The long wait seems to finally be over. Esteemed and prolific fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has had an interest in licensing his works for television and film, but negotiations appeared to bear no fruit. Now, however, the Hollywood Reporter has unveiled that to no longer be the case: Sanderson and AppleTV have reached agreement to close what is being called an unprecedented deal for rights to the Cosmere books, Sanderson’s shared fictional universe of vast settings and stories.
Unsurprisingly, the first titles to be adapted are Sanderson’s most popular, Mistborn and The Stormlight Archives. The former will receive feature film adaptations, and the latter a television treatment.
This deal is fairly unique in the industry: Hollywood Reporter cites the author’s “rarefied control” over any adaptations. Reportedly, Sanderson will be involved not only as a producer and consultant, but will also write directly for these projects as well as maintain oversight over what he does not. This is more involvement than we have seen from any of the other major novels-turned-series, like George R.R. Martin.
Fans of Sanderson will hardly be surprised to find out he’ll take on such a large share of the workload for these screen translations. Brandon Sanderson is as inexhaustible a writer as ever the world has seen, having written a hefty 32 books within his Cosmere universe alone since 2005, as well as dozens of other unaffiliated novels, novellas and short stories, least of which include the final three novels of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, having been picked by Jordan’s widow and editor after Jordan’s passing.
Details for either Mistborn or The Stormlight Archives adaptations are scarce for now, only that a company known as Blue Marble is set to executive produce The Stormlight Archives. It goes without saying that it will be quite some time before any of these projects are even in a displayable state, but they are sure to turn heads once they do.
UPDATE: Sanderson has also noted via Reddit post that he will be penning the screenplay for the Mistborn film, confirming and bringing some specifics to the news broken by HR.
