companies. For me, it just adds an added layer of risk that we may or may not get the product we hope for.
-Chronology of movies made: It depends on how they make the movie, and like Braid-Tug pointed out they aren’t locked in stone here. But They Way of Kings may not be the best choice for introducing the rest of the world to the cosmere. 1) Length/Scope already discussed. 2) Series isn’t finished yet, plus 10 movies (assuming each book is made into 1 movie) is a very long series of movies as an introduction. 3) The first half of The Way of Kings was a bit slow and the ending doesn’t wrap itself up as nicely as does The Final Empire from Mistborn.
Well that turned into an essay. Congratulations if you made it this far :). In the end I trust Brandon, so I trust he picked a good company, and that the decisions they are making will produce a good end product.
@29 :) Wax and Wayne will be awesome on screen if they do it right.
I agree that Mistborn would be a better place to start – I think it will work really well in film. Provided, of course, that they do it right, as everyone keeps mentioning….
I’m simultaneously anticipating and dreading seeing Kaladin on screen. He’s my favorite Sanderson character, and I really hope they get him right. I love all the others, of course, but Kaladin holds a special place in my heart for some reason.
It’s definitely odd that they’re starting with WoK. While it’s a bigger property and richer world with some interesting visual elements, I have to agree with the people saying it’s better suited for long-form storytelling. I’d love to see an animated series for the entire Stormlight Archive, personally.
Literally anything else Cosmere to date should fit nicely into the movie format, with an “at least one film per book” stipulation made. Warbreaker would seem like the natural jumping-off point for a cosmere film to me, as it’s visually interesting and has great character moments.
I wonder if the first book would be made into two movies. One movie from Kaladans story. One movie from Shalans story. And the third movie is when their stories collide? I wonder how they will do this. I hope they don’t ruin the movies like so many other books made into movies.
I’m worried about horror writers being used for this. Please keep them to the original dialogue and don’t let them make up stuff! :S
I don’t think the risk of the Stormlight movies outpacing the books is very high. If nothing else, Brandon has said that the first five and last five are largely distinct series with different sets of protagonii. Book 5 will surely beat movie 5 to publication, and the movie series could sit tight for a while after that. It’s not like they’ll run out of cosmere material to adapt in the meantime.
Am I the only person who always imagined Vin as kind of a cross between Amy Lee (Evanesence lead singer) and Kate Beckinsale (from the Underworld movies) and always wanted there to be a movie with an Evanesence soundtrack? No? Just me? Okay, then.
I guess just another excuse for me to get off my duff and start the Stormlight books, ha. I’ve been focusing on his other stuff in the hopes that more would come out by the time I was ready to dive in.
Aahh… I hope they make three movies out Way of Kings. 2 hours is too short for it.
If they make three movies per book about the same length as The Lord of the rings movies this will be awesome. That will also take them a while so more books will be out before they are finished with The way of kings and Words of radiance.
I personally feel WoK would be best served by a single movie even it means dropping several story arcs. I fear there aren’t enough breaking points and climaxes to turn it into three distinctive movies not to mention it would bring up the task of filming the first half to a daunting 15 to 20 movies… It seems too much.
WoK works well as a single story following three distinctive characters evolving in parallel who come to be together at the end. Break it down into three movies and you will loose the convergence not to mention the end product would be slow moving. Kaladin’s story arc is satisfying to read because it ends in a success: he breaks his chains as a slave. Have his story ends with him being tied in the Highstorm (for instance) just doesn’t bear the same feeling of satisfaction. Have this movie solely be about Kaladin while evacuating all other characters have the problem the story would severely miss in depth and world-building, not to mention it would break almost all climaxes from Dalinar’s story likely to follow in a subsequent movie. You also can’t make a movie about one character only to switch to another for the next one: the viewers would only be confused. It works for Marvel because each story is independent, but the 3 WoK movies wouldn’t.
I think the best approached would be to turn the Dalinar/Kaladin/Shallan story arcs into a plausible scenario which converges in the end with all three characters coming together or being on the verge of coming together. Of course, the downside would be each arc would be shrink from its book version, but I think it is doable. The interludes would have to go, but I have heard others suggesting they could be broadcast as short YouTube videos to be released in between the movies. I don’t know how feasible this idea is, but I thought it was a good one.
Also, I found this picture of Adolin. Yes, totally Adolin.
http://hiliuyun.deviantart.com/art/The-Legendary-Swordsman-312782718
Here’s my unsolicited pitch: start with a movie that’s mainly Kaladin’s story, titled Stormblessed (with The Way of Kings as subtitle, perhaps). The opening sequence is a closeup of Kaladin’s forehead brands, upside down. Water drips up his forehead. Zoom out to see him chained up and watching the highstorm approach across the Shattered Plains. Syl is urgently talking to him, but out of frame (so it’s still a mystery for new viewers who/what she is). The highstorm is about to hit, and Kaladin braces for impact. Cut to title sequence. Back up to the rest of his slavery/Bridge Four story, flashbacks as needed. Szeth’s opening assassination can be shortened into a short montage when the Vengeance Pact is first brought up. Continue with Kaladin’s portions of the plot of The Way of Kings through the Battle at the Tower, together with a few splashes of Dalinar’s viewpoints tossed in. Shallan and Jasnah are excellent characters of course, but their plot won’t be featured in this first film due to time constraints.
The Way of Kings is much more than just Kaladin’s story, of course, so I absolutely am on board with the way that Brandon used the, uh, three prologues of that book the way he did in the written format. Also, Szeth’s opening does serve the purpose of introducing the viewer to Shardblades and Surgebinding as a magic system early on, so it works well for it to appear early. But as a cinematic experience centering on Kaladin, I think the narrative structure would work better starting with foreshadowing that particular highstorm, since it’s such a turning point for Kaladin. It’s also an awesome visual moment, and as a flash-forward, it sets up the classic “how did he get to this point” and “how will he survive this” tension in the viewer to help drive interest through some of the slower build-up of the first part of Kaladin’s story.
I understand why everyone is hoping for TV. I was also hoping a ten episode season per book, however this presents an opportunity to finish the series before the movies catch up. The could do each PART of each book as a movie releasing one or two per year, and after WoR they could even do an edgedancer movie which would give them several years of entertainment to do. Book three will be out soon and by splitting every book into 3-4 movies we could get 4 and 5 done. Then they could take a break and focus on the other series because 6-10 will be different characters/time period, etc.
The “Saw” franchise was a horror franchise, are they really the best people to do an epic fantasy? I have my sincer doubts. While i also think this series would bloom better in a TV series than a movie, Lord of the Rings was able to pull off movies. It can be done.
@32 thank you for confirming I’m not the only one thinking animation is the way to go. I don’t think any other medium would work as well.
How exciting!!! I wish I could be a part of the cast for this movie! It’d be incredible, I’m sure!!!