Questioner
Now that you’re writing the Mistborn screenplay, what would be your ideal way to show emotional or non-physical Allomancy on the screen?
Brandon Sanderson
I’m playing with a lot of different things. The screenplay right now, we’re using blue as a signifier that Allomancy’s being used. The blue lines work pretty well. Mostly, you’re gonna see a very faint blue line, and you’re gonna see the object that the person is pushing or pulling on flashing blue. That is your indication.
And right now, I have someone’s eyes flash blue when they’ve been hit by emotional Allomancy. The problem with that is, it can’t be diegetic. It can’t be in-world; it has to be a thing for the audience. Which, non-diegetic music is fine. Everyone’s used to that in movies. But something like this, we may want to try to find a better way. But right now, that’s what we’re doing. That’s at least what the screenplay is. The person uses their power, someone’s eyes flash blue; they are being affected by emotional Allomancy. You now know. Again, I assume most people who watch the film will assume that’s diegetic. Which makes for problems and a huge weakness in emotional Allomancy that I don’t intend.
It is a trick, right? To show, “How is someone using Allomancy?” I kind of want someone, when a Thug is lifting something and burning pewter, you’d be able to see. I have it written right now that blue veins move across their arms like lightning, being like, “They are using Allomancy to enhance their strength right now.”
And it might be the answer, just make emotional Allomancy be diegetic. That it’s got this big weakness in the film version of the cosmere that it didn’t have in the books, in order to actually make it visual so that people can understand what’s going on. But there might be another answer.
And remember, I am not going to be writing the screenplay. I am going to write a rough draft of the screenplay, and then I’m going to work with a real screenwriter to actually make it into a screenplay. My goal is just to get down on paper what things I think are justified and important changes to make from the book to the film, and what things I think still have to be there. My goal is that anyone I work with would be able to take this screenplay or treatment, look at it, and say, “I am willing to commit to any changes we would make to this being approved by you.”
Because what they won’t do, is they won’t give me creative control. I don’t have enough power in Hollywood to get creative control over a film. J.K. Rowling got it. But Stephanie Meyer had to go to a second-string film studio to get it. And George Martin didn’t get it. That’s kind of your hierarchy. And I am below George; I’m probably actually where George was when he got that deal, I would say. I am in the category of, I don’t have enough power to demand this. I would have to be two ranks in popularity and influence more than I am, and I don’t think that is legitimately something we could wait to happen, because to get to Twilight or Harry Potter level popularity is just not something that you can count on. I don’t think you can count on getting to the level of popularity we’ve gotten to.
So I think, moving forward, my goal is to find ways that I can work with the system. And I think that if they have a screenplay and a treatment, and they’re like, “All right. We can agree that this is good enough that if we have to make any changes to this, we will let you have approval.” Having them say, “Brandon has to have creative control” without any screenplay or thing like that, no one’s ever gonna give me. So that’s the main goal of this. The main goal is to say, “Here is Brandon’s vision. Are you willing to make Brandon’s vision as a film?”
