#mistborn 1 is probably the most adaptable to film of the cosmere series but even that... it'll be hard man

[papaya-inspiration]

Damn, yeah, that sounds like it would suck to have happen to you as a newer author.

I still stand by The Emperor's Soul being the Sanderson thing I most want to see get a film... or maybe if I'm daydreaming the one I would have the best time writing a screenplay for. Other Sanderson things are probably better better suited for TV series, what with their ensemble casts and multiple plot lines. But The Emperors Soul is the right scope that you could do it justice in a feature length film, and self contained away from Cosmere stuff that you could do a faithful adaptation that is accessible to people who know nothing about Sanderson.

That said, it occurs to me that Warbreaker would also be pretty decently scoped for a film, and it has the benefit of the magic system already being incredibly visual. You'd probably want to rework a lot of the stuff about Vasher's lore, but outside of that it fits well into the genre of court intrigue and politics fantasy. People eat that stuff up these days!

Also, more Sanderson books have come out since I originally made that comment about The Emperor's Soul (shocking, I know... XD) And of the newer ones -- TRESS. Tress of the Emerald Sea would be great as a family friendly fantasy adventure story. It was already heavily inspired by The Princess Bride, and outside of Tress all the background characters are pretty straightforward and could be easily spun into comic relief supporting cast. There's the issue of what to do with the climax of the story (which is very cosmere-aware), but I think you could dump a lot of the cosmere tie ins, change how you explain Hoid (probably greatly diminish his role and give a lot of his action in the climax to Tress instead, or perhaps to the ensemble pirates), and come out with something coherent and fun.

Also Yumi and the Nightmare Painter should get an anime film adaption. Can we get the Your Name studio to animate it? Lol.

Brandon Sanderson on why TV adaptations of fantasy works end up being so different to the source material:

I have a fun story here. Early in my career, someone optioned the rights to make one of my stories (the Emperor's Soul) into a film. I was ecstatic, as it's not a story that at the time had gotten a lot of attention from Hollywood. I met with the writer, who had a good pedigree, and who seemed extremely excited about the project; turned out, he'd been the one to persuade the production company to go for the option. All seemed really promising. A year or so later, I read his script and it was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. 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. Hollywood doesn't buy spec scripts (original ideas) from screenwriters very often, and they NEVER buy spec scripts that are epic fantasy. Those are too big, too expensive, and too daunting: they are the sorts of stories where the producers and executives need the proof of an established book series to justify the production. So this writer never had a chance to tell his own epic fantasy story, though he wanted to. Instead, he found a popularish story that nobody had snatched up, and used it as a means to tell the story he'd always wanted to tell, because he'd never otherwise have a chance of getting it made. I'm convinced this is part of the issue with some of these 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 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. Anyway, sorry for the novel length post in a meme thread. I just find the entire situation to be fascinating.