Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Movies Media Entertainment

75 Comics That Are Being Made Into Films 256

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."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

75 Comics That Are Being Made Into Films

Comments Filter:
  • "In the Process?" (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Monday November 17, 2008 @09:57AM (#25785077) Journal

    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!

    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 ... with more to come.

    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?

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by altloser ( 1113413 )
      You do know that Watchmen is gonna suck?
      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by Spazztastic ( 814296 )

        You do know that Watchmen is gonna suck?

        Some of us try to be optimistic about it before tracking down the director to tar and feather them.

        • No, he's right (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Weaselmancer ( 533834 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @01:35PM (#25788175)

          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.

      • If it ever even comes out.

      • by Loibisch ( 964797 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:12AM (#25785233)

        Yeah, just like every Comic adaption sucks...right? right?

        (*cough* Batman, Spiderman, Sin City, 300, ...)

        • by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:14AM (#25785249) Homepage Journal
          Comics? Those are graphic novels, if you don't mind.
          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Goaway ( 82658 )

            You know, some of us are not so insecure about our hobbies that we feel the need to make up new words to describe them because them.

            • by camperdave ( 969942 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:42AM (#25785575) Journal
              You know, some of us are not so insecure about our hobbies that we feel the need to make up new words to describe them because them.

              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.
            • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

              by Anonymous Coward

              Uhh... That's not what we're doing.

              A "comic book" is pretty accurately defined as a mass-produced, slim, stapled funny book that costs about four bucks, has only 22 pages of actual content, is full of ads nobody pays any attention to, and focuses on the difficult lives of grown men and women who insist on wearing spandex, capes, and little pointy boots everywhere they go. Comic books are traditionally created by large teams; one artist does the pencil work, another does the inking, yet another does the colo

              • by Goaway ( 82658 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @01:01PM (#25787585) Homepage

                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.

          • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Comics? Those are graphic novels, if you don't mind.

            Right because nobody knew what he was talking about. And "comic" is a dirty slur that was used to oppress readers historically so we need to eradicate that word from our minds & vocabulary.

            Do you also object to "pulp magazine?"

          • by neuromanc3r ( 1119631 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:20AM (#25785313)

            Someone (I think it was Neil Gaiman) once said that "graphic novel" is to comic what "lady of the night" is to prostitute.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I'm sorry, did you just give 300 as an example of a movie that doesn't suck?

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:16AM (#25785271)

      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.

      • by Anpheus ( 908711 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:56AM (#25785785)

        And torture porn in October.

        Saw 33, coming soon to a theatre near you.

      • Well, You do realize with More and More people having large screen HDTV's with surround sound speakers. In order for movies to make money with that medium is to make the Movies with Over the Top effects. If they get a good plot too then bonus. However most of the movies that come out that may not necessarily with cool effects we just go we will wait for the DVD. As watching low effect movies on the big screen doesn't give the same effect.

        • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Monday November 17, 2008 @11:28AM (#25786211)

          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.

          • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

            by maxume ( 22995 )

            I look forward to Bruce Willis running over the bad guys with his wheel chair.

          • by canajin56 ( 660655 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @02:14PM (#25788851)
            Without cool stunts that have never been done before, there will be no new fodder for "Movie Myths" episodes of Mythbusters! Don't you dare try to take away what could be Grant's one and only chance to build a bank vault punching robot. (You mention catching bullets in teeth but that's already been done with explosive results).
      • You'd think they'd have exhausted that theme by now :-)
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      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.

      "making a movie is like trying to cook a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it" Douglas Adams

    • Miracleman (Marvelman in the UK) -- that would be a semi-risky venture. Not that I'm necessarily saying that a film adaptation should be attempted because it'd probably be a spectacular failure -- and even if some brave producer were game, Miracleman is tied up in legal hell, IIRC -- but if it were done right, it'd be quite different from anything you've seen in the conventional superhero movies.

    • I think we ran out of originals. What else is left to be originals? :P

  • Akira (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hansamurai ( 907719 ) <hansamurai@gmail.com> on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:01AM (#25785109) Homepage Journal

    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?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Andr T. ( 1006215 )
      Does Akira die frozen in the end? That would amuse the fans.
      • Spoiler alert if you haven't read/saw Akira

        I thought Akira was split up into little pieces (at least in the anime I saw. He did sort of come back to help the the other guy with similar powers.

        Anyway, watching DiCaprio being vivisected alive would get me into a seat at the movies.

        • by 0racle ( 667029 )
          I thought that the movie and the mangas were about Kaneda, not actually about Akira. II never really expected that you would see Akira, except in flashbacks. Staring in Akira would put DiCaprio as Kaneda or Tetsuo.
    • Err, maybe, I don't know. That would be a problem why?

    • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
      There are a shitload of women who want him to star in EVERYTHING. However, at the last moment someone apparently realized that women are probably the least likely demographic to go see Akira--no matter WHO'S in it.
    • I assumed it was sarcasm, one of the hardest to print and often unsuccessful devices in journalism.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Cyno01 ( 573917 )

      If you can get over Titanic, hes actually a damn good actor.

      Years ago i heard he was going to be playing tony stark in iron man (that obviously didnt happen), and i thought that was a terrible idea.

      Untill i saw The Aviator.

  • good grief (Score:3, Insightful)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <nomadicworld@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:04AM (#25785133) Homepage
    Elfquest? Wonder Woman? Shazam? Shazam!?! Don't these people actually think ahead as to how silly some of these things will look on the big screen?
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by KermodeBear ( 738243 )

      While Shazam would be silly (I honestly don't know a thing about the comic itself, but the name alone makes me wince), ElfQuest has some potential. There's a lot of story to follow. It could be a LotR-style production. That said, Comic Book -> Movie conversions are generally craptacular, so...

      What I would like to see brought to the Silver Screen is The Invisibles [wikipedia.org]. I have been reading through the books lately and it is absolutely fantastic. A good mix of plot, philosophy, action, fantasy, and characters.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by para_droid ( 92566 )

        just not by the BBC. They completely butchered Neverwhere, turning a fantastic novel into a complete piece of crap (as they often do).

        Erm they made the TV series first. The novel was written later, based on the series. So I don't see how the BBC can be blamed for butchering a novel that didn't yet exist. And aside from the lack of budget, the series was pretty good.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by hummassa ( 157160 )

        I don't think you'll ever see The Invisibles in the silver screen...

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by sesshomaru ( 173381 )

        If you've ever heard the term Shazam, before, then you should no that it's origin was in a comic book known as Captain Marvel. For a time, Captain Marvel was more popular than Superman. His powers were granted to him by a wizard, and Shazam refers to the mythological characters who grant him his strength (Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury). Billy Batson, mild mannered newsie, becomes Captain Marvel when he speaks this word.

        Unfortunately, the World's Mightiest Mortal was felled, not by the

    • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
      I wonder if they'll still have the old man and the Winnebago.
    • _The Adventures of Captain Marvel_ was a good serial.

    • Pyle!

      Shazam!

      Pyle!

      Shazam!

    • Shazam? Shazam!?! Don't these people actually think ahead as to how silly some of these things will look on the big screen?
      .

      The 1941 live-action Republic serial "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" was released six months before Fleischer's "Superman." Captain Marvel [wikipedia.org] Both characters have had a rather long life on screen and in the comics.

  • my highlights:

    akira, runaways, whiteout, witchblade, gamekeeper

    though akira is an epic and the old film was very much shortened. the effects in both akira and witchblade had better be up to it - especially akira in a few spots, but these days they can CGI "film" anything.

    of course, is it too late to ask them to file "They Boys" or "Fables", or even something like "Losers"?
    • Wasn't witchblade a tv series for a while? I sort of remember that character name and that hand gauntlet being on tv.

      My picks would be:
      Akira - the carnage factor can be great
      Ghost in shell -for comedy relief they could put in Keanu Reeves in as a cyborg, just tell him to act normally
      Wonder Woman - if the right lead

      Too much CGI in the Ghost in Shell movie would be just like the anime Ghost in Shell movies. So, just make a full CGI Ghost in Shell with voice overs and be done with it or make a regular movie an

  • Dark Prophecy... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Forrest Kyle ( 955623 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:08AM (#25785187) Homepage
    Comic book movies appeared. They made boat loads of money. Drunken, sex addled movie moguls made seventy-five straight comic book movies. Seventeen in a row tank miserably. They never make another comic book movie again.

    This is what I fear happening.
  • ...for even the undead fear The Goon. Actually, this is an interesting film, of course I'm biased as a huge fan of The Goon.

    100% CGI, directed by David Fincher (of Seven and Fight Club fame) with positive input from Eric Powell (the comic books creator, writer and artist) it looks interesting. Here's an article [latimes.com] and here's a first look at the movie poster. [obsessedwithfilm.com]

  • by jollyreaper ( 513215 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:22AM (#25785331)

    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.

    • by SputnikPanic ( 927985 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @12:23PM (#25787023)

      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.

  • by dkleinsc ( 563838 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:24AM (#25785359) Homepage

    Bluntman and Chronic

    Seriously, it's scary when Kevin Smith accurately describes something.

  • by gfxguy ( 98788 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:31AM (#25785441)

    Off the top of my head: Witchblade was a failed series on TNT, Red Sonja, Buck Rogers, Sherlock Holmes?

    Oh... wait... are these going to actually be good versions?

    • I thought Barbarella had already been done too?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by hondo77 ( 324058 )
      Actually, I believe Witchblade was doing well. It just suffered from a lead actress who had some major personal issues.
    • by cjsm ( 804001 )
      I'm renting Witchblade right now from Netflix, and am about halfway through it. Its a great show, which I would recommend to anybody who likes that genre. Like another reply alluded to, the series was cut short because Yancy Butler, the lead actress, went into alcoholic rehab.
  • ETA's? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rangek ( 16645 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:33AM (#25785455)

    Is it just me or are those ETA's totally bogus? There is no way those times can possibly be... possible. We have things with film in can the estimated to arrive the same time as stuff that doesn't even have a script yet. What a bunch of crap.

  • by Fantastic Lad ( 198284 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:37AM (#25785505)

    "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

    Well, he was quoting somebody else, but he DID say it. . .

    The point being. . , comics are comics and movies are another animal entirely.

    For every comics movie I've seen, I can never help but thinking, "This would have been more satisfying as an episodic TV series." Perhaps it's because comics rely heavily on word balloons and movies are actually quite conservative when it comes to dialogue, most being really just short stories. Episodic television offers enough canvas to do a more satisfying job with stories which are by definition, written as a series of short episodes anyway. A lot of drama and necessary timing can be included with a TV series which must by necessity be cut when planning a film.

    I re-read Watchmen a few months ago when I heard about the film project, and it struck me that it was a story which would have done very well as a 6 or 12 part TV series. Not sure how they're going to manage to pack all of that into a movie without it feeling rushed. I guess we'll see.

    -FL

    • Perhaps it's because comics rely heavily on word balloons

      Western comics, yes. Manga tends to be far more filmic with lots of dialog-free passages.

      I re-read Watchmen a few months ago when I heard about the film project, and it struck me that it was a story which would have done very well as a 6 or 12 part TV series. Not sure how they're going to manage to pack all of that into a movie without it feeling rushed. I guess we'll see.

      I think if you expect it to be a film of the graphic novel you are bound to be disappointed. Moving any creative work to a different medium is itself a creative task and results in an entirely new work.

  • by solcott ( 1002711 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:41AM (#25785559)
    (Useful) Stupid Tricks to Get Your Comic Book Made into a Movie
  • Most of you probably have never heard of Last Blood [lastblood.net]. But I highly recommend it. The level of production was sub-indie, but its still a very interesting retake on vampire/zombie mythos and a fairly interesting story. if you read through the comments you'll find the writer,Bobby Crosby really enjoyed discussing his ideas with his readers.

    Of course the comic I really want to see on the big screen is Least I Could Do [leasticoulddo.com].
    • I read last Last Blood, I thought it wasn't that good but it was a fresh concept, so I kept reading.
  • 75 more... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nilbog ( 732352 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @10:49AM (#25785687) Homepage Journal

    "75 Comics That Are Being Forever Ruined, Raped, and Pillaged"

    Fixed.

  • 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?

    • I'd say that enigma of "2" is at least weakly linked with the truth of "1". Cult literature is probably unique in that a piss-poor and unfaithful cinema adaptation will create more column inches and consequently draw in more punters than an equally bad movie cut from whole cloth.
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by lennier ( 44736 )

      "if someone wants to turn it into a movie, why do you feel like something has been stolen from you?"

      There *is* a rare commodity here, though, that has been 'used up', and that's the position of "only existing movie adaptation of [work X]".

      It's a bit like brand identity. The value of the work seems to work out to something like 'number of realisations of that work in all media forms divided by total quality of all realisations'.

      In 1977, there was only one 'Star Wars' movie, and a bunch of Star Wars toys. The

  • I'm very dissapointed to see Buster Gonads [wikipedia.org] wasn't on that list.

    While we're at it I'd like to see Marmaduke [wikipedia.org] and Hi & Lois [wikipedia.org] added also.

  • Luther Arkwright (Score:3, Insightful)

    by szyzyg ( 7313 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @11:49AM (#25786545)

    ONe of the greatest works of graphic literature has been picked up for movie adaptations on more than one occasion. I'd love to see this adapted, but then again It's probably impossible to do it justice....

    http://www.superherohype.com/news.php?id=4514 [superherohype.com]

  • A new Buck Rogers? If it doesn't have Erin Gray in spandex, I don't want it.
  • They should make "Infinity Hold" into a movie. Barry Longyear's best book.

    And I think Emilio Estevez should star as "Nick Bando", I dunno why, but I think it would be a good fit.
  • Red Sonja [wikipedia.org] has been done. With Brigitte Nielsen and Arnold Schwarzenegger. It will be hard to beat that pair. A remake will probably have worse casting, but, inevitably, better effects.

  • No 'Little Lulu'?!?

  • Sorry for offtopic.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by azgard ( 461476 ) on Monday November 17, 2008 @12:09PM (#25786837)

    ..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. :-))

  • by T.E.D. ( 34228 )

    I can't wait for Groo [groo.com], the movie!

    Groo is truly big and strong,
    but then, so are most cattle.
    Groo will fight to right each wrong,
    and kill both sides in battle!

    ...

    OMFG. I was joking, but apparently one is in production [newsfromme.com]

  • Of course, they will never make a comic book adaptation as epic and as lavish as mine: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612 [shamusyoung.com] The trick is to get them to do the adaptation before you write the comic. Saves a lot of hassle that way.
  • I was hopeful about this movie, but Ice Cube is now slated for it. He's more suited for comedies that anything else.

Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine. -- Andy Warhol

Working...