Last month, author Brandon Sanderson took to Reddit to discuss the problem with Hollywood adaptations of novels. Sanderson, the renowned fantasy and sci-fi author known best for the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, shared a memory from early in his career when a studio optioned the rights to make one of his books — 2012's The Emperor's Soul — into a film.
According to Sanderson, the screenwriter who was assigned to the project had a good pedigree and appeared to be very enthusiastic about the whole thing. In fact, it turns out that he was the one who persuaded the production team to go for the option in the first place. Things appeared to be going swimmingly, setting The Emperor’s Soul up — in Sanderson’s mind, anyway — for an auspicious adaptation. However, things would eventually go downhill.
About a year after the story was optioned, Sanderson read the writer’s script. The events contained within it were largely unrecognizable:
"The character names were, largely, the same, though nothing that happened to them was remotely similar to the story. Emperor's Soul is a small-scale character drama that takes place largely in one room, with discussions of the nature of art between two characters who approach the idea differently. The screenplay detailed an expansive fantasy epic with a new love interest for the main character (a pirate captain). They globe-trotted, they fought monsters, they explored a world largely unrelated to mine, save for a few words here and there. It was then that I realized what was going on."
It turns out that “what was going on” was that this writer obviously intended to use Sanderson’s conceit as a launch-point for his own fantasy writing career. In his Reddit post, Sanderson goes on to explain that Hollywood almost never buys spec scripts (i.e. original ideas) from screenwriters outright, especially when they concern epic fantasy plotlines. These are far too vast and expensive for studios to take a chance on making them without an existing IP to back them up.
The screenwriter who wrote the The Emperor’s Soul script had obviously wanted to tell his own story in this genre, but needed a vessel through which he could garner the resources necessary to do so. Unfortunately, that vessel was Sanderson’s story, which this screenwriter completely changed to serve his own purposes without any respect for the original author’s intentions. The screenwriter felt forced to do this because there would be no other way for him to get his dream project made.
Sanderson believes the pressure created by this kind of environment is one of the main issues when it comes to Hollywood adaptations:
"Screenwriters and directors are creative, and want to tell their own stories, but it's almost impossible to get those made in things like the fantasy genre unless you're a huge established name like [James] Cameron. I'm not saying they all do this deliberately, as that screenwriter did for my work, but I think it's an unconscious influence. They want to tell their stories, and this is the allowed method, so when given the chance at freedom they go off the rails, and the execs don't know the genre or property well enough to understand why this can lead to disaster."
Such a possibility for “disaster” is probably why we see so many unfaithful adaptations that have complicated relationships with their audiences these days. Titles like World War Z come to mind most readily. Fantasy author George R.R. Martin has publicly feuded with the showrunners behind House of the Dragon, which is based on his book Fire & Blood, concerning how much they've changed from the source material.
When all is said and done, Sanderson’s anecdote speaks to the brokenness of a creative industry that incentivizes aspiring fantasy screenwriters to butcher other authors’ IP in service of getting a project made. It’s something worth keeping in mind as we continue to press forward into an age where more books and video games are getting adapted to the screen than ever before.
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