Posted on 03/17/2005 5:35:14 PM PST by Chris Haire
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of comic book movies. I say, "No Mas." The ugly far outnumber the good. For every "X2," there's an "Elektra." For every "Spider-man," there's a "Tank Girl." For every "Superman," there's a "Superman III." Enough already. While I've always wanted to see my favorite comic heroes on the big screen, I've come to the realization that superheroes are fine just where they are - on the page. After all, not only do comics succeed visually like films do, but they succeed as prose.
Moreover, I think it's high time we put the superheroes to bed, or at least send them on a sabbatical. It's time for comics as a medium to be liberated from the tyranny of tights. It's time for the public to be given a viable alternative, one that still focuses on the imaginative and the fantastical. The more emo-style alt comics are all well and good - they have their appeal - but very rarely do they take full advantage of what comics have to offer. They are shackled by the conventions of real life, and real life is, well, pretty conventional. You go to work, you eat, you sleep, you go to work. Occasionally somebody dies, but more often than not it's some uncle or aunt who has been fighting off lung cancer for five years. Occasionally you have an adventure, but it's usually nothing more than a flat tire on a raining night in the middle of Bumfuk.
That said, I must admit that there's no doubt I'm anticipating the movie adaptation of "The Watchmen."
"Bourne Supremacy" director Paul Greengrass is attached and by all indications he has a profound respect and love for the source material. However, Greengrass is taking a rather shocking approach to adaptation. He's shifting the series 20 years into the future. That means no Cold War. No Nixon. No Vietnam. And yet, Greengrass may have stumbled onto a way to make a movie adaptation of "The Watchmen" resonate with viewers far more than a straight retelling of the '80s-based classic tale. More importantly, the director is eager to hear from fans of the graphic novel about his ideas and has unveiled a message board at the official movie site. One particularly interesting idea being discussed is a plot point that could fill the same role played in the comic that the United States victory in Vietnam did- what if Dr. Manhattan stops 9/11? What makes the idea perhaps most intriguing of all is that it makes the eventual attack on NYC that ends the novel possible in a post-9/11 world. The previous draft by X-men screenwriter David Hayter abandoned the "alien assault" because of fears of how it would play in modern day America.
The film itself won't be released until 2006. Until then, we can entertain ourselves with cartoon parodies, Photoshop silliness, Lego lovin', an annotated guide of the graphic novel, and a look at what might have been the one comic book story that would have rivaled the grandeur of "The Watchmen" - Alan Moore's "Twilight."
sounds like a good idea to set it in the future. There's a lot of good things in the Watchmen but the whole Nixon still being president just seemed so dumb.
Don't know if it will work but it sounds better then a one to one adaption.
I kind of think that after 1989, there's no real point in trying to adapt it. The whole books is sort of tied to the '80's with it's resentment of the Reagan era. Not to mention the whole story drips with a cynical pessimism seems to inform Algore's Earth in the Balance.
A comic book seems like the only place to tell that particular story.
So many great pieces of dialogue like that.
This is the first I've heard of this, that's great! Oh gosh, I wonder who's going to play Rorschach? He and Illyana Rasputin are my favorite comic book characters of all time.
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