“This is no longer my story” is probably the worst phrase a writer can say, and it is supposed that came not long ago from the mouth of George R.R. Martinmore or less coinciding with the avalanche of audiovisual adaptations of its ‘Game of Thrones’ universe.
There is the eternal question of whether the author himself is the best director or showrunner in the screen adaptation of his work, and it will depend a lot on what “author” and what “work”. What is clear is that the shining stars of the publishing market do not want to make the “Martin mistake”: seeing how your world is transformed by others without control or your own voice.
Feeling that the story you saw being born no longer belongs to you must be one of the worst experiences for a creator. And given the continuous boom in news of adaptations that have been working deadline at a frenetic pace, names like Brandon Sanderson or Sarah J. Maas are clear that they are not interested in following the path of the eternal debtor of ‘Winds of Winter’.
The Martin case
As long as you are interested in content, interviews and news about the adaptations of ‘Game of Thrones’, it is easy to come across statements by George RR Martin about his discontentand even something more painful, assuming distance with its own adaptations. At the beginning of the ‘Game of Thrones’ project, his involvement was greater and his role was much more decisive. Although the showrunners main ones were always Benioff and Weissand creative control fell to them, Martin participated as executive producer, occasional screenwriter and advisor.
However, starting in season five his role was diluted, and with it his closeness to the direction of the series. Benioff and Weiss, despite having some clues about the outcome, it is true that they had a difficult task to say the least: finish a story that not even its creator had already finished at that time. It is not surprising that given the path that the controversial closureMartin got off the wagon and acknowledged in numerous interviews that his ending was not going to have anything to do with that of the series. Arrive when you arrive.
It came out so-so.
With this experience, let’s call it bittersweet, one would expect Martin to be more cautious with future adaptations… But not. In ‘The House of the Dragon’ he appears again as co-creator and executive producer and, once again, at first everything seemed to flow normally in the first season. At least until again different points of view with the showrunner of the series, Ryan Condal, once again create creative tensions.
The friction already exists, to the point that HBO asked Martin to take a step back from the project. Months later the author would return to production.
“George and Ryan had a disagreement about the direction season three should take. At that point, it became clear that the process and communication with them had broken down and we needed to start from scratch. So, naturally, there was a period where we all took a step back for a while until we could find a new way to move forward.” HBO insider
And now we have ‘The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’again with George RR Martin as producer and with active involvement. Everything seems to be going well with this new adaptation, but the first season has just finished and experience teaches us that problems begin to appear after the second, so we still don’t know what direction it may take.
Others will not make concessions
Even so, one cannot put all the responsibility on him or treat this fact as an isolated case. Without focusing on other disciplines where rights and authorship are also a minefield, in the publishing world the relationship between authors and adaptation rights is always they have been complicated. Just look what happened to Tolkien’s work; a real legal tangle with rights fragmented for decades, limitations of creative control of Tolkien and heirs, while different companies managed books, merchandising or characters.
What ultimately resonates is that even having the rights doesn’t guarantee real creative control either. The impact that certain decisions or a controversial ending can generate directly affect your work, fandomto your reputation and, why not say it, also to your ego.
Therefore, the emphasis that a few months ago is not so crazy Taylor Swift having recovered the rights to all his music; We’re not just talking about the albums, but about the visuals, creative direction, music videos… and in literature it’s a bit the same, it’s fighting to have control over everything that your creation entails.
It’s normal that Sanderson doesn’t want to get his fingers caught.
When an author signs with a studio to adapt their work, a sale of rights occurs to transfer the production of the series or film, temporarily or permanently. Here comes an important point: these rights can be exploitative (including books, possible spin-offs, merchandisingvideo games) or they can be separate rights where the production company or studio does not have full ownership. Now, taking into account the stumbles of other writers with this type of agreement, the essential thing for this new generation, even if the transfer of rights occurs, is to negotiate creative control clauses.
This is where Sanderson He led the way a few months ago. After years of trying that did not bear fruit, the author of Cosmere is now taking advantage of his editorial power and his legion of followers to take the reins of the adaptation of his work on Apple TV. He will be the architect of the universe; He will be in charge of writing, producing, advising and will also have decision-making power. That is a level of involvement that not even JK Rowling or Martin enjoy.
“I flew to Hollywood and pitched my projects to all the major streaming platforms and studios. Basically, everyone tried to bid on ‘Mistborn’ and ‘The Stormlight’. In the end, I decided on Apple. There were no negative meetings, but part of the decision was due to the degree of control Apple was willing to offer” – Brandon Sanderson.
Beyond being a creator who raises millions of dollars with a couple of novels on Kickstarter and who, therefore, has the ability to say “no” to large sums of money, it is easy to see when Sanderson made the decision to only sign such an agreement if his creative vision was respected.
When the Cosmere was barely an embryo and Sanderson still had a very long way to go as an author, he was appointed by Robert Jordan as his successor. And we are not speaking figuratively, but when he died he was entrusted with the very complex task of being the one to finish ‘The Wheel of Time’, one of the masterpieces of fantasy. Q
Therefore, when Amazon decided to adapt said saga, it had Sanderson as a consultant; or rather another straw advisor like Martin. So confirmed it when the cancellation of the series was announced after three seasons: “I’m not going to miss that they ignored me almost completely; they wanted my name to give legitimacy, but not to count on me in a significant way.”
Another international bestseller and, in addition, queen of romance how is Sarah J. Maashas made it clear that his idea of adaptation is more in line with Sanderson than with Martin. Last month not only shed light (finally) on the status of ACOTAR and the publication dates on the famous podcast ‘Call Her Daddy’but also left us some crumbs about the status of its possible screen adaptations.
After the clinical death of that initial agreement With Hulu, Maas confirmed that he once again has the rights to all of his work and that until he has the guarantee that there will be no restrictions, he will not adapt his work to the screen: “I want to know everything about how it is done, I want to be part of it and I want everything to be adapted just the way I imagine it, and just the way I know the fans want it.”
Negotiating that creative control, especially after learning about cases that precede them, is not a whim. A showrunner It can provide immense wealth and knowledge of the medium that writers are unaware of, but that last word or the right of veto is the way to cover the authors’ backs to maintain the essence of their work, and above all ensure that their story reaches the public just as they conceived it.
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