Sanderson’s super-powered humans–or Epics–are power hungry and evil, killing and taking at whim. Power corrupts, Sanderson says, quoting Lord Acton, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Any reader of comic books knows that almost every superhero is just as likely to take a turn to the dark side, but only in Sanderson’s world does that actual endowment of superpowers nearly guarantee that the turn will happen. What if the supernatural powers of Superman, the Flash, and Captain America didn’t just make them more than human, but also corrupted them, too?įor a genre that has always been willing to show the light and the dark sides of human nature, compounded exponentially by the bright and dark natures of the heroes and villains holding those powers, it’s not an entirely new look, but it does take a new spin. Rather than swords and sorcery, Sanderson’s premise is flight and telekinesis, invisibility and fire. For a guy who kicked of his career with epic fantasy, it also shows the breadth of his imagination and flexibility. At a time when Marvel and DC turnout multiple blockbusters at the movie theater each year–think The Avengers, Iron Man, the Dark Knight, and Man of Steel–interest in superheroes is at an all time high and Sanderson’s look at the dark potential of super-powered humans is a timely and relevant addition to the genre. The second book centers on the aftermath of that battle and even more questions for David, who has found a new foe that will require a quest darker and even more dangerous.ĭaria Cerek is overseeing for Fox with Will Rack for 21 Laps, which has Table 19 in postproduction at Fox Searchlight, Story Of Your Life shooting at Paramount with Denis Villenueve directing Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, a fall start date on the Ice Cube-Charlie Day comedy Fist Fight at New Line, the John Hamburg-directed comedy Why Him? at Fox, and a Netflix supernatural series with Matt and Ross Duffer.Steelheart, first in the Reckoners series, may have the broadest appeal of Brandon Sanderson’s growing variety of imaginary worlds. The book centers on David, who wants in the group because Steelheart killed his father, and he alone knows the Epics’ true weakness. Nobody fights back but the Reckoners, a shadowy group of ordinary humans who spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them. In what was once Chicago, an astonishingly powerful Epic named Steelheart installed himself as emperor. The awed public started calling them Epics, but with incredible gifts came the desire to rule. The tale begins with a burst in the sky that gave some ordinary people extraordinary powers. This could potentially provide a franchise play with an original twist on the superhero genre: the idea of what happens if the handful of all-powerful people lord their powers over everyone else and enslave them. Levy is producing through his 21 Laps banner. Fox bought the book in January - it is referred to as The Reckoners series - after the author had sketched out that first book and a follow-up, Firefight. Blanchard was tapped off his work on the Independence Day sequel and Glimmer, the latter of which is in preproduction. EXCLUSIVE: Fox has set Carter Blanchard to adapt Steelheart, the first leg of a three-book trilogy by Brandon Sanderson that is being developed as a potential directing vehicle for Shawn Levy.
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