Book to Movie: The Mistborn Trilogy

Wiki: The Mistborn series is four high fantasy novels written by Brandon Sanderson and published by Tor Fantasy between 2006 and 2008. The series consists of the original trilogy of Mistborn: The Final Empire, Mistborn: The Well of Ascension, and Mistborn: The Hero of Ages.

Will it be a good movie?

Yes and YES!

You want me to explain that? Okay...

Sanderson crafted a unique vision with action-packed sequences, interesting characters, many plot twists in a strange and alluring world. The first book is a 'Oceans 11' like crew pitted against an immortal tyrannt. The idea works so well, but is already highly visual and could be easily adapted into a movie.

The second and third book feature a grander scope, while keeping the grounded dynamics of the characters.

Film Adaptation

Brandon Sanderson himself broke the news, that Paloppa Pictures LLC picked up the rights for his fantasy trilogy (Link). Paloppa is a new florida-based company with no prior projects. Thanks to the Mistborn Movie Guide, we know that a third draft was written and that they are looking for a studio right now.

In an interview Brandon Sanderson stated, that he would like Bryan Singer to direct, while Ellen Page is his dream casting for the female protagonist.

This is the 'Mood Trailer' Paloppa put together, to pitch the movie: 

From Book to Movie: The Painted Man

The Painted Man / The Warded Man Movie  
by Peter V. Brett.

Wiki: The novel follows three POV characters in their passage from childhood to maturity. They are inhabitants of a world plagued by the attacks of demons known as corelings, which rise from the planet's core each night to feast upon humans. The ongoing attrition of these attacks have reduced humanity from an advanced state of technology to a 'dark age'. The only defense against the corelings are wards (magical runes) that can be drawn, painted, or inscribed to form protective barriers around human settlements. These are, however, fragile and prone to failure unless properly maintained. (Source)

WILL IT BE A GOOD MOVIE?

The Painted / Warded Man is a fun ride, full of action-packed sequences but with little emotional impact. Additionally, the obstacles are quite easy for the characters to overcome, robbing the reader or viewer of emotional investment. 
Do not confuse this with a Lord of the Rings style epic. The scope is much smaller, the stakes never reach those heights, but perhaps the sequels 'The Desert Spear' and 'The Daylight War' broaden the image.
In my opinion, it could be an entertaining movie with good actors lending depth to otherwise shallow protagonists... although the first news are more than troubling:

FILM ADAPTATION

Back in 2009 The Hollywood Reporter broke the news, that Paul W. S. Anderson (left) and his producing partner Jeremy Bolt picked up the rights for The Painted Man / The Warded Man. Both produced the Resident Evil - Franchise, whose five movies grossed nearly 1 billion dollar in worldwide box office (Box Office Mojo). The critics on the other hand were less than enthusiastic with the latest outing only receiving 31% on RottenTomatoes.

What will this mean for the adaptation of Peter V. Bretts fantasy book? 

Quite possibly with this producing team behind the camera we are in for another cheap and cheesy B-Movie. 

Fahrenheit 451 (Remake) - Script Review

The Verdict: One of the best-written scripts I read, it offers a special-effects heavy update to the timeless classic, while being less subtle than Truffaut's film version.

What’s it about?
In an oppressive future, a fireman whose duty is to destroy all books begins to question his task. (Source: IMDb)

Plot Summary [SPOILERS]:

The first scene introduces us to the Fire Brigade: lead by Montag and Captain Beatty they search a house and soon find books, which is a major crime in this future. Relentlessly they burn the books and the house and arrest the family. 

We follow Montag on his way back home, when he meets Clarisse, the nine-year old neighbors’ girl, they talk and befriend each other. Back at home, Montag finds his wife, Millie passed out from an overdose of levelers. Medics come and resuscitate her, although the next morning she doesn’t remember a thing and doesn’t even want to talk about her apparent suicide attempt. Millie only wants to watch her interactive soap opera.

Back at the station, Captain Beatty tells Montag that soon he will be Captain of the Fire Brigade, before they leave for another emergency. They arrive at an old Victorian house and find thousand of books stashed away in the walls. The owner of the books, an old woman, chooses to die with her books and sets them on fire herself. Montag is shocked by the death of the woman: he can’t understand why would someone choose to die for something illegal? In the aftermath of her death, Montag finds two books and takes them. On his way back home he gets paranoid and gets into trouble with the police, but Clarisse helps him out. He confides in her about the books and gives her one of the books. At home he starts reading, but the next morning his wife finds the book and gets really furious at Montag. As he can’t convince her to keep quiet about it and help him, Montag takes the book back to the Fire Brigade and burn it. But too late! Montag has entered a new world and doesn’t want to leave. He starts stealing books on every deployment and stashes them at home.

One night Montag wakes up and sees Clarisse’s house being burned down. Someone found the book he gave to her. Now, Clarisse and her parents are on the run and of course Montag feels guilty for this. He seeks out Clarisse’s uncle, Faber, who was known for being a rebel a long time ago. With Montag being a Fire Officer, he doesn’t want to talk with Montag, but he forces Faber to take the books he salvaged and stashed away. A fragile bond forms between those two men. Montag has changed, his love for books, changed his way of looking at his job. At the next deployment the crew arrives at Montag’s home: Millie turned him in and now Captain Beatty forces Montag to burn down his own home. Beatty also knows about Faber and in an act of sheer hate, Montag kills Captain Beatty with his flamethrower. 

He can warn Faber to flee before the police arrive and the two men, now most wanted criminals, meet at an old abandoned warehouse. Soon the police have them surrounded and a heavy siege starts, Montag can flee, but Faber dies in the hail of bullets. The police is so desperate to find Montag as fast as possible, because the whole world is watching them via live TV, that they stage his death and kill some random homeless man.

Montag is free! He follows the river, just as Faber told him, and finds a group of people living in the mountains, outcasts just like him. There he find Clarisse and her parents among those people, who memorize books to save them from being destroyed. 

While they travel further away from the city, the city gets nuked and totally destroyed.

Observations:

The Dilemma: What I really liked about the script was the chouice presented to Montag. His future at the Fire Brigade looks really bright, he has a nice home, but still something keeps nagging at him. The decision to take that book and read for the first time, has so much weight, it such a profound moment with consequences Montag couldn't have imagined. But it is his decision to take that book! The characters grows immensely in this moment, because he isn't thrown into the world of the second act, but decides to take that step himself.

The Project:

In 1966 Truffaut filmed a adaptation of the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name.

The plans for a remake started in 1997 with Mel Gibson wanting to produce, star and/or direct the new adaptation/remake. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt were rumored to play the lead role. In 2001 Frank Darabont revived the project (this his script!) with Tom Hanks in the lead role. In 2008 Hanks left the project and since then nothing new happened. If this will ever get made depends on finding a star for the lead role of Guy Montag. (Source: Wikipedia)

So, as always I encourage you to comment on my post, just choose 'Post as Anonymous', if you don't want to register first. Looking forward to your critism...

Have a nice day,

Tristan

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Voltron - Script Review

Post based on the Script by Justin Marks, May 2007, not to be used by Relativity Media.

The Verdict: 

The silly and absurd premise is tackled sternly in this action-heavy script, that suffers from a dragging start and flat characters. 

What's it about?

After the invasion of an alien robot army, a rag-tag group of survivors pilot mechanical lion robots to fend of the intruders.

Plot Summary:

The movie opens with Keith setting out to loot a helicopter that came down in the ruins of New York. He is disrupted by Dukane, a vicious gang leader, but both stop fighting when a huge RoBeasts, a colossal Robot in form of a wolf appears and attacks. Back at his base, Keith is visited by the owners of the crashed helicopter, the beautiful and mysterious Allura and her taciturn bodyguard. She demands to be brought to Mexico by Keith and his mechanic Lance. Not having something better to do, Keith agrees and the group sets off. Upon reaching the border of Mexico the group is attacked by looters, this is where we first catch a glance at the 5 Keys Allura is hiding from everybody else. Unfortunately a RoBeast picks up the signal of the Keys and follows the group into a military compound. Before the RoBeast can attack them, Allura disappears in the compound and come back, piloting a LionBot, a huge backyard-built robot looking like a lion. 

While Keith and Lance stay at the compound, the viewer gets bits and pieces of the background information. Allura is part of an ancient alien race, who hid a powerful energy source (the 5 Keys!) on earth, but the RoBeasts came looking for it. They have to repair the 5 Lionbots before the RoBeasts can destroy the camp.  When they finally attack, they totally overwhelm the five pilots, their only chance is to merge the Liobots into one huge robot, but before that can happen, Keith aborts the process, because he can not come any to close to him...

So, the RoBeasts destroy the compound and kill everybody in it. The group retreats to New York and with the help of Dukane repairs the Lionbots. They start to fight of the RoBeasts one by one and at first seem successful. But then, the RoBeasts form one gigantic Beasts, now Keith has to overcome his issues and merge with the other robots to form VOLTRON. The huge robots battle over the whole world and finally in space Voltron can kill the Beasts.

Down on Earth everybody celebrates the victory and rebuilding of our world starts.

The Project: 

On Comic-Con 2011 it was announced that Relativity Media had picked up the Voltron property to written by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer. Legal entanglements prevented the movie to be made sooner. It is based on the american re-edited version of two japanese television series, that turned into a huge international franchise. 

Observations:

The Silly Factor: At the core are 5 lion-shaped robots turning into a humanoid uber-mega-robot fighting evil alien robots with his blazing sword. Is it silly? Hell, it is! The script doesn't address this silliness in any way, like that's the only way you can fight back alien robots. In the finale one punch of these robots sends the other one around the world, so they stomp all over India, Egypt, France and so on.  The whole premise is a rather huge stretch for the imagination and credibility - and I don't know how to visualize this without it looking absurd.

Flat characters: It is a problem of most action blockbusters: the characterization of every protagonist is rudimental at best. Keith past is never addressed and thus his actions feel unmotivated and shallow, his sidekicks don't get much more depth.

But for the finale, when the group merges to form Voltron, the protagonists totally disappear and two silent robots fight it out. 

Voltron vs. Transfomers: Do we really need another big robot franchise? But when you take a look at the flood of superheroes in cinemas right now, it is a wonder there are not more huge robots fighting on screen. Transfomers also was heralded as silly and stupid.Being adapted from a line of toys, the story and characters were probably not the top priority for Michael Bay and his team. But those movies earned together more than a billion dollar at the box office, so I can see others want to jump aboard that train.

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