kittynboi
November 11th, 2006, 07:52 PM
I decided to start this because people are talking about it in the Spiderman 3 trailer thread, and this way it won't get too off topic over there, and people not interested in spider man 3 in specific might have more a chance of seeing it.
I think there have been plenty of good comic based films, but plenty of bad ones.
Films based on comics that are good;
Batman
Batman Returns
Batman Begins
SpiderMan
The Crow
Sin City
Ghost World
Art School Confidential
V For Vendetta
Comic characters or books that I'd like to see given a GOOD big screen treatment;
100 Bullets (if the right director did this it could be SO awesome.)
Jimmy Corrigan:The Smartest Kid On Earth
Cerebus (this would have to be animated or maybe a Roger Rabbit style thing)
Bone (A good, respectful, non-dumbed down animated version of Bone would RULE.)
Y: The Last Man
The Spectre
Green Arrow (Prefferably based on The longbow Hunters stories)
Green Lantern (Of course, they could not feature anyone BUT Hal Jordan. The nerds would have it no other way.)
Box Office Poison
Rusty Brown
An animated series of Quimby Mouse shorts could be cool if done right.
Marvels
Kingdom Come
The Sandman
Like a Velvet Glove Cast In Iron
Some of these, actually probably all but a few, have all been the subject of consideration for a big screen adaption. Last I heard there work was beginning on a Flash feature film, but I don't know if thats far along enough to get out of development hell for good or not.
People have often approached Dave Sim about doing an animated Cerebus film, but given his somewhat adversarial, ambivalent stance on things like shameless marketing, creators rights, and letting others handle a comic artists work, it should come as no surprise that he has never expressed interest. Probably the only way it will ever get done is once he and Gerhard are dead, since they have arranged for Cerebus to pass in to the public domain once they have both passed on.
Jeff Smith has been approached many times about doing an animated Bone film, but he has never agreed to the terms. He spoke of one specific incident in which Nickelodeon expressed interest, but they wanted child actors to do the voices of the Bone cousins, and wanted Britney Spears music in it, and that kind fo thing. Smith has, apparently, been at the end of these sorts of offers, and he dislikes them because he thinks it shows that his work isn't being taken seriously. He wants a respectful treatment that is not dumbed down.
Things like Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and sometimes the more famous Elseworlds books like Kingdom Come, are occasionally the subject of rumors that a film may be made, and pitches probably are made, but that brings us back to the infamous "development hell" that seems to afflict adaptions of comics and other such material moreso that other films.
Chris Ware, given his rising star status since 2000 and his recent job as a cartoonist for the New York Times, will probably eventually be approached about turning one of his more well known works, most likely Jimmy Corrigan, in to a small-modest budget, indie-ish film, the same way David Clowes' Ghost World and Art School Confidential have been adapted to moderate, less mainstream success. Though I don't know what Ware thinks of adapting comics in to films, so I have no clue if he would agree. With the right director and actors, though, I think a Jimmy Corrigan or Rusty Brown film could be pretty good.
I would be honestly VERY surprised if no one has ever apporached Neil Gaiman about turning The Sandman in to a feature film, but I can think of very few directors/producers/teams in general that could make it as good as it should be.
One of the biggest, most enduring rumors, legends, hope and fear of comic die hards is the issue of whether or not Alan Moore's Watchmen will be turned in to a film. I myself am undecided on whether or not that could be done well, because it would have to be a LONG film. Watchmen has such a dense, deeply layered, labyrinthine story that even removing a few small elements could cause the rest to lose the unique impact the story has, if not cause it to collapse altogether. Watchmen changed comics, but I'm not sure if its Hollywood material. There have always been rumors, and sometimes things do get beyond the talking stages to perhaps some writing, but plans for a Watchmen film always seem to get cancelled for whatever reason.
On the topic of Moore, he has said in interviews that he has never been satisfied with how any of his material has been treated by Hollywood. From Hell was a good film on its own, but from what I recall of the comic, the two stories diverge somewhat radically (The comic focused more on the character of Jack the Ripper, while Johnny Depp's character was a much more minor element to the story.) V For Vendetta I thought was good, and while it had some silly aspects to it, I liked it. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was awful, and all the humor that made the original comic so delightful was just absent from the film.
Well, I have no closing comments for this post, so I'll just baruptly end it since I can't think of anything else to write in it.
I think there have been plenty of good comic based films, but plenty of bad ones.
Films based on comics that are good;
Batman
Batman Returns
Batman Begins
SpiderMan
The Crow
Sin City
Ghost World
Art School Confidential
V For Vendetta
Comic characters or books that I'd like to see given a GOOD big screen treatment;
100 Bullets (if the right director did this it could be SO awesome.)
Jimmy Corrigan:The Smartest Kid On Earth
Cerebus (this would have to be animated or maybe a Roger Rabbit style thing)
Bone (A good, respectful, non-dumbed down animated version of Bone would RULE.)
Y: The Last Man
The Spectre
Green Arrow (Prefferably based on The longbow Hunters stories)
Green Lantern (Of course, they could not feature anyone BUT Hal Jordan. The nerds would have it no other way.)
Box Office Poison
Rusty Brown
An animated series of Quimby Mouse shorts could be cool if done right.
Marvels
Kingdom Come
The Sandman
Like a Velvet Glove Cast In Iron
Some of these, actually probably all but a few, have all been the subject of consideration for a big screen adaption. Last I heard there work was beginning on a Flash feature film, but I don't know if thats far along enough to get out of development hell for good or not.
People have often approached Dave Sim about doing an animated Cerebus film, but given his somewhat adversarial, ambivalent stance on things like shameless marketing, creators rights, and letting others handle a comic artists work, it should come as no surprise that he has never expressed interest. Probably the only way it will ever get done is once he and Gerhard are dead, since they have arranged for Cerebus to pass in to the public domain once they have both passed on.
Jeff Smith has been approached many times about doing an animated Bone film, but he has never agreed to the terms. He spoke of one specific incident in which Nickelodeon expressed interest, but they wanted child actors to do the voices of the Bone cousins, and wanted Britney Spears music in it, and that kind fo thing. Smith has, apparently, been at the end of these sorts of offers, and he dislikes them because he thinks it shows that his work isn't being taken seriously. He wants a respectful treatment that is not dumbed down.
Things like Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and sometimes the more famous Elseworlds books like Kingdom Come, are occasionally the subject of rumors that a film may be made, and pitches probably are made, but that brings us back to the infamous "development hell" that seems to afflict adaptions of comics and other such material moreso that other films.
Chris Ware, given his rising star status since 2000 and his recent job as a cartoonist for the New York Times, will probably eventually be approached about turning one of his more well known works, most likely Jimmy Corrigan, in to a small-modest budget, indie-ish film, the same way David Clowes' Ghost World and Art School Confidential have been adapted to moderate, less mainstream success. Though I don't know what Ware thinks of adapting comics in to films, so I have no clue if he would agree. With the right director and actors, though, I think a Jimmy Corrigan or Rusty Brown film could be pretty good.
I would be honestly VERY surprised if no one has ever apporached Neil Gaiman about turning The Sandman in to a feature film, but I can think of very few directors/producers/teams in general that could make it as good as it should be.
One of the biggest, most enduring rumors, legends, hope and fear of comic die hards is the issue of whether or not Alan Moore's Watchmen will be turned in to a film. I myself am undecided on whether or not that could be done well, because it would have to be a LONG film. Watchmen has such a dense, deeply layered, labyrinthine story that even removing a few small elements could cause the rest to lose the unique impact the story has, if not cause it to collapse altogether. Watchmen changed comics, but I'm not sure if its Hollywood material. There have always been rumors, and sometimes things do get beyond the talking stages to perhaps some writing, but plans for a Watchmen film always seem to get cancelled for whatever reason.
On the topic of Moore, he has said in interviews that he has never been satisfied with how any of his material has been treated by Hollywood. From Hell was a good film on its own, but from what I recall of the comic, the two stories diverge somewhat radically (The comic focused more on the character of Jack the Ripper, while Johnny Depp's character was a much more minor element to the story.) V For Vendetta I thought was good, and while it had some silly aspects to it, I liked it. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was awful, and all the humor that made the original comic so delightful was just absent from the film.
Well, I have no closing comments for this post, so I'll just baruptly end it since I can't think of anything else to write in it.