Entertainment For Lively Minds
2D Heroes Ripe For 3D Exploitation
I've only just got around to reading the Simon Pegg piece in this month's Word, where he cites the influence of the 2000AD comic. This made me think about the new Judge Dredd movie and how I'm not too optimistic about it. (Although Dredd is the more interesting character, I thought Robocop had already stolen most of his thunder by the time the first Dredd movie was released).
But there were other characters in 2000AD who could translate well into Hollywood blockbusters.
As soon as Jurassic Park was made it was inevitable there would be another Lost World and then Godzilla movie. But the "Flesh" idea has more meat on it. People from the future travel back to the prehistoric era to obtain dinosaur meat. Here you have monster thrills, time travel and the room for intelligent satire that the whole premise provides.
Harlem Heroes: Hollywood's always making sports movies and they are always much the same. Black actors get many of their best parts in ensemble pieces. Harlem Heroes could be a black ensemble sports movie easy to make now we've seen so many men fly. And the bonus is more work for Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham when the Heroes play the London Beefeaters.
ABC Warriors
Like Transformers. But better:
Anyone else got any candidates for movies from Brit comics?
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Where to start?
The updated Captain Britain would be fantastic - witty, multi-cultural, pop-culture savvy with lashings of punchy action to boot.
In terms of 2000AD - there's Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, Robo-Hunter -all good solid stuff.
Captain Scarlet (In his TV21 Comic guise...)
Used to scare the whizz out of me when the two Mysteron circles used to claim the souls of the dead.
Should be a major motion picture directed by Michael Beye and starring
Shia LeBeuf as the Captain,
Anthony Hopkins as Colonel White,
Eric Cantona as Captain Black (its largely non speaking)
Luke Wilson as Captain Blue
50 Cent as Lt Green
with
Girls Alound and Beyonce Knowles as the Angels
But the indestructibility
robs him of any jeopardy a decent new Thunder birds now that's a different story.
A movie for the mainstream,
A movie for the mainstream, or one to appeal to the geekier end of the spectrum?
Charley's War - except the Monocled Mutineer already stole the Etaples story line.
Luke Kirby - would be a great Sunday evening show. Except that little effer potter's ruined that one.
I think Skizz would work well. Alien; alienated people. It could be quite contemporary as well.
I'd love to see Tarantino set loose on Sinister and Dexter. Except he kinda has already.
I would pay good, good money to see a Rogue Trooper movie. Early rogue - not Tor Cyan.
(In case you're wondering, I'm at the geekier end) Those may be some of the better mainstream bets.
Halo Jones has a great story
Halo Jones
has a great story arc and a fantastic female central character.
Perfect choice
Should be a trilogy - oh, if only one Alan Moore piece could successfully transfer to the screen.
As far as Toothy is concerned
how about Slaine a decent sword and sorcery blockbuster. Or maybe a Nemisis in 3d weird out.
But what I'd really like to see would be a GOOD version of "the league of Extraordinary Gentlemen". Now I rarely use the word genius but Alan Moore is one of the few genuine one's we have. The idea of hero team made up of classic British adventure heroes was brilliant especially with loads of hidden references and jokes (and great drawing/design). And yet the film was a huge pile of steaming elephant dung devoid of wit, charm, drama, danger, imagination, tension, characters....
Oh and "From Hell" was ropey too oh and then there's Watchmen.....
I'll stand up for Watchmen
and say that Snyder did a very good job. He created a very solid film from difficult material. The GLW, who loathed the movie in the cinema, has now come round to see its merits on the smaller screen.
Was a full version with the animated "Tales of the Black Thingy"intercut ever released?
Some have suggested Gilliam should have been given the reins, but has anyone succeeded in getting through Dr Parnassus?
I think the full cut with Black Freighter got released
in the states.
Another vote for Watchmen.
Very good film - gets better with repeated viewing. Some slight anomalies in the film version - it doesn't really delve into why's and wherefores of Ozymandias' plan. Not really aimed at the "casual" viewer either - can't imagine any non Watchmen readers enjoying it.
The full version with the Black Freighter tales intertwined was a US only release - Amazon and eBay have some Region 1's but v. pricey. I think the film worked better without the Black Freighter stuff anyway. You couldn't complicate an already complicated film any further.
my problem
was that the film was in the thrall of the comic , so seens that looked great in the comic looked stagey and contrived in the film. Also there's a misconception that because comics look like story boards and indeed have taken on some movie tachniques that you can make a comic directly into a film. Also they were caught between placating the comic diehards and attracting none comic book readers and feel they failed both. A film of a comic has to be a good film first.
My problem
was the opposite, I think.
He could have done with a bit more placating of the comic diehards (c'est moi). He seemed to forget that one of the things that made the comic so great was that it de-mythologised the idea of superheroes and made them all saggy and twisted and pathetic. The film was just another testosterone-fest of muscles and violence.
They even made Dr Manhattan a lot more generously endowed, for Freud's sake.
How about
Alf Tupper?
Zenith
I always thought Zenith would make a good film - a super hero blockbuster crossed with 24 Hour Party People by way of a psychedelic freak-out.
Yep
with a nice flash back to WWII creation myth section.
Fiends of the Eastern Front
What with all the "soppy teen vampire rubbish" we have to put up with these days that would make a proper old-fashioned horror movie. Nazi vampires.
More votes for Slaine, RoboHunter, Flesh, Charley's War and Strontium Dog. Adding Neonomicon and Defoe from the 2000AD stable. Nemesis the Warlock would make for an incredible animated movie.
From other publishers:
Executive Assistant Iris
Wasteland
Stumptown
Kwaidan
The Sojourn
In my dreams, the list is endless.
never dared watch Tank Girl
was it any good? Imagine Mr Hewlett would make a good job of it now.
No.
It was not.
Oh and while I'm here..
Does anyone else think that Daniel Craig would have made a brilliant John Constantine? I mean, Keanu..ffs..
Constantine
I would have liked to see Tom Waits do it. Who else could do lung cancer riddled exorcist. Waits wouldn't even have to act!
Thinking back o the Brit comics I loved..
Bring on the Roger The Dodger film.
I think Action comic would give some good films. Hookjaw or Dredger.. lots of exploding heads and disembowelments. Action was a GREAT comic. Can you imagine what would happen if it came out now? Daily Mail readers would be shitting blood. And ten year old boys would be just as excited as I was back in 1977..
How about...
Harry Twenty and the high rock? With josh homme as big red one.
Or, my personal dream movie project. Four words....
live...
action...
Wacky...
Races.
I'd most certainly buy that for a dollar.
Hmm
If it approached ANYTHING like the awfulness of "Speed Racer" I'd have to set fire to my teeth just to distract me from the horror.
Alternatively, can I tempt you with...
.... a live action version of Catch the Pigeon? Played entirely straight, as a war time drama. Starring Adrien Brody as Dick Dastardly?
Existential angst ahoy!
"Whadidhesay? Whadidhesay?"
My four-year-old is currently obsessed with Stop The Pidgeon. As was I at his age. Quality will out and all that.
I think I'm with Alan Moore
Comics should remain comics.
As much as I get a thrill imagining Zenith or ABC Warriors getting the big screen treatment, deep down I know they would be a poor second to the originals.
I'm not all negative; two comic adaptations which have worked well are Sin City and Scott Pilgrim. But the offenders far outweigh the success stories.
Miracleman
Another Alan Moore classic, lost in litigation now though.
What if you were a middle-aged freelance hack, happily married but with recurring nightmares and chronic migraines; then suddenly discover you have a superhuman secret alter ego? So secret that you didn't even know yourself. And what happens to the woprld when others come along with similar powers?
Is you is or is you ain't my Sladey
How's about a stage version of the Grant/ Howard masterpiece that was 'Play it Again Sam', the musical with Sam Slade, Robohunter. There must be several Massivistas who sang along all those long years ago.
Transmetropolitan
A fantastic series from a while ago about a bald, maverick journalist trying to expose government corruption, set in a bleak near-future, where its all gone a bit wrong. Fantastic comic.
Would like to see Matthew Fox play Spider Jerusalem. I think its the role that he was born to play. When Jack's being mean to people in Lost, it makes sense.
I also think that Batman:Cult would work well in cinema format as well. Would be good to see a much darker side of Batman, what with the drug psychosis, blood-bathing preacher, and the hero being Robin. Would be different.