JONAH HEX?

Kick-Ass is well... KICK-ASS!!!

But I still like this trailer better:

Thomas Jane talks About Dave Stevens and The Rocketeer Graphic Novel and Movie

This is What the New Phantom Looks Like...

Thoughts?

And I suppose we should post a comparison...

MARVELous Writers Wanted

From Nikki Finke:

"Marvel Studios has started a writers program. The goal is to put more than half a dozen film writers on staff, give them an office, and "work them like horses!," one of my sources says. I've confirmed this smart move. (Makes you realize how backwards Warner Bros is by comparison on their DC Comics film development.) No Marvel comic book writers are allowed to apply for the program."


Further details in the article.

Terms of the deal and so forth are what they are.

H/T to Shawna.

More Watchmen Debate from Nikki Finke

Here.

[And let me point out that Nikki asks, "What price fidelity?" when a feature film version of the story is not faithful]

Once the pic opened, “either you were familiar with the source material, or you had trouble following the bouncing ball,” one studio marketing exec analyzed for me. Exit polling showed that the audience didn't really like the movie (as shown by a Cinemascore of only "B"). "Alan Moore always said that Watchmen the graphic novel couldn’t be successfully made into a movie. Maybe he was right. Because, at the end of the day, Zack Snyder’s slavish attention to detail in making Watchmen such a literal translation is what ultimately doomed the film. He cared more about the appeasement of the fanboys than in a cohesive, coherent movie meant for everyone.”

Watchmen Opening Credits Are On The Internet Forever Now (CLIP)

Watchmen Opening Credits Are On The Internet Forever Now (CLIP)

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My Problems With Watchmen...

Can be found here at The Wrap.

I'll add more to this here.

Edit to add:

Okay, so Aric Blue says, "I think yer nuts!" and maybe I am...but not about this. Maybe the 3.5 hr version will be better, but I still get the sneakin' suspicion that it would have more impact as a TV mini-series.

Imagine if you will 12 episodes spaced out over 3 months. Each episode mirroring its printed counterpart. Bits and pieces from one episode adding meaning to another episode - much like LOST which I compared it to earlier. WATCHMEN IS like that delicate watch we see young Jon Osterman repairing in the movie. The variety of pieces have to be fit together in the right order in order for it to work properly.

More later I'm sure.

No Explanation Required: La Mujer Murcielago (The Batwoman)

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I have a poster from this movie in my office. It's a pretty iconic image - part 1960's Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) meets Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine by way of Mexico.

But Geek Orthodox gives you the lowdown on this classic bit of Mexi-cinema far better than I could.

Go. Now.

Fuckin' - A , Andy!!!

Concept and writing by Diggle.
Imagery by Jock.
With Jeffrey Dean Morgan
(soon to be seen as The Comedian in WATCHMEN)

THE LOSERS

Attention Citizens: I'm Your Watch-Man..Uh Huh!

More infectious viral marketing from those folks at Warners.

They can be found here (because they disabled the embed function)


Edit to add: Just because we love this tune and have a vision of a zombie hitman unleashed upon Chicago's underworld every time we hear it -

How Many Times Will You See Watchmen?

Because based on this blogpost alone (H/T to Valerie) , I am going to have to see it at the theater at least three times:

- for the story
- for the designs
- for the rest (how close it was/wasn't to the book)

I mean, that's what it takes for an event to be called a miracle right? Witnessed three times?

Then I'm going to be buying ART OF THE WATCHMEN, PORTRAITS, TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER and of course, THE DVD.

Better start selling that blood and other vital fluids now so I can purchase it all. Think my kidney would go for much?

Japanese WATCHMEN Trailer

Movies & Comics, Comics & Movies...

Just growing closer together all the time.

From Newsarama:

Bluewater Productions and Roger Corman are teaming up to excite a new generation of genre fans as the independent comic publisher and legendary genre filmmaker plan to readapt and re-imagine some of Corman's popular work.

Starting in 2009, several of Corman's movies will be "given the Bluewater treatment" under the title "Roger Corman Presents." Some of the first properties being produced include "Death Stalker," "The Barbarian Queen," "Humanoids From The Deep" and a re-franchising of Corman's super heroine "Black Scorpion" which previously found success as two made-for-cable movies on Showtime and a 22 one hour episodes on the Sci Fi Channel.

Corman said: "Comic books have given me so much over the years that it's time I gave something back to the medium."

As Bluewater now is working with both Corman and the Vincent Price estate, it is certain that several of the horror classics based on the Edgar Allen Poe stories will also be produced in comic form in the near future.

Just Do it: Pt. 2,432

From Steven Grant's Permanent Damage column this week:

"A little story. I've managed to seriously option two properties to Hollywood over the years, a miniseries I did at Dark Horse in the '90s called ENEMY, and, a couple of weeks ago, my Boom! Studios miniseries 2 GUNS.

2 GUNS was originally written as a screenplay, because that's how I saw it and I wanted to write a screenplay; I didn't want to concern myself with the various structures needed to make it a comics story. It became my calling card screenplay whenever anyone asked me for a sample. While it was partly an exercise for me, to reacquaint myself with screenplay structure etc., (by the way, I recommend David Trotter's THE SCREENWRITER'S BIBLE, a mostly nuts and bolts approach that should really be all the screenwriting advice you'd ever need) it was also a story I wanted to tell, and, if it got to that stage, a movie I'd want to see.

Mainly, it was an idea I wanted to do badly enough that I wrote it up without having a set market for it, which for me is a pretty big leap.

I got nice comments on it, when I got comments at all, but no sales. That happens, and to people with a hell of a lot more screenwriting experience than I do. Then Ross Richie and Andy Cosby " I'd given Ross a copy some years before " said they wanted to turn the screenplay into a comics series. Which was fine with me.

The comic appeared. Offers were made. Right before San Diego, Universal bought it. Now it looks like it'll be a movie after all. Ain't life funny?

But here's the point: I wrote it not as something specifically to sell " I'd probably have changed a lot of things if I were approaching it from that perspective, even though I'd certainly hoped to sell it " but because I wanted to do that particular story. I wrote ENEMY for the same reason.

And they both sold to Hollywood.

So there's no need to design comics to sell to Hollywood. Write and draw them how you want them to be. Hollywood wants what Hollywood wants. If you're lucky, they'll want what you've got."

----------------------
Emphasis mine.

Just When I was Looking for More Gun Porn...

Seriously, It's a Comic Book Movie Summer...

What with:

IRON MAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, SPEED RACER (started as a manga guys!)

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT, WANTED
HANCOCK

and with teasers for the upcoming AVENGERS movie in the tails of IM and TIH.

(which by the way, is a brilliant marketing move and indicative of the whole Marvel culture. They have cross-promoted their books with guest appearances since their beginnings so why not pick up that motif for the movies? The movie folks don't get it all that well, but the comics fans do -- and they applaud)
And we have a lot more stuff coming like THE SPIRIT,
HELLBOY 2, WHITEOUT, PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, TRAILER PARK OF TERROR (which yours truly contributed to...) and oh yeah,

WATCHMEN.

It's really turning into a comic book year isn't it?

But, our man in the thick - Warren Ellis - has this to say about his mission statement with Marvel.

"And then Nick Lowe at Marvel phones up to see if you’ve got anything and you find yourself pitching a grim political post-BATTLESTAR GALACTICA take on Rocket Raccoon. And then he tells you that someone else is already doing Rocket Raccoon, because the situation is just that bloody awful.

This is what I was warning Brian of. I don’t want to see him end up like me. Because I’m sitting outside the pub with Wikipedia loaded on my phone, wondering if there’s a revisionist take in Monark Starstalker and his robot bird…"

So we have to ask - when is it time to realize the mine is played out and you've got nothing left but bedrock? How do you balance being new and fresh (original?) vs. giving the audience what they've come to expect and enjoy?

I think the best term is "surprise" when it comes to describing the balance you strike. You shift perspective to surprise the audience with something new they didn't know about the character, but also about how stories are told. CSI did this rather effectively in one episode where the bodies sat up in the morgue and gave us some clues to their demise. HOUSE threw out all of the regulars and brought in new blood for House to suck on.

You also shift circumstances (see HOUSE above) which gives the characters new "restrictions" on how they deal. Throw The Spider into a small town instead of the big city and he's still going to fight crime like a madman - but he's going to do it differently because he's in a new milieu.

I don't think any character, from the pulps or from the comics or even movies or TV is ever "played out." I think they become encrusted with the familiar and the "tried-and-true" which can render it all stale. The trick then is to recognize the good and hose off the bad.

I like that each of these movies (the ones I have seen anyway) takes what works about each of the characters and gives them a new perspective to keep it from just being a rehash of the comics. When it works - it works really well and inspires.

When it doesn't we get things like INDY 4 ... or the first HULK.

An Ironclad Weekend

I'm going to see IRON MAN in about an hour or so, but already it's been an IRON MAN-filled weekend. I went to Meltdown yesterday for Free Comic Book Day and had a great time, picking through the new, free stuff and going through the bargain boxes for gems that I had previously missed. Picked up a run of RUSE - a Holmesian pastiche from Crossgen- and jumped for joy.

One great thing is that they had a ton of Iron Man movie promotion material and I picked up several of the Activity books and Jr. Novels for the kids here in the neighborhood who need the help reading english. They already know me as that guy with the cool posters and books in his house (they see it every Halloween when I open the door), so I think I've cemented my geek cred with the locals.


It's really cool to put a book in a kid's hands. Try it.

Speaking of Posters, Imagery, Homage and Faithfulness to the Material:

Not so much...