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75 Comics That Are Being Made Into Films
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Monday November 17, @08:55AM
from the ruining-your-childhood dept.
from the ruining-your-childhood dept.
brumgrunt writes "The comic book is the new spec script in Hollywood, if this list is anything to go by. Den Of Geek has uncovered 75 comics that are in the process of being turned into films, along with their estimated year of arrival. It's scary, brilliant and bizarre in roughly equal measure."
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"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
that are in the process of being turned into films
Keep in mind that the "process of being turned into films" is a long and difficult one where many projects get axed at every stage. And I'm sure <5% of these see theaters--hell look at how long it took The Watchmen (arguably the greatest comic book ever) to get off the ground!
... with more to come.
Although I'm sure with the recent success of movies like X-Men, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, etc that script writers are rushing back to their desks to find any unexploited comic book series that their pen can interpret.
I cringe at the thought.
I'm reminded of so many bad action flicks from my youth, so many cheesy war movies of my young adult life, so many bad Uwe Boll video game turned movies and now I've already suffered from Batwoman & Daredevil
Seriously, could Hollywood once--just for like a year--come out with only original semi-risky ventures? I mean, can we go one year without another recycled video game, without another tired sequel of an already diluted franchise, without another rehashed Mike Myers persona that's really just Austin Powers, etc. I mean, is that too much to ask?
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Hollywood is greedy, stupid, and unoriginal. As with the videogame industry, any success is going to be followed immediately with a slew of wannabes and knock-offs.
The good news is that there are still great movies being made. But you're probably not going to find them among the "tentpole" pictures with $100 million budgets. Hollywood isn't going to take a risk with that kind of budget, they're going to play it safe. And right now, PG-13 comic book movies are as close a thing to a safe bet as the studios know of.
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
And torture porn in October.
Saw 33, coming soon to a theatre near you.
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, the stunts and special effects have gotten so over-the-top that they take me "out" of the movies now. Granted, fight and chase scenes in actions movies have always been over-the-top. But stunts and effects have gone so far in one-upmanship that these scenes have become less thrilling than comical. The average human fistfight now looks more intense than the fight between the two terminators in Terminator 2 (and those guys were super-strong and built of titanium alloys). And chase scenes routinely involve jumps and falls that no human being could withstand in anything more than lunar gravity.
The Die Hard movies are the perfect example. The Die Hard series started out as a incredibly unlikely, but nonetheless at least mildly plausible. But by the third film, the characters were taking 50-foot leaps off bridges and routinely taking beatings that would have required immediate hospitalization (if not embalming services) for anyone even vaguely mortal. The last entry was particularly egregious. There is a fight scene in that one that makes the Terminator 2 fight scene look modest by comparison. I expect that by the next one, John McClain will be catching bullets fired at him with his teeth and the fight scenes will involve people being punched through bank vault walls.
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, just like every Comic adaption sucks...right? right?
(*cough* Batman, Spiderman, Sin City, 300, ...)
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone (I think it was Neil Gaiman) once said that "graphic novel" is to comic what "lady of the night" is to prostitute.
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Whereas some of us know that there is a significant difference between ten pieces of colored newsprint stapled together, and a ninety page perfect bound book on quality paper containing a complete lack of sea-monkey ads.
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
So it basically all boils down to print quality, then?
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Get it?
Yes, like I said, I get very well that you are so insecure about your interests that you have to make up new words and write long, long explanations about how the things you like are much better than those things others like which look exactly the same.
Seriously, get over yourself. You're reading comics. Some comics are sillier than others, and some are deeper than others, but they're all comics. And you're allowed to like comics! You don't need to make up elaborate justifications! Just enjoy what you like and ignore what you don't like, and stop worrying about how to label things.
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Re:"In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh huh. Right-o. So, you're into spandex, capes, and little pointed booties I guess.
There you go again, trying to show everyone how you're so much better because of what you read.
But sorry, dude, I don't read any of that. I probably read stuff that's far more obscure than you do, but I really feel no need at all to make any kind of point of that. What I read are comics. I like some of them, I don't like others, but I don't for a second think this makes me any better than anyone else, nor do I look down on others for reading the things I don't enjoy.
Hobbies and interests are not a popularity contest. You don't get points for liking some things and not others. Your interests should serve only to make yourself happier, not as some kind of measure of your worth as a person compared to anyone else.
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No, he's right (Score:5, Insightful)
It will suck. Let me tell you why.
Listen to Kevin Smith talk about his work on the Superman Returns script. [youtube.com]
He talks about meeting the producer for Batman, and Superman Begins. John Peters. Right around 13:00 or so he talks about presenting his script summary and how it was received.
And it was liked, but John said Kevin was missing some "action beats". He says that you need an action beat every ten pages. Something big needs to happen. This is how Hollywood thinks. Every ten pages of script, you need a fight scene. And listen to the absolutely stupid ideas that get thrown around.
This is why the Watchmen will suck.
Hollywood likes comic book movies because every ten minutes you are guaranteed to have an action scene. That's what superheroes do. It automatically meets the "action beats" criteria by default. That's why so many comics are being made into film. Every ten minutes someone gets in a big fight, or something explodes. Hollywood likes that.
But that's not what happens in The Watchmen. The Watchmen is a story about people. There isn't a lot of action. Hardly any, actually. This is a story about people. It has more in common with Clerks than it does with X-Men. Most of the story is people standing around talking. Character development.
Which is why Hollywood is going to fuck it up.
They're going to insist on their action beats. And that's not at all what the story is about.
Don't get me wrong. It will look pretty. It will have most of the story parallel the book. But mark my words - the heart and soul of the story will be ripped out. Most of the character development will be missing. And it will be replaced with a ten minute CGI battle of Dr. Manhattan pacifying Vietnam, or something similar.
Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but that's what's going to happen.
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Except... (Score:5, Informative)
Kevin Smith has seen a pre-screening of Watchmen and said they got it right.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/08/15/kevin-smith-has-seen-watchmen-its-fking-astounding/ [slashfilm.com]
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Akira (Score:5, Insightful)
Akira (2011)
Leonardo DiCaprio disappointed many fans of Katsuhiro Otomo's 80s manga strip by declaring that he won't be in this, though his Appian Way production company has set SFX wizard Ruairi Robinson to direct. The title character is a child of God-like powers who may have started the third world war that decimated the 'Neo-Tokyo' that biker gangs skirt round. Blade Runner-tastic. Appian Way are also developing...
Wait, what? There were people that wanted to see him star in this?
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and the butcher...er director for these films is (Score:5, Funny)
probably Uwe Boll's brother.
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Dark Prophecy... (Score:4, Insightful)
This is what I fear happening.
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even mediocre properties are snapped up (Score:5, Insightful)
Just shows how there's not an original bone left in that town. The comics are like elaborate storyboards anyway so let's do one but be sure to cut out anything involving taste and quality so as not to alienate our prime market of drooling mouth-breathers. And in twenty years we'll remake 'em all! Can't you just taste that money? Fuck, yeah.
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Re:even mediocre properties are snapped up (Score:5, Insightful)
Taste and quality? Such as Road To Perdition or A History of Violence, both of which were originally comics?
Comics encompass as broad a world as other forms of fiction and literature, it's not just all superheroes and science fiction. As far as Hollywood adaptations are concerned, the problem isn't so much a lack of originality -- although there is some truth to that claim -- it's that producers are risk averse.
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Missing from the list (Score:4, Interesting)
Bluntman and Chronic
Seriously, it's scary when Kevin Smith accurately describes something.
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I guess it's better than... (Score:5, Funny)
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75 more... (Score:5, Insightful)
"75 Comics That Are Being Forever Ruined, Raped, and Pillaged"
Fixed.
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to all the naysayers in this thread: (Score:5, Insightful)
1. it is proven that comic book movie adaptations are a good return on the investment. therefore, from a strictly risk/ return financial analysis, you want to make a comic book movie as opposed to say, a mafia musical. therefore, any comic book property out there is going to get a good looking at, down to the fringe. it's inevitable, and what exactly then is the problem with mining comic book properties like that? what is the rationale for which you take offense at that?
2. you don't own your favorite comic book. if someone wants to turn it into a movie, why do you feel like something has been stolen from you? why do you think something will be ruined? just don't watch. why is that so difficult for you?
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Sorry for offtopic.. (Score:5, Interesting)
..but since we are talking about films, I would like to see Tim Burton's version of Hobbit. I can't imagine it, but I know it would be fantastic.
(If you agree, please spread this meme. :-))
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Re:few really kick-ass, some very pathetic (Score:5, Funny)
and this post also gives me lead about what movies are missed ...
Is "lead" the heavier form of "wood"?
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