Paloppa Pictures has optioned film rights to Brandon Sanderson‘s Mistborn fantasy trilogy.
Paloppa is a new, Florida-based production company, “whose mission is to create high-quality entertainment for mass audiences.” They currently have three projects in development. Paloppa’s principals are Christopher Geary, Rob Micai, and Marc Bryant. Micai is a co-producer on the forthcoming Letters to God. Bryant’s background is commercials, including projects for companies such as Novartis Pharmaceuticals and Lockheed Martin. Geary’s background, mostly with Micai, has been work on live stage, music videos, and commercials. Optioning Mistborn was Geary’s idea.
Geary says, “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.”
Geary and Sanderson first meet in 2008. Sanderson said of the meeting, “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.”
Talking further about the deal, Sanderson said today “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.”
Sanderson’s Mistborn series—The Final Empire (2006), The Well of Ascension (2007), and The Hero of Ages (2008)—is published by Tor Books, and agented by Joshua Bilmes. Sanderson’s current project is finishing Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, for which he’s writing the final three books.