Less than six months have passed since word broke that Apple had obtained the rights to several of Brandon Sanderson’s most iconic works, and fans will be relieved to know that Sanderson and the team behind the projects have made a lot of progress in such a short amount of time.
As Sanderson himself revealed just this May, he’s about 80% finished with the screenplay for Apple’s Mistborn film, which is currently the top priority among the adaptations in the works. He’s been hard at work in crafting the screenplay and making a lot of revisions to get things right before cameras begin rolling.
In looking to perfect the screenplay, Sanderson has confessed that he initially anticipated his biggest challenge being getting the film down to the time it needs to be. However, as he’s gotten further into the writing process, he’s come to find that the biggest obstacle has actually come in the form of working around a common tactic he deploys in his novels that does not translate to film.
"I thought the hardest thing with Mistborn would be getting it down to the time that it needs to be; you know how I am with length. That wasn’t actually too much of a problem. Mistborn is kind of based on some of these great heist movies that I loved growing up. Sneakers is one of my favorite films [as is] Ocean's 11. Because that structure is kind of there, I found it actually pretty easy to adapt Mistborn lengthwise. The thing I keep running into is I don’t have internal monologues anymore in screenplays,” Sanderson confessed to those in attendance at his spotlight panel at MCM Comic Con London.
As he explained, internal monologues can help a writer to convey the characters’ feelings to the reader through the pages of their books. However, screenplays require a more delicate approach, and he’s working line by line to perfect the screenplay adaptation of Mistborn: The Final Empire.
“In a book, you can just be like, ‘Well, here’s what she’s feeling. Here’s what she’s thinking about that,’” he explained. “Screenplay, you need to be a little more delicate with that. So that’s what I’m working on, kind of line by line.”
He's absolutely correct. Internal monologues work well in books because readers can directly access a character's thoughts, feelings, and reasoning through narration. Being able to read the characters' thoughts helps us to better understand the headspace they're in at that particular moment in the story.
In movies, those thoughts usually need to be shown through dialogue and the actions of a character, as long voice-overs can feel unnatural and interrupt the flow of storytelling. Yes, the occasional internal monologue can be perfectly crafted to fit a scene, but overall it's not something that translates well from the page to the screen.
Unsurprisingly, Sanderson has risen to the challenge, and it's not slowed down his progress in any way. In fact, he revealed he only needed another month or so to finalize the Mistborn screenplay, indicating his goal is to complete the screenplay by the end of June or sometime in July.
Once the screenplay is complete, we imagine Apple will begin moving fast on the project with casting announcements likely to come shortly after. This is all very exciting for fans who have long hoped to see Sanderson's Mistborn books adapted for television or film.
It's clear Sanderson is making incredible progress on the Mistborn movie, and he's been great at taking fans along for the ride with regular updates on the project. We won't be surprised at all if he takes to social media or YouTube soon to reveal he's finalized the screenplay, and we certainly appreciate his ability to set and meet deadlines, unlike certain other authors who struggle to do the same.
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