Comic book movies

[Silent Bob]

Ha, this is some joke you're playing on the posters living near you. Punisher in Tampa?!

Jax, I really wish it was. From the Saint Petersburg Times.

[Reverend Jax]

I can just imagine an interview with the director.

 

Interviewer: So, what compelled you to shoot Punisher in Tampa?

 

Jonathan Hensleigh: Well, it all started when I decided I wanted this to be a milestone Marvel Comics based movie. Then I saw Spider-Man. I realized I couldn't make Punsher better than that, but I could still make it a milestone Marvel Comics based movie by making it the worst comic movie ever made.

 

Interviewer: That's quite a goal to set for oneself! You have some stiff competition.

 

Jonathan Hensleigh: That's for sure! That's why we pulled up all the stops on this one. We got Thomas Jane to play Punisher, made up a completely new villian, got John Travolta to play him, and hacked the costume budget down to halloween quality. I used the money we saved from that to make sure we have enough alcohol and cocaine on the set so the crew would be in an altered state of consciousness throughout the entire shoot.

 

Interviewer: Brilliant! But why shoot in Tampa?

 

Jonathan Hensleigh: Well, we never had the intention of making the movie that bad, but then just a few weeks ago I heard that Howard the Duck was actually based on a comic book.

 

Interviewer: Ouch! Tough competition!

 

Jonathan Hensleigh: You said it! After hearing that, I knew we'd have to up the stakes if we really wanted to churn out something that would outshine that piece of shit and Batman & Robin. So we moved the shoot to Tampa, hired a 12 year old girl who'd never read a comic book in her life to rewrite the script. To top it all off, we are currently negociating for Rob Schneider, Pauly Shore and Carrot Top to play John Travolta's henchmen.

 

Interviewer: Wow! You really are pulling out all the stops.

 

Jonathan Hensleigh: Well, we really felt, 'what was the point of making a bad movie if it wasn't going to be really bad?'

 

Interviewer: Indeed. I'm sure all the bulemics out there that are tired of using their fingers to induce vomitting are looking forward to this movie.

 

Jonathan Hensleigh: I hope so! They're our key demographic!

Edited May 18, 2003 by Jack's Meandering Thoughts

[Unidentified Source]

lol

 

I hope that they change their minds and put him back in new york, make him look different (like punisher maybe, not the sesemea street version) and change that whole tampa idea forever

[The NZA]

! Holy fucking shit...Comic Book Resources again here.

 

We've heard this before: Variety reports that Darren Aronofsky is attached to develop and direct a live-action adaptation of a comic book. This time, the comic in question is Kazuo Koike's manga phenomena "Lone Wolf and Cub."

 

The movie is set up at Paramount and Mutual Film Company. Eric Watson, Aronofsky's partner at Protozoa pictures will produce.

 

"Lone Wolf and Cub" tells the story of a disgraced 17th century samurai who travels around Japan as an assassin for hire as he tries to clear his family's name. His companion is his 3-year-old son, whose mother has been killed.

 

The series has been published in the U.S. by Dark Horse Comics, who recently began publishing an American-made "re-imagining" of the concept called "Lone Wolf 2100." The comic series inspired several other comics including Marvel's "Nomad" from the mid-1990s and Max Allan Collins' graphic novel "The Road To Perdition."

 

For Aronofsky, this is the third comic property he's become attached to direct. Fans are aware that he and comic creator Frank Miller were developing "Batman: Year One" for Warner Bros., a project that seems to have been set aside in favor of a Chris Nolan-helmed "Batman" sequel.

 

The director also glommed on to Miller's DC graphic novel "Ronin" several years ago, immediately after the success of his debut effort "Pi." That movie has been languishing in development hell ever since.

 

 

In smaller news, Reeves is still attatched to the role of Constantine (Hellblazer), but apparently hasnt read a book of the series, claiming "[it's] his anger. He's angry, but he's got a good heart,", which sounds more like the Hulk. Anyway, the writer/director is Nancy Meyers (What Women Want), which is slightly more promising than Rachel Talay (Tank Girl) on the Preacher film. ??? Anyway, focus on the Aronofsky part.

[The NZA]

For what its worth...Punisher flick had a fan contest to design promo art, this one won. Not bad, but itd take a bit to get me hyped right now.

 

 

Again, focus on the good parts of the previous post.

[Silent Bob]

A Lone Wolf and Cub movie? That'd be cool, but I personally wouldn't get my hopes up yet, considering Aronofsky's track record of getting comic movies off the ground, and its plot similarity to Road to Perdition. Us comic geeks know that Road to Perdition was inspired by Lone Wolf and Cub, but most of the movie audiences would think it's a rip-off, and studios don't like putting money into rip-offs if they can see it coming.

 

I don't even wanna talk about Reeves playing Constantine. That's even worse than Cyclops playing Jesse Custer (and that's pretty bad).

[Reverend Jax]

I don't think people would see a Lone Wold and Cub movie as a rip off. I haven't read much LW&C, just a little whilst standing in a comic store, but I can tell you this, movie audiences see setting first in every movie. Plot similarity would be lost to the setting difference. Take a look at Star Wars. It's more similar to Westerns, Samurai films and WWII films than a sci-fi movie, plot-wise, than it is to other sci-fis, like Star Trek for example. But people don't seem to make that connecion in general. All they see is outer space, so it's more liek Star Trek than anything else. Depression era Chicago is dramatically different from 17th century Japan. The connection will not be made amongst most people. As long as it was a good movie, I don't think many would consider it a rip-off.

[Silent Bob]

People have complained that The Lion King ripped off plot points from Hamlet, Jax. I think they could make the connection. But if they're willing to get it made, I'm all for it. Even a Ronin movie would be cool, but they'd have to change the name, wouldn't they? John Frankenheimer's Ronin is too recent. That'd be a shame.

[JunkerSeed]

Wow, that would be one giant leap for Arronofsky as far as style goes, but hell, this man has earned license to do whatever the fuck he wants in my eyes. Now, this is considering the fact that Arronofsky's been bitch-slapped by hollywood recently left and right. I'm glad he's still trying to get films made at this point. I don't think similarity to Road to Perdition will matter at all because number one, not enough people saw and remember road to perdition, and two, the kind of people that will assume it rips off road to perdition are the type of people that probably wont even make the connection, like Jax said. And if Arronofsky directs this, it's gonna be pretty damned unique, so I dont think anybody needs to worry about its similarity to anything. Just please, for the love of god, will somebody let this man make another fucking movie already!??

[The NZA]

Eh, i tend to think along Jax's lines here. Say with the matrix sequel; i dont hear as much fuss about obvious influences of John Woo & others as i do shit like "why are they flying?!" (i listen to dump complaints for some reason). Setting alone will change this one up a lot, and while Road to Perdition is rather influenced by it, LW&C is superior for many reasons...there's a heavy amount of philosophy, and this thing's told more like a Kabuki play than a bank-robbing adventure; having read both series i can assure you Perdition took some ideas & ran with it, did its own thing, distinguishing the two wont be too hard.

Thing is...in Japan, while back, this series had a number of spawned movies & TV series of its own (some with questionable quality) and im still tryin to get my hands on the VCD's of what's known as the "Baby Cart series", what ive read - from the writer of the series - to be a very accurate live depiction of certain story arcs, bearing in mind the series itself weighs in at 28 volumes of 300+ pages.

I'm excited that the series is now being released on DVD, and much prefer the idea of watching it in subtitled japanese. However, i do agree with Junker that Aronofsky has a better chance than many of making a good 2 hours out of the plot.

 

Anyone interested in the series i mentioned or more info on the book can click here

 

[Reverend Jax]

People have complained that The Lion King ripped off plot points from Hamlet, Jax. I think they could make the connection.

Maybe some people did, but how many people did you hear say that about the movie walkign out of the theater? None, I'm willing to bet. There's a difference between a few people makign a connection adn most people making a connection. Most people made the connection that The 13th Floor was a Matrix rip off, not many people made the Lion King connection. LW&C will be one that most people don't make the connection.

[Jumbie]

It's too bad that the Matrix overshadowed a good movie like 'The thirteenth floor'. I don;t like to compare the two since one obviously emphasised the action element much more (And so got greater notice). The other went for a detective feel.

 

The Matrix was released just 2 months before the Thriteenth Floor, so that was a severe case of bad timing. There's no way you can fault the 13th FLoor as ripping off the Matrix, especially since the Matrix was drawn from so many other sources. Hell, I remember The Invisibles comics series that was started 4 years earlier by Grant Morrision had a similar theme. And 'Dark City' (A great movie if you get past Keifer Sutherland's horrid breathing) came out a year before The Matrix with a similar 'human zoo' theme.

[The NZA]

Blah blah blah...back to quality comic movies

 

 

Justice League of America: The Movie

by Michael Hutchison

 

I finally got a chance to see the never-released Justice League of America pilot for the never-purchased Justice League of America TV series. (Before you ask, there are numerous sources for copies and the Internet makes it even easier to find them if you want one, so I'm not telling you my source!)

 

Since it is far too expensive to license DC's more famous characters, this JLA consists of the Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, Fire and Ice (all mentored by J'onn J'onzz).

 

Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (Matthew Settle) is, believe it or not, the handsome leading man of the team! Guy is a charming fellow who learns an opera piece to sing to his girlfriend, so I think it's safe to say that he's totally unlike his character in the comics. He has Hal Jordan's origin, Guy Gardner's GL costume and Kyle Rayner's mask (albeit not as bad as it looks on paper).

 

Barry Allen/The Flash (Ken Johnston) is a slow-witted loser. He can't hold a job and the rest of the team hates having him around. He's actually more like Fastback of the Zoo Crew! Ken Johnston bears a lot of resemblance to Woody Harrelson and is handsome enough, but he looks like he was crammed into the Flash's tight suit and it ain't pretty. Well, the costume ain't pretty to begin with!

 

Ray Palmer/The Atom (Jon Kassir) is the brains of the team. His costume is hideous.

 

B.B. DeCosta/Fire (Michelle Hurd) is sexy but is as serious as Wonder Woman. Since she is, initially, the only woman on the team, you don't want to get too stereotypical with your only female character.

 

J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter (David Ogden Stiers) is very well-acted by Stiers. His makeup needs improvement, though.

 

The JLA operate out of J'onn's Martian ship, which is buried at the bottom of a river. J'onn forms the League to defend the freedoms which were missing on his own world. The JLA are busily defending the city of New Metro from the Weatherman, an extortionist who brings down storms upon the city, while trying to keep their personal lives in order.

 

Actress B.B. is coping with a young man who has a crush on her and then realizes that she's Fire. This plot is terrible at every turn. First of all, B.B. keeps referring to him as though she's two decades older than he is, but they look the same age! Secondly, she tries to dissuade him that she and Fire are two people by having shapeshifter J'onn pose as Fire. I realize that physical evidence is hard to disprove, but come on! They have the same hair, the same body, the same face and the exact same voice. They both wear tight clothes and make-up, except that Fire's clothes are green and she wears a lot of green mascara. It's not much of a secret identity.

 

Just to show how unimaginative the writers are, Green Lantern's problems are also secret identity-based. His girlfriend is angry at him for always leaving. In one scene, a storm strikes and Guy runs off on her. Five seconds later, as a hailstorm drives her to the ground, Green Lantern arrives, stands inches from her face and makes no attempt to disguise his voice. And, without missing a beat, she looks at Green Lantern and makes absolutely no connection! She even muses about how wonderful he is in comparison to her boyfriend. I know people think Clark Kent's identity is laughable, but at least he behaves differently as Superman.

 

With all this going on, meteorologist Tori Olafsdotter (Kimberly Oja) ("Tori!" Ugh! Beverly Hills 90210 must die!) discovers that her boss is The Weatherman, which is hardly a surprise, as her boss, Dr. Eno, is played by Miguel "I must always play creeps" Ferrer and is the only other sizeable character introduced in the story! There is a guy named Arliss also working at the lab, but the attempts to cast suspicion on him are too forced. Tori gets zapped by a device in his lab and begins developing ice powers. She is eventually persuaded to join the JLA.

 

Overall, I think this movie is not very good, but that also makes it better than a lot of the stuff that actually gets put on the tube! The special effects are not bad for a television show pilot. The costumes most certainly ARE bad. But I think it's important to remember how mediocre the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation was. I think that, had the pilot sold, the proper funding could have improved this show.

[Silent Bob]

If they let Joel Schumacher turn his Batman movies into a tv show and then pulled his budget out from under him and forced him to film with a camcorder while a soap opera-fired actor played the caped crusader in a Halloween costume which had to be cobbled together from the costumes of different superheros and the batmobile had to be an old mustang with a yellow bat signal badly painted on it which drove through a cityscape that was actually made of cardboard boxes with the windows drawn on with magic marker...it would still have more potential than that show.

[Silent Bob]

And is it just me, or does "Fire" look like Poison Ivy?

[Ganny McVagflaps]

I saw this on late night Irish T.V. a while back and alls I can say is that it was the best comic book movie since the Fantastic Four in the early nineties, or from the late nineties, Generation X. Buff was my favorite Generation Xer...

[The NZA]

You, my friend, clearly missed Hasslehoff's Oscar-worthy role as Nick Fury in the TV special. Its every bit as good as Dr Doom, the trash can.

Christ, i forgot bout the Generation X one.... :ill:

[Ganny McVagflaps]

Oh, the joys of David Has-No-Knob. I actually never saw the "Fury" movie. I heard it was quite like the Ennis mini-series....

 

I was gonna use this topic to rant some more about my fervent hate for that piece of crap that was "Hulk" but it'd only result in the SMASHing of the keyboard and that wouldn't be good. Masturbation is a much better way of relieving anger anyway....

[Reverend Jax]

I downloaded the first five minutes of this (couldn't get the whole thing) and it stank up the whole room, which is really saying something since my room stinks pretty bad already.

[spiffytee]

jumpin back and fourth on imdb, i found out somethin interesting. The guy that's going to play punisher in the upcoming movie was in Face/Off as that annoying prison dude with the glasses. and what a coinicidence! he's going to be working with john travolta again in punisher!

Edited August 17, 2003 by spiffytee

[Silent Bob]

Really? That was him?...hm, I'll hafta go back an' look. Technically, though, he didn't work with Travolta, did he? He worked with Nic Cage pretending to be Travolta.

[Ganny McVagflaps]

So long as the Punisher movie gets a hard R and not a PG-13 (which from the website it's looking like an R) I have hopes for a guddin.

[Unidentified Source]

When is Ghost Rider due to theaters?

[Silent Bob]

Next summer, I'd imagine. Script's almost done, and they're supposed to start shooting in the fall.

[Ganny McVagflaps]

Havn't they thrashed Koepp's R-rated script in favor of a more kiddie friendly PG-13 one? I never was a big Ghost Rider fan (well, maybe some of the stories in MCP and the team-up with the X-Men when they faught the brood) so I don't really care if this gets fucked up or not. It's not as close to my heart as, say X-Men, Spiderman and Daredevil are. They were the core books for me as a kid, and oly one of them got fucked up (take a guess....)

 

I just wanna know how they're gonna get a flaming skull into a PG-13. Is Blaze's (or is it Ketch?) skin gonna melt like it does in the comic book? How are they gonna do that?