Timewaster's Guide Archive

I'm just about done with Hero of Ages at which point I'll go back and begin writing an adapted screenplay of Mistborn (for fun and my own practice).

As I've been reading I've been visualizing the world of Mistborn and specifically Luthadel and it's environs. Maybe I've visualized it incorrectly but in my mind the world of Mistborn is very yellow, very brown and for the most part, very dry.

I almost picture Luthadel sitting in the middle of a big flat landscape. Not grassy but more deserty (For you Utahns and Californians think the flat deserty areas between SLC and Wendover or the deserts of Southeastern California).

I don't picture large trees or hills of rolling grasses (even if they are brown or yellow) With the exception of the Ashmounts and Fadex (which I envision as being built in a Goblin Valley, Sandstone pinacle like environment).

The city of Luthadel itself I've envisioned as a cross between Mos Eisley city (In Star Wars) for the Skaa slums with their square, yellow sandy buildings and Victorian England castle type keeps with more emphasis on the mansion then block buttresses, etc. But again also very yellow and black.

Am I totally off in my views?

How else do people envision it to look? Please give examples.

Here's my google search of what some of the great houses in luthadel may look like but on a much larger scale:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS271US271&um=1&sa=1&q=victorian+castle&aq=f&oq=

Edit: Here are some good ideas of what I visualize as well. Note the Chateau's specifically.

http://crazy-phototed.blogspot.com/2007/12/26-amazing-castles-and-mansions-from.html

This may have been posted previously but I ran a search and found an April Fool's joke and some "what if" threads about casting choices for a movie, etc. but nothing that talks about this specifically. I may just be "search" challenged.

I've been to Brandon's website and I've seen the Mistborn "decals" as well as the pewter "figurines".

Aside from that, what is the future of Mistborn outside the bookends of the novels?

The reason I ask is as a lazy, aspiring screenwriter (the two are related. The latter being the result the of the former.) when I read books I translate them in my mind into films. I critique them also based on the "cinematic" possibilities of what is written.  What would need to be compressed. What would need to be cut. What is funny on paper but cheesy on celluloid. What is missing for a complete picture to be seen. How to externalize all the internals (basically all the thoughts, feelings and internal "not seen" but read attributes explored in the novels). I purposely go out and buy the books of recently greenlit or produced film adaptations and generally try to read the book, get hold of and read the adaptation script, and then see how that blueprint translates into a final film. I visualize how I would do it while I read and then I see how it was actually adapted and visualized in the final film and what changes, cuts, edits were made and I try to find out why.

Recent examples would be novels like "Stardust" and "Atonement".

So that brings me to the recent novel I finished and the one I'm reading now: "Mistborn" and "Well of Ascension".

As I read those (I'm slowly reading Well of Ascension) it appeared to me at least that they were written less as a narrative and more as separate scenes, almost like a script. Upon reading Brandon's website it appears he refers to them likewise as "scenes".

So of course, as I've been reading, I've been mentally "adapting" and "translating" what I've read into film form. As purely a personal exercise I've been committing that adaptation to script. Again I emphasize that I'm doing it for my own practice and to exercise and test my screenwriting skills, not for commercial or public display (unless the copyright holder requested a copy themselves).

Tied into this also has been my curiosity about another author's efforts to translate his most popular work to the screen as well. Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" has a storied history of trying to be made. As far as I understand it, the Hollywood machine was interested in re-engineering it to their mold to such a degree that as a project it's been officially scrapped. To which response OSC has taken his rights and moved forward in the Video Game market and Comic Book market.

So what's in store for Mistborn? Is there any chance a film could be made? Has there been serious discussion? What has been the holdup or snags? Does it lack a polished script that Hollywood requires in order to understand it's viability as a film? If so I know a talented middle-aged, but unknown screenwriter looking for his big break (<--shameless plug here) who would be willing to "give it a stab".

What else? A comic book adaptation perhaps? Games? Action Figures?

When will we next see Vin or Kelsier or an Obligator or Steel Inquisitor?