IP Surveillance #15

Apple just made the biggest fantasy IP deal since Game of Thrones.

Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe is heading to Apple TV+ in a rare creator-controlled deal, with Mistborn eyed for theatrical films and The Stormlight Archive for television. Meanwhile, Markiplier is proving YouTubers can bypass Hollywood entirely—his self-financed Iron Lung hits theaters January 30. And the webtoon-to-screen pipeline just went mainstream with Lore Olympus landing at Prime Video.

This edition features:

• 7 Deals: Cosmere (Apple TV+), The Frozen River (Maven), Catan (Netflix), Iron Lung, Lore Olympus, Split Fiction
• 4 New Books: Vigil (George Saunders), Crux (Gabriel Tallent), The Starseekers, Kokun
• 4 Announced Books: Honey (Imani Thompson), The Neighborhood Experiment, People Like You, The Spy Who Jumped
• 4 Long-Form Articles: Scam compound escape (Wired), Walpole Prison (GQ), Student phishing empire, Alexander Brothers trial
• 3 Podcasts: The Red Weather (Rider Strong autofiction), Catching The Codfather, Safe to Drink
• 3 Alternative IP: Split Fiction (Sydney Sweeney), Viral Hit (Netflix), The Traitors (Sam Mendes stage)