Brandon Sanderson is one of the most recognizable fantasy authors of our time; he's the man behind The Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, and the final three books in The Wheel of Time series, as well as dozens of other novels. But despite his far-reaching fame, Sanderson's work has never been adapted for either television or the movies. Why not?
Sanderson has a reputation for being exceptionally candid with fans; he recently revealed on his blog that a long-simmering Mistborn adaptation had fallen through and that he was basically "back to square one" on bringing his fictional universe, known as the Cosmere, to the screen. Now, he's opened up once again to Polygon in a new interview where he shares more of his opinions on how streaming services have treated fantasy adaptations — and why he doesn't trust them yet with his work.
"I’m not convinced that we have hit stability in the streaming market," Sanderson explained. "Streaming has had a big problem with epic fantasy, and this has me worried. Rings of Power and Wheel of Time have not gone as well as I would’ve hoped. Shadow and Bone lasted only two seasons, after a very strong first season. Streaming hasn’t figured out epic fantasy yet."
"All I know is, right now we haven’t seen really great epic fantasy film television since the early, mid seasons of Game of Thrones. Fifty million dollars per episode has not done it, so it’s not a matter of the money they’re throwing at it. The other thing we haven’t seen is any of these shows really taking off to the extent that I would like with the general public."
Brandon Sanderson loved Arcane, obviously, because he has taste
From where I'm sitting, it's hard to argue with Sanderson's logic. There are plenty of popular fantasy shows, but none have become cultural zeitgeists in the vein of Game of Thrones; and most of them have been criticized by their fandoms. Thrones had that issue late in its run, but its first four or so seasons were pretty much universally loved by ardent book fans, newcomers, and television connoisseurs alike. There was a fidelity to those early seasons that most recent fantasy adaptations lack.
However, Sanderson does give some love to one modern streaming show he thinks has pulled off what he's looking for: "There is one excellent [fantasy] show: Arcane. But Arcane costs so much money, and it’s hard to reproduce that with an IP that doesn’t have League of Legends behind it. Arcane, I guess, is proof that it can happen. But I want to see what shakes out. I want to see how traditional cinema shakes out."
"I would like to [adapt The Stormlight Archive through] films," he added, before pinpointing another pitfall of the modern streaming era. "Part of the reason I worry with streaming is, it’s mostly people who want to dual-screen, and epic fantasy just does not work with dual-screening. Eventually, I’ll give [adaptation] a try, but I want to learn more first. So my goal is to make some things that are not Stormlight Archive, that are not Mistborn. I’m really excited to make other things, and make them really well, and test some things out."
Again, I can only agree. Dense epic fantasy does not lend itself to second screen viewing, much to Netflix's displeasure.
Sanderson wants a Denis Villeneuve-type auteur to make Mistborn movies
So what exactly does Sanderson want? What would convince him to sign on to do a Mistborn movie, or a Stormlight Archive show? "Really, what I want — it’s just a little thing, just a little thing — I just want a genius filmmaker on the level of Denis Villeneuve, someone who grew up loving my work [the way Villeneuve loved Frank Herbert’s Dune], and wants to bring it to the screen with the mix of fidelity and adaptation required to make a great epic like Dune. You do have to change things [for a screen adaptation], but this filmmaker would really understand the property, and have an artistic vision that matches the property.
"For epic fantasy and science fiction, we have rarely seen that, but it happened with Dune, and it happened with Lord of the Rings. So hopefully there’s someone out there that can work with me to make Mistborn."
It makes a lot of sense that Sanderson would want someone like Villeneuve behind Mistborn. That marriage of an auteur creator who just so happens to be madly in love with a certain story can make magic, and Sanderson is once more right: we haven't seen it happen a lot, but both Lord of the Rings and Dune hit that mark. It's certainly a tall order, but considering his success, Sanderson is in the fairly lucky position to be able to turn down offers which don't appeal to him.
Sanderson thinks Netflix drove Henry Cavill out of The Witcher: "They didn't want to listen to him."
As you can see, Sanderson shared a whole lot of thoughts in this interview; I heartily recommend giving the full Q&A a read on Polygon. He closed things out by talking about his dream project; what he would make if he had no restrictions and full creative control. And he also threw a little shade at The Witcher in the process.
"Infinite budget, make it my way? I would absolutely pick Stormlight, and I would do it on one of the streaming services," Sanderson replied. "With an unlimited budget and unlimited creative control, I think I could make something really good. But who knows? I mean, The Rings of Power essentially had that, and it’s not very good. It’s fine, but is it the thing that you want? I mean, I really think the key member is that visionary filmmaker. Epic fantasy has responded poorly to too much oversight from above. I think that was The Witcher’s problem. You had that visionary: It was Henry Cavill. And they didn’t want to listen to him. So, well, there you go."
Is it fair to call Henry Cavill the "visionary" behind The Witcher, when he was the lead actor on the show and not in charge of the writing or so many other elements of the production? You can decide for yourself. But the fandom has certainly rallied behind this idea.
For my part, I do think there's something to it. For every piece of unsubstantiated gossip, we have confirmed on-set stories of Cavill going above and beyond because of his love for The Witcher, like when he had the death scene for Geralt's horse Roach changed because he disagreed with the flippant way the show wanted to handle it, and instead chose to use a meaningful passage from the book. So whether Cavill was the driving force behind the show or not, I do think it's clear that he was in sync with the saga thanks to his own deep-rooted love of the thing.
Here's to hoping Sanderson can find his own Denis Villeneuve or Henry Cavill or whoever to help him bring his adaptation ambitions to the screen. I know I'll be watching whenever it happens, and I'm always ready to listen to the author spout off some more strongly worded opinions about the current state of the fantasy genre.
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