I’m holding off on my regular Monday update until tomorrow in order to talk about the Mistborn movie deal press release that went out today and has popped up on a few genre news sites.

When it comes to optioning my adult fantasy novels for the big screen, I’ve occasionally gotten nibbles from random people in Hollywood. When Chris Geary emailed me about making a Mistborn movie, I really thought nothing of it–I just assumed it was another nibble that would go nowhere. But then Chris showed how incredibly serious they were–when I was in New York he flew there to meet me and explained his really great and exciting plans for the movie adaptation. When I read Paloppa’s script treatment for the beginning of the story I immediately felt that they truly understood the book and how to adapt it. Throughout the entire process they’ve been professional and sincere and have shown a real love of the material. So in the end I said yes.

Chris and his partners at Paloppa haven’t been in the spotlight much at this point, but I think I would rather have someone who loves the series working on it as opposed to some faceless Hollywood company. I am very much behind them and very eager to see what Paloppa will bring to the Mistborn franchise in the future.

January 11, 2010

For Immediate Release

For Further Information Please Contact

Paloppa Pictures: media@paloppa.com

Brandon Sanderson: Joshua Bilmes at JABberwocky Literary Agency, 718-392-5985

Paloppa Pictures LLC and Brandon Sanderson are pleased to announce that Paloppa has taken an option on film rights to Sanderson’s NY Times bestselling Mistborn fantasy trilogy.

Sanderson is the most successful new fantasy writer of the past decade, and the Mistborn series, published by Tor Books, is his most successful to date. The trilogy commenced with publication of Mistborn: The Final Empire in 2006, followed by The Well of Ascension in 2007, and The Hero of Ages in Fall 2008. With each book building in success on the one before, The Hero of Ages debuted at #21 on the NY Times Hardcover Fiction bestseller list. Subsequently, Sanderson co-wrote, with Robert Jordan, The Gathering Storm, which in November 2009 dethroned Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol to become #1 on the NY Times hardcover fiction list and every other major bestseller list. Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy was simultaneously released as a boxed set and became one of the top-selling boxed sets in the country according to Nielsen Bookscan.

The principals in Paloppa Pictures LLC are Christopher Geary, Rob Micai and Marc Bryant. Micai is a co-producer of the forthcoming Letters to God, a Possibility Pictures release through Vivendi-Universal. Bryant has a strong background in commercial projects via DNP Studios for companies such as Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Lockheed Martin and Nickelodeon. Geary has been partnered with Micai since their graduation from the University of Central Florida’s Film Program in 1999, with the two working in the live stage, music videos, commercial productions and other areas, and it was Geary who was the driving force behind the Mistborn option.

Said Geary, “As I was reading the book I felt more and more that this was a story that just had to be seen on the big screen. I contacted Brandon Sanderson, and was able to persuade him that Paloppa Pictures was the right team for the job. Obviously we’re very excited by the opportunity to bring his work to life.”

As part of his efforts to woo Brandon Sanderson, Christopher Geary flew up to New York City during Sanderson’s national tour in support of The Hero of Ages in 2008. Sanderson said, “When I arrived, I wasn’t sure what to expect, and when I left I knew I wanted to be in business with Chris Geary and his partners in Paloppa. Chris knew the books, had palpable enthusiasm for them, and most of all had a real and relatable vision for adapting the series that was at once exactly how I envisioned and distinctly filmic.”

In addition to the Mistborn trilogy, Sanderson has written two other fantasy novels for the adult trade, Elantris and Warbreaker (both also published by Tor, and Warbreaker another NY Times bestseller) and four fantasies for middle grade readers, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, Alcatraz vs. the Scrivener’s Bones, Alcatraz vs. the Knights of Crystallia, and the forthcoming Alcatraz vs. the Shattered Lens (Scholastic). In summer 2010, Tor will commence publication of a new fantasy series from Sanderson with The Stormlight Archives Bk. 1: The Way of Kings. Sanderson is published in twenty languages, and the Alcatraz novels are currently under option to Dreamworks Animation.

Paloppa Pictures LLC is an up-and-coming Orlando, Florida based production company whose mission is to create high-quality entertainment for mass audiences. Paloppa Pictures is currently in development on three feature film projects with the first scheduled to start production in late 2010/early 2011.