Timewaster's Guide Archive

So the hole in the building....

I don't know the story behind it but it appears there was a door there before because there are stairs leading up to the hole.

Is there a reason why there's no debris and it's cleanly circular? So it wasn't an explosion outward or inward with jagged logs or that upset the balance of the house, etc? Someone decided to burn a hole out of the door and wall instead of opening the door?

I haven't read the series for quite some time so maybe there is a story behind the background that makes sense.

Maybe someone who knows the story could elaborate.

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

2 quick questions.

Are there spectacles (meaning glasses type spectacles, not event type spectacles of which "Yes" there are plenty) in the world of Mistborn? Would Elend put on a pair while reading texts? Would OreSeur (as Renoux)?

Also although the allomancy of Mistborn is internal, it's effects mental and only beheld by those influenced by it, how would you visualize something like that to others?

For instance, would Vin buring tin to enhance her senses, other than seeing that through her eyes, could someone visualize her eyes taking on an almost translucent glow? The second option is contrary to the novels for sure, and I'm sure we can all visualize seeing more clearly where she couldn't before, or hearing more than she could before. I dunno, just a thought.

Thanks for any feedback.

I think it was an older title and from the looks of the cover and that it was two books in one paperback, I'm assuming that it was a good time after their original release.

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?

My name is Chad Stroman. I'm 35 from Utah. Married with 3 kids. Aspiring screenwriter, avid reader, and consumate time waster (I should fit right in then). I spend my wasted time on the triggerstreet.com website, cougarboard.com, reading screenplays, writing script ideas, etc.

I joined because when I read books, I see them as films in my head, or how they could be adapted to film. After reading the first Mistborn book (I'm currently reading the second very slowly) and seeing how much of the action was very cinematic and divided into natural scenes, I wandered on over to Brandon's official website where reading some of his posts, it appeared he also referred to them as scenes.

As practice for myself, I've been adapting the first Mistborn book into a screenplay as well as doing so as I read the Well of Ascension also. I've been studying the craft of screenwriting for about 10 years now amateurishly (from books, other screenwriters and produced and un-produced scripts, etc.)

Obviously I don't own any rights to do so and I'm not adapting them with a full hope (although I do have a smidgen of hope) that anyone would actually read them and be interested in translating me from an "aspiring" screenwriter to an actual screenwriter, but I did have the curiosity of Mistborn's status as a cinematic commodity.

Also recently I've checked up on Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" journey to try to become a produced film adaptation and OSC's recent effort to "bridge the gap" between the novels and films by joining with Marvel in producing an "Ender's Game" comic series (with the intent to use them as a sort of "storyboard" for interested film industry producers).

So I joined with the aim to try and find out what direction Mistborn is going now that I presume the Novel's are complete.

Are the rights/option to a film adaptation owned by anyone? If they are what work is being done? What about a Comic Book adaptation?

Basically what is the future of Mistborn?

I hope to find answers to those questions perhaps if I'm lucky.