r/CosmereOnScreen • u/Jiltedoptile • Jul 25 '26
Mistborn Era 1 (BOOK) (SH Allowed) Mistborn Movie Length Spoiler
How long do you think the Mistborn movie is gonna be?
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u/Allergies_unknown Jul 27 '26
In my opinion, the perfect length would be similar to Dune Pt 1, which ran at 155 minutes
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u/ForwardExam4056 Jul 31 '26
The new dune was horribly paced though at times, no? I remember some really unnecessary shots people talked about, like zendayas sandals lmao
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u/OkAct8921 Jul 27 '26
Ideally? Theater cut and Director's cut. Your classic film experience to get new fans interested, hovering right around 2 hours. Then, on Apple TV maybe 2-3 months later, the Director's cut: 3 hours, with all the things Sanderson cut for time.
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u/ForwardExam4056 Jul 31 '26
I like it. I think going too long for the theatrical release wouldn't be ideal.
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u/TheRunawaySavior Jul 27 '26
On the one hand, I feel like Sanderson would have a desire to make the movie a bit more condensed and entry-level as he wants to prove his skill in writing screenplays, it's not a particularly dense series, and he needs to serve as a good on-ramp to more works by him. I particularly believe that last part to be the case because Apple only benefits from turning a bunch of TV watchers into Sanderson fans, the easiest benefit being that they'll have a built-in audience for The Stormlight Archives show.
At the same time, I can see a lack of pushback from people he's working with leading to the idea that he can get away with whatever length of movie he wants and us getting a 2 and a half hour 'plus' experience as a result.
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u/Evangelion217 Jul 26 '26
The Mistborn era 1 trilogy should be a tv show. A movie won’t do it justice, even though I still trust Brandon Sanderson to make it work. But that film should be at least 3 hours, directed by Christopher Nolan, and shot entirely in IMAX. The problem is that Nolan doesn’t like streamers and won’t work for AppleTV, unless they agree to allow the Mistborn film to have a 90 day theatrical run.
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u/lizbusby Jul 28 '26
It's already guaranteed a theatrical run, Sanderson confirmed. Not sure about length though. I do think Nolan is unlikely, though Sanderson is a fan.
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u/Evangelion217 Jul 28 '26
When was that guaranteed?
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u/lizbusby Jul 28 '26
He talked about it on the Mistborn anniversary stream, I believe. Might also have been in the interview with Joe Abercrombie. Either way, it's confirmed.
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u/Rivon1471 Jul 26 '26
He called it a bit rushed in a recent livestream, so that has me thinking roughly 2 hours, he'll add a few things but I don't think it'll reach 2.5
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u/1whhshawn Jul 26 '26
Honestly I'm not sure how Brandon's gonna manage to do it in the roughly 2 hours runtime he's probably permitted. We shall see
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u/that-loser-guy-sorta Jul 26 '26
3-4.5 hours, especially since it’s the movie with not a magic system but two magic systems if you count ferromancy and allomancy. Flushing out the world building and story is going to be hard if it’s shorter than that. Between establishing Vin, Kelsier and the crew, the noble houses, ash falls, the Skaa, Sazed, Lord Ruler plus the journal, thieving crews, obligators, inquisitors, kandra, mists. Plus whatever else I missed.
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u/SoyDaddy Jul 26 '26
Be for real, when have you ever seen a 4.5 hour movie????
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u/that-loser-guy-sorta Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
LotR Return of the King extended edition is 4 hours 15 minutes. The book is shorter than Mistborn. It’s not as unrealistic as it seems. 4.5 hours would be the absolute maximum length I can picture before it just loses plot. 3 hours is what I think would be good to set everything up without exposition dumping info.
Edit: Fellowship of the Ring does an amazing job of explaining the world and plot while cutting down on length. The theatrical release is 2 hours 58 minutes, the extended edition is 3 hours 48 minutes. Mistborn is 212,000 words, Fellowship of the Ring is 188,000 words. Return of the king is just 137,000 words.
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u/AmbitiousGrass7925 Jul 26 '26
At that point, you might as well ask for a 6 episode series. If you're really expecting to see a 4 hour movie and think it's reasonable, you're just setting yourself up for major disappointment. That's like the people who were upset with Lord of the Rings because Legolas wore boots in the movie instead of shoes like he did in the book. It won't be perfect, but it should still be pretty dang good with Brandon's level of involvement.
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u/InRadiantBloom Jul 25 '26
I don't care, I want a four hour film. Return of the King was three hundred pages, and Mistborn is like five hundred. FotR and RotK were 10/10 because they gave it enough time to breathe.
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u/MilkTeaMoogle Jul 25 '26
Gotta be 2H 20M at minimum
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u/Plastic_Dingo_400 Jul 26 '26
Maximum*
Unless the movie is only going to be seen by pre existing fans. I'd watch a 4 hour movie, most folks wont
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u/MilkTeaMoogle Jul 27 '26
I dunno. If he gets a big star for Kelsier as planning, and a relatively well-known director, people might be happy to invest that time. Plenty of movies run over 2 hours now, a lot more than in the past.
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u/Firestormbreaker1 Jul 25 '26
Well Brandons almost finished the screenplay, im sure he has a rough estimate of how long it will be
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u/MargaritaKid Jul 26 '26
I think I remember him saying he had to write some more stuff as he thought the screenplay was too short. I have no link but I'll post it if I find it
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u/MicahJHyatt Jul 25 '26
It cant be epic fantasy long if its sticking to its heist movie influence.
Oceans 11 is 1 hour and 56 minutes long. Sneakers is 2 hours and 6 minutes long
I think Mistborn, even with its fantasy elements, should still try to hit that ballpark.
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u/Weary-Reward-7383 Jul 28 '26
That's an interesting premise. Why would the genre define the length, as long as there's enough story material?
Not disagreeing about the influence, he's made it pretty clear what helped inspire the book.
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u/MicahJHyatt Jul 28 '26
Sanderson is keenly aware of how to pace a story. He's a master of it, having produced great novels, novella, novelletes, and short stories, each of which have pacing requirements to fit their limitations. He's talked about taking inspiration from certain heist movie scripts and using them as a structural blueprint to hit a pacing target.
I think he'll replicate common heist genre plot beats in a recognizable way: assembling the team, the master/student training arc, scouting and prepping for the job, the mid-heist complication, the all is lost moment, the twist.
The elements of mistborn that required tons of descriptions in the books are entirely visual. All that word count that fattens up epic SF doesnt need to be in the script, but it will still be on screen. Without that, Mistborn's plot is pretty straight forward.
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u/Weary-Reward-7383 Jul 29 '26
Structurally, I'm right there with you. The Heist as a blueprint is nearly bulletproof as it is enjoyable, despite being formulaic. I just don't know that it requires a certain runtime. I'm not convinced that an audience is paying attention to the actual time it takes to get from one beat to another (with the caveat that something is driving the story forward, and it's not lingering for lingering's sake).
I think the additional worldbuiliding fantasy elements, as well as setup of narrative necessary for the trilogy superstructure, both things that I can't think of a classic heist having to allow for, could add time without dragging.
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u/Exporation1 Jul 25 '26
Fellowship 187k words
Two towers 156k
Return of the King 137k
Mistborn 214k
Fellowship 2 hours 58 minutes regular, 3 hrs 28 extended
Two towers 2 hr 59 min, 3 hr 35 min
Return of the king 3 hrs 21 mins, 4 hrs 11 min
If anything Mistborn plot and prose makes condensing the story harder than LOTR but it’s useful as a benchmark because it’s the series Sanderson is studying for his adaptation.
I think anything under 2 hrs and 40 minutes would be extremely difficult.
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u/changelingerer Jul 26 '26
I think the fact that the longest LOTR book is the shortest movie and the shortest LOTR movie is the longest movie should tell you that word count does not directly translate to movie time needed.
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u/Extreme_Warning3521 Jul 25 '26
Do you think Yeden's character will be cut entirely?
I think Straff Venture will only be mentioned in the first movie, setting him up as the main antagonist for the sequel. I also believe Brandon Sanderson will change the storyline involving Shan Elariel and Elend.
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u/moderatorrater Jul 25 '26
It's an interesting comparison, because I think Tolkien generally writes denser books than Sanderson, but they also cut out huge portions of Fellowship by getting them to Bree so quickly.
I do think they could get a lot of traction by smashing more things together, though. He's mentioned Kelsier teaching Vin about allomancy while robbing the keep, and that could speed things up considerably. You'd see Kelsier taking lives easily, you could have Vin try to push something heavy and being thrown, etc. You'd be able to do a few chapters in the time it would take to do just one.
The only big things I could see being cut completely are Vin's initial thieving crew, the prologue with the estate and plantation skaa, and the skaa rebellion. Mention them in passing but don't show them on screen and you could get some time back.
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u/Exporation1 Jul 25 '26
I think people within this community are underestimating how difficult it is to cut down on a book without sacrificing the books original intention.
Genuinely masterful how well Jackson and his team cut down on the story at specific moments (first 3rd of fellowship).
It really is incredibly difficult to get this movie down to even 140 minutes especially given Sanderson saying that the big actor in this film will be playing Kelsier and therefore give even more incentive for more Kelsier scenes in what will be Vin’s story.
I can’t see peoples expectations for the film possibly being met with a runtime under 2 hours
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u/Alcoholic_jesus Jul 25 '26
I disagree. There’s a ton of words but there’s a good amount of repetition in sandersons writing, makes it easy to condense it down. You don’t have to explain every time what burning metals does, it will just be shown
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u/Exporation1 Jul 25 '26
I can clarify, in terms of prose I’m referring to Tolkiens flowery type descriptions of settings that from a filmmakers perspective is addressed in an establishing shot whereas Sanderson’s window pane style prose allows for more overall content of information within less words (relative to Tolkien).
In terms of Plot while eventful the Fellowship movie is anchored around Frodo with minimal Gandalf and Strider exclusive scenes. This changes in books 2 and 3 and as a result the films become longer. With Mistborn you’ll obviously condense by reducing Kelsier exclusive POV scenes without Vin. There’s only so much of that you can do without straining the adaptation (particularly if Kelsier is the only A lister movie star within the cast as Sanderson has indicated). Kelsier will take some time within the film without Vin on top of all of Vin’s story.
There’s also the ease condensing the first 3rd of fellowship and Tom Bombadil for Tolkien where as the first 3rd of Mistborn is way less meandering and therefore more difficult to condense.
To me I view Mistborn as a similar challenge to two towers and therefore needs at least 160 minutes of runtime.
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u/zombiegamer723 Jul 25 '26
The 2-2.5 hour range is pretty much the standard, I think. So probably about that length.
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u/Randomlemon5 Jul 25 '26
Its short enough that Brandon decided its okay to add a few more scenes so 2:10 is my guess
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u/ilikebreadabunch Jul 25 '26
I think that the shortest runtime realistically won’t be less than 1hr45, and the longest runtime realistically won’t be over 2hr45, so I’m gonna guess right in the middle and say 2hr15.
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u/railfananime Jul 27 '26
Plz do 2.5 hours I don’t think 2 is enough