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Next Batman to be Directed By Pi's Darren Aronofsky
tregoweth writes: "Variety is reporting that Darren Aronofsky, director of 'Pi' and 'Requiem for a Dream,' will be directing the next Batman movie (the one after 'Batman and Robin,' not the 'Batman Beyond' movie). He'll co-write it with Frank Miller, and it will be based on 'Batman: Year One.'" Pi was amazing, so it'll be cool to see where Aronofsky takes the Dark Knight.
Yeah PI was pretty cool. Want to know the part I liked best? That super-powerful processor they tried to bribe him with. High Tech!
-in a fast german car im amazed that i survived... an airbag saved my life!-
Pi was shot on a $60,000 budget (of which 60% was spent on the 'reversal' film stock alone). I can only imagine what a $60,000 Batman movie would look like. Even Monty Python movies cost more.
For the record, the Pi soundtrack was done by Clint Mansell, former member of Pop Will Eat Itself.
Sine!
Cosine!
Cosine!
Sine!
3 point 1 4 1 5 9!
That's funny. That's about the average time it takes my Java program to find the two prime factors of a 40-50 bit number. Oh, and an extra second for multiplicitive inverse. Try me. Until then, please limit your comments to a topic that you have some knowledge of. One more thing: Java CANNOT freeze anything. It will either crash the VM or throw OutOfMemory Exceptions. I've actually seen it seg fault, but that took remarkable level of stupidity.
Information just wants to be left alone. I asked it.
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
i wonder what science fiction films you think are better than Star Wars or The Matrix or Pi for that matter? i'm inclined to agree with you about Batman, but you must recall that, when the movie came out, the only popular version of batman had been the tv show from the 60s(?). since the tv show was intentionally campy, it seems plausible that the movie would be as well. in fact, all tim burton movies have a quasi-campiness about them -- a good thing. so, i'm not convinced that the movie failed because the joker had an absurdly long gun, however the kim basinger character did become tiresome.
as for Pi, i think it was one the better films ever made and a work of art. yes, perhaps, the 216 digit unspeakable name of god blowing up computer chips was unrealistic. but the film connects kabbalistic numerology with mathematical descriptions of nature with underlying patterns in languages we speak and write ala Goedel, Escher, Bach or The Grammatical Man. the repeated sequences of pills popping -- the number of pills increasing with each scene up to but not including seven (seven being important in many cultural/religious traditions) -- were a set of scenes among many sets that brought the viewer into the premise of the movie.
But then, I didn't go to film school, I'm not the kind of guy who can appreciate the director's use of lighting, I just like watching movies.
Bah, i an beat that user number.
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A buddhist walks up to a hot dog stand and says ``Make me one with everything.''
didn't write Watchmen, or draw it. Not to take away from his stellar work on the Dark Knight, the Martha Washington books and other fine stuff, but Watchman was Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. ANd it was (and is) the greatest comic ever written. :)
"nothing is written." - T.E. Lawrence
What impressed me most was that Frank Miller, arguably one of Batman's most amazing writers over the years, has also signed on to write this baby.
Miller's The Dark Knight Returns (which explores Batman returning after a ten-year hiatus), and Batman: YO are amazing pieces of gritty, realistic fiction. He's also written a bunch of other great stuff, including Sin City and a great run of Daredevil, including most of the sequence with Elektra.
Very cool, however. I'm looking forward to this.
clint mansel (formely of pop will eat itself) actualy put together the soundtrack and did most of the music on it, he also did the music for the upcoming film "requim for a dream" by the same director. more info on clint and his works www.clintatthecontrols.com www.nothingrecords.com
That was an awesome line, the only part of the movie worth watching. Personally, I prefer the line in the Adam West movie on the pier with the bomb, "Some days, you just can't drop a bomb!"
Batman survives Bane's vicious attack with a broken back (!) and while in rehab, an inexperienced replacement (later to become Azrael) proves unable to handle the mental rigors of being Batman.
This would make for an outstanding movie, and I can't wait until Hollywood "discovers" it. Plus, I want to see someone treat Bane as something other than a lacky.
My .02,
My .02,
zencode
iactivist.org/jason
Ack! I'm a little bummed. I saw Pi at the Capitol 8 in Columbia, SC, but, alas, no contest. The movie was only decent, but a poster would have been pretty cool.
A new Batman movie doesn't necessarily have to continue the series, because they can go back to the original source material - the comics.
It's an interesting question - if they completely rejig the style (As opposed to Joel Schumaker's tactic of taking Tim Burton's style and adding neon lights), is it the same series? After all, there were a couple of Adam West Batman movies in the '60s, so it's not like Tim Burton's Batman was really the first Batman movie.
The other advantage of starting over is that you can effectively disregard the killing of the best villains.
I always liked the Batman cartoon, which was based on the style of the first movie, but went off in its own direction. Particularly great was Mark Hamill's voice acting as the Joker. Better than Jaaaaaaaack any day.
yeah... i guess killing joker again would get a little... well... i wanna see him die laughing in a dank sewer!!! ah well... we can all dream
"...a wonderful never-done-before plot..."
Is this a joke? Never done before? Have you every read any science fiction? Ever watched Twilight Zone, Outer Limits or even Hollywood movies? Good gravy, the basic plot of The Matrix was invented by Rene Descartes!
As for being a "tour-de-force on the senses": I agree. Too bad it didn't entertain the brain a little more.
"Pi broke through the barriers of mathmatics being boring..."
That barrier is something that exists between SF and everything else, not between Pi and everything else. That is, there are many many stories/books (and some movies, try "Donald in Mathemagicland") that deal with these issues. I'm not saying Pi (or even The Matrix) was no good--I'm saying they aren't particularly original or "amazing".
"...maybe you should go into films with lower expectations."
If this is the best defense that can be mustered for the low quality of movies as compared to written works, it's no wonder Hollywood isn't improving.
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"Anyone that has ever gotten an idea based on any of my work and done something better with it-good for you."--J.Carmack
So I listen to a few people try:"3.34532" and then "3.134542" so I volunteer "3.14156", to which the perosn running the contest says "right, you're the winner so far." The next person says "3.5132", and this continues for a few more people.
Needless to say:
1) I won the contest and have the poster
2) I was in South Carolina at the time.
I demand a million helicopters and a DOLLAR!
Too bad Dark Knight Returns won't ever be made as a movie, real or animated.
Nah, they already used the Riddler.
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Interesting typo. It was a typo, right? Hard to tell.
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Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
Batman 1 & 2: Great character, great production design, great music, great stories...overall GREAT movies.
Batman 3 & 4: Throwaway characters, uneven production design, bad music, and horrible stories...overall BAD movies.
As an aside: Batman 1 & 2, directed by Tim Burton. Batman 3 & 4, not. Coincidence? ;)
The real big thing isn't that Darren Aronofsky is directing, it's that Frank Miller will be adapting Year One for the screenplay. As bad as B&R was, it was only partially directorial problems. The biggest problem was that the story was a giant piece off monkey crap. The best any director could have done with that script would be to make it "watchable", I doubt anyone alive could have made it "good". As long as they stick to Year One, and let Frank Miller actually have a say in how it is transfered, then there is a great basis for a movie, and then the director can take it from "good" to "great". Now, if only they had chosed "Dark Knight Returns" instead...
"Information wants to be expensive" - Stewart Brand, the same guy who said "Information wants to be free"
Supposedly dubbed Batman 2000 or Bruce Wayne... Is this a rebirth of good Batman stories again?
(I'll NEVER forgive Schumacher for what he's done...)
Java(TM). The only language proven to freeze Windows NT and Unix.
Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., LLC, CRAP, ETC."Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
Alan Moore wrote _Watchmen_.
Don't get me wrong, I want the movie to be good, too. Just don't expect a revolution just because 'our boy Frank' is reportedly pulling some strings behind the script.
Certainly big a brooding - is he tall enough? Although that said, I've met Keaton and he is _really_ short, his head was below my shoulders and I'm only 6'1" or so. That said his bodyguard was dolf lundgren-esque... so maybe he's a good one?- ------
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There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
it was gobbledygook actually, they never really claimed anything else, no math people worked on that movie
While Frank Miller did originally write the Robocop 2/3 story, he wrote it as one movie. There were *many* writers that touched the story after him, hence the fact that it ended up not as one movie but two.
Most movies have a lot more than the original writer. It's rumored that they might have given Miller creative control on the movie after that previous debacle.
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see if they do portray her as a prostitute (along with her underage cohort and pimp).
I can see that having more of a chance of making the movie than the butch hair cut though.
-Vel
Not to mention kind of stupid. I stopped watching these "movies" about the time I saw some stupid scheme the riddler had wherein he decided to get some machine to sap human neural energy and channel it into his cerebrial cortex.
Respond to s
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
That's odd. I've never read the book (though I have read LOTS of other Heinlein) but that movie is one of my favorites.
Your criticisms seem mostly to be based on presentation -- technology, weapons, combat scenes etc.
However, I found the movie to be absoletly wonderful as a satire. What I thought most brilliant about it WAS the fact that the cookie cutter characters are right out of Ken and Barby land. Displaced directly from 90210 into the movie. It was so beautiful. Definately one of the best satires I've ever seen. And of course the gratuitous violence everywhere. You must have noticed how over the top everything was -- that's the point! And how can you miss all the fascism references?
I can understand how you might have taken Heinlein's work and completely warped it to his own means -- since I never read it, I really don't know. It certainly didnt' feel at all like a Heinlein novel when I watched it, I was in a very different mindset. I think I enjoyed more than most of Heinlein's stuff, whose books are more in-your-face on-the-surface, and less satire.
Burton does some cool stuff, but Pi was... I don't know, it seemed to me like he took everything we learned in film school and put it all into one movie. you only need a few of the concepts, but he seemed to not get that and toss it all into one - don't get me wrong, I lked it - and the soundtrack frickin rocked. I think Terr Gilliam would be perfect for this - or who did Delicatessan and The City of the Lost Children?.... or was it Lost City of Childred... something like that- ------
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There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
Yeah I know the book you mean. It was edited by Martin Greenberg. (Pretty sure it was Greenberg, I don't know about Martin). Had all sorts of other authors. There was (I think), 3 of them. Titles were something like Adventures of Batman 1 & 2, and the Complete stories of the Joker. Try this one, though the cover looks different. Maybe it's another printing. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1567310761/ ref=sim_books/104-4876177-8038311
...he uses the same guy to do the soundtrack as he did for Pi. That music gave the whole movie a layer of intensity that couldn't have been acheived with the typical swell-dwell-fade crap that so many drama-type films use.
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I should add to my previous post - it looks like I misunderstood - I know Burton didn't do Pi, but the way I wrote it there makes it look as if I was saying it was Burton- --------
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There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
I understand that everyone is entitled to their opinion [and mine [grin]], but Pi technically was *bad* -- The writing/plot was shakey at best, camera work was amateur [there is a difference between "bad for effect" and "bad, go back to film school"]. I understand why quite a few people liked the movie. I was even entertained, but I wouldn't call it a good/great movie... Hell, people liked the Matrix... again not a "good" movie, but highly entertaining.
Frank Miller, of course *needs* to do this! How could he not [other than the need to distance himself from the *really awful* post Burton batman movies]?
Maybe this will be the movie that will but the franchise back to life. Maybe they'll get rid of the nipples on the costume. Only time will tell.
Does anyone know who the villain[s] will be?
This is a very exciting development, as I am looking forward to a Batman noir film
Blocklevel: Practical Information Architecture
However, if you haven't been paying attention, Hollywood is running scared right now given the strike by the actor's guild regarding payment for ads they star in. Hollywood isn't moving, and because of this laxness, there's buzz that other unions in Hollywood (scriptwriters, technical people, etc) will be striking by March 2001, and effectively shutting down Hollywood. According to US News and World Report this week, this means films that might have scripts but haven't been filmed yet will be the first to be dropped, specifically refering to Batman 5 as one of the first on the chopping board. Instead, the studios are in a flurry trying to buy up as many scripts and episodes they can before anything mihgt happen.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Um...not sure if you realize it or not, but the original Burton Batman was based about as much on the Dark Night Returns as Hollywood is likely to see....
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
First, Pi wasn't "amazing". It was good, but not amazing. It was pretty average science fiction, if you compare books and movies together. (To gauge, "The Matrix" was sub-par, "Star Wars" is lame).
Second, the only good Batman was the first half of the first movie. Starting with the moment Joker pulls the absurdly long gun from his pants the entire series began to suck. No really, that's the exact point it begins to suck. Go back and watch the first movie. Keep track of Kim Basinger's spoken line-to-scream ration before and after that point.
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I would much rather see Elfman do the score. I have yet to see a composition of his age poorly. On the other hand, I've seen countless instances where "cutting edge electronic music" sounds worthless and un-interesting in less than half a decade. Batman deserves a classical composition, not pounding drum/bass jungle beats.
. . .I never understood MARTHA WASHINGTON. I guess it just went over my head at the time; I'll have to try reading it again some day. But at least it had a (more or less) coherent story, unlike, say, Bill Seinkewicz's STRAY TOASTERS. Blech.
So does anybody have suggestions for sci-fi movies which they consider to be good / above average?
There's lots of bagging of the matrix / pi / star wars etc, do we have any constructive suggestions?
"Today we have kids/adults/teenagers that are so used to knock-offs of the original that we've become too jaded to see the good in it. Episode 1 was great for those younger than twelve who didn't yet have that 'I'm too cool for this' attitude."
I was born too late to see the original 3 movies in the theater (combined with the fact that I didn't go to a theater until relatively late in life). I was also older than 12 when I saw Episode 1. I also agree that there are knock-offs that are worse done. HOWEVER.
None of those things mean that Star Wars was all that good (or even original). Nor does it automatically infuse Episode 1 with any quality. Prediction: Anyone who read any quantity of science fiction (science fiction, not Anne McCrappy dragon junk) before seeing Star Wars likely found it mediocre at best. A lot of flashy effects, but no story (when compared to things like the Foundation series, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and the like). Episode 1 was even worse. Prediction 2: Find 10 people who saw Episode 1 fewer than 3 times. Ask each of them to tell you what the plot was (the plot, not just a series of scenes like "first there was the floating ship and the poison gas, then the race, then..."). No more than 2 people (if that many) will be anywhere close. Point? Episode 1 either had no plot or hid it behind too-flashy effects.
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Neon-pain is the best description of that costume.
That thing was just freaky.
I'm not a Batman expert, but I think that's why Burton's movies are good. Batman is a little nuts. That's why he runs around beating up bad guys instead of marrying a supermodel. The Burton movies are what Batman feels like. He's rich and he can't enjoy it because he's obsessed with fighting crime. And maybe he wishes he has super powers, so he tries to fake them with cool stuff. That's mostly why I like Batman, he's about as crazy as his villans.
I'm an avid comic reader, and Batman: Year One is one of the best mainstream stories out there, but let's not forget that Miller also wrote Robocop II and Robocop III.
"Understand you're having a little Jimmy Page trouble."
Of course. Most people know next to nothing about the X-men, so the movie had to be made in a way to attractive your average movie goer.
It was on a Dell OptiPlex GX 110 with a T1 connection. Strange thing is, slower computers seem to run Javascript faster.
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
Not when I saw him at San Diego ComicCon two months ago. The original poster typo'd.
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When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
If you want to be like that, take a gander at mine.
10:45 - restate my assumptions: 1) The Riddler is the bane of all society. 2) Any super villan's actions can be represented and understood through numbers. 3)If you graph the locations of the riddler's crime points, patterns emerge. Therefore, the riddler does have a pattern.
Sheesh.
Sorry but IMHO this series should have been dead and buried after Tim Burton left.
Maybe this new director can breath life back into this rotting corpse of a series (I've never seen PI) but I'm not holding my breath.
After all, Jean-Pierre Jeunet of Delicatessen and City of Lost Children fame (two of my most favorite movies) was flown in to breath new life back into the Alien series with Alien: Resurrection and that was the worse piece I've seen in a while. Kind of makes you depressed, don't it?
I would imagine many movie execs would like to have a say in how the movie should be made.
Don't give in to the dark side and go see Way of the Gun instead.
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I wear pants.
Sure Miller has done some great comics, but he also wrote Robocop 3. So I'd say it would be wise not to get our hopes up that his classic work will be properly transported to the big screen. Scytle
The Pi soundtrack is just a compilation of so-called intelligent dance music from techno artists. You can find the soundtrack here.
If they use the same breed of music it would certainly make it more interesting to watch but no doubt there will be a push to use higher-profile artists in order to sell the soundtrack.
ian.
ian
Not to mention the amazing run he had on Daredevil with Klaus Jansen back in the 80's. If nothing else, this should be a pleasant return to the darker side of the dark knight.
Ain't that the shiznitz? The sequel will no doubt be based on Miller's seminal "Batman: Word!" or the less well-received "Batman: Keepin' it Real."
-- He's fantastic, made of plastic....
Robocop 3 was rewritten something like 7 or 11 times after it left Miller's hands. I remember that he tried suing to remove his name from the credits of the film.
I've seen Pi a million times, and it has opened up new avenues for my metaphysical studies. I can only hope he can bring some sort of "reality" back into Batman and make him once again the Dark Night, not some bozo in a stupid suit.
Maybe we DID take the blue pill. You wouldn't remember anyway.
I hope they include that scene where the Dark Knight gets his limbs chopped off, claiming that it's just a flesh wound.
Oh, Batman? Ick.
Didn't know that. Surprising given Miller's rabid anti-censorship stance that he would let himself be re-written.
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enterfornone - logging in for a change
*sigh* Frank Miller did not write Watchmen. Alan Moore did. And it would not RULE on the screen... it was too long and too complex to fit into two/three hours. Even Moore himself has said that the only format the series might fit into is some kind of miniseries, but even that would be a little too pathetic to match the art, story, and general genius that is Watchmen.
I attend San Diego ComicCon regularly. Back in '88 or '89 (when casting was complete and the movie was in production), Bob Kane, the inventor of Batman, did a panel. There was mass disappointment regarding Michael Keaton. And I admit I was a skeptic. So he talks on and on and someone asks him what he thinks about Keaton. There's laughter and boos, and then he replies. (I wish I could quote it, but that was a lot of years ago.)
He said to give Keaton a chance. Kane had been involved in the film, including working on the set, and was personally quite impressed with the job Keaton had been doing.
That was good enough for me. And when I saw the movie, I was more than satisfied. Keaton pulled off the psychological side of Batman perfectly: dark, brooding, almost borderline psycho.
Let's face it: there can be no ideal actor for Batman. HE'S A COMICBOOK CHARACTER! No one has that physique: that's why the rubber suit! You need an actor who can do a good job portraying Bruce Wayne who can also emote while he's wearing 40 lbs of rubber.
So what happened to the franchise? Jack Nicholson. Nothing bad about Jack's performance, it's just that the movie was written so that the star was The Joker, not The Dark Knight.
That started the trend. We then have THREE villain stars in the second movie with one totally unresolved plot, and again Batman is totally eclipsed. They should have removed Penguin and focused on Catwoman and Max Shreck. The third movie comes along AGAIN with two stars to eclipse Batman, the fourth movie stars Arnold. Give me a break!
Time after time the focus is on the bad guys, who invariably lose. Why do they bother calling the movies Batman? As for myself, I thought Arnold was the worst possible choice for Mr. Freeze as that villain had always been portrayed as a super scientist, not a muscle-bound Austrian. It had been rumored that Patrick Stewart might have played him: I would have been first in line to see that. As it was, I never saw #4. And I think I'm a better person for it.
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When you sympathize with stupidity, you start thinking like an idiot.
...will he do his special dance when he defeats the bad guy?
awesome hardcover by frank miller! about the spartans and stuff.... great colors by lynne varley too!
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And Justice for None
I didn't care about any of the characters in this movie because although Batman is a fantasy, you have to be able to relate to it in order to get something out of it. How can you do that when where everything happens looks like someone's interpretation of a nightmare? I found watching any of the Batman moves difficult - at least with Cooney they got a Batman that actually looks like a Batman.
Frank Miller is a plus, though, he really groks the Batman. Get the crew who did Superman I to do the next Batman - then we'll have a movie!
"Stop whining!" - Arnold, as Mr. Kimble
I don't think Frank Miller is much of a screenwriter. While Dark Knight and Year One are amongst my favourite comics of all time, I wasn't even that impressed with his other books. Robocop 2 and 3 sucked donkey balls, remember?
Come back Sam Hamm, all is forgiven!!
You know, I realise Clint Eastwood is a great actor and all, but I've never really liked any of his characters or movies.... but Eastwood as the voice of the Dark Knight is THE BEST PIECE OF CASTING I HAVE EVER HEARD!!! You are a genius - may I worship you?
In general, the longer series go on, the worse the movies get. Look at the IMDB's Bottom 100 and see how many have 2, 3 4 or more in the title.
Gimme a break. The core of The Matrix was a few philosophical ideas that ought to be obvious to any educated and halfway-intelligent person by the time they're a teenager. Certainly the idea shouldn't be at all novel to anyone who's spent any time reading SF, particlarly SF that deals with virtual reality.
The Matrix is a dumb-and-overly-slick action flick, and not much else. Maybe if it had been presented to me as such, I'd have liked it. But I heard so many people talking about how "deep" and "thought-provoking" it was that I expected something halfway intelligent.
You know, when I think about it, Year One really didn't have that much of a story... I mean, 90% of the drama seemed to centre of Jim Gordon, Bruce just did the action scenes :) The bulk of it was introspective narrative, IIRC. Not so good for Hollywood treament.
:(
The Dark Knight Returns, OTOH, would probably take a nine-hour miniseries to realise....
And how is this going to fit into the established continuity of the Batman movies? The Year One book and the Burton film seem to contradict each other a bit.... oh wait, I just remembered how Billy Dee Williams turned into Tommy Lee Jones, never mind....
Hmmm, they'd better not cast that fat tosser Pat Hingle as Gordon...
Of course, neither did I think it that good. It certainly didn't suck, but was simply mediocre. And having only seen it once, I followed the plot quite well. But to be honest, I waited until it came out on video, my local library purchased it and it made it out to my local library branch AND (this is likely why I followed the plot so well) I watched it with close captioning enabled.
Having a hearing impairment, I can't follow dialogue worth squat unless I turn the volume up loud enough to shake the house to its foundations.
I didn't find Jar Jar all that annoying either, but my guess is seeing his patois spelled out was less offensive to the asthete in me then hearing him speak.
Anyway, Phantom Menace was pretty predictable and George Lucas likes to hit people over the head with foreshadowing. I managed to pick the exact point in the film when things stopped going bad and got wrapped up for the 'feel good' ending. Not that this was a great accomplishment on my part, the ending was almost identical to the ending of Return of the Jedi.
However, taken for what it is, I rate the movie as being better written than the Matrix even though I found the Matrix much more enjoyable. The Phantom Menace at least captured my attention enough that I wouldn't mind a second viewing. I had fun watching the Matrix, but once was enough.
Power, ground, data, clock, what more do you need?
If we're going to cast someone as the Scarecrow, I've always felt Tom Petty had _the_ look to do it. Maybe not the voice though; anyone have better suggestions?
Batman will Trepan himself at the end of this movie?
...probably listens to They Might Be Giants all day. Speaking of TMBG, anyone know what song has the lyrics "Everybody needs to have a rock to tie a string around"?
"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
Are you kidding? You forget Frank Miller's Batman work perfectly personifies the essence of the "Dark Knight".
I think 'they' should put out the Watchmen as a movie. Miller really churned out a winner with that series, and it would RULE on the screen.
As much as I was disappointed with Wolverine in the X-Men movie, that guy would make a righteous Rorschach. Think about it, Hollywood!
-Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
Hey, I'm as much of a geek as the next guy (note the slashdot user number), but I thought Pi was stupid. The math in that movie tried to look sophisticated but it wouldn't even fool your grandma. Plus the movie was dumb, and boring.
Sounds like he might be the perfect directory for the next Batman movie. The Batman movies were equally dumb, but of course on a much grander scale. We're talking the kind of stupidity that only hollywood can generate.
What would really be interesting would be to see a Batman movie filmed in black and white.
Old-school B&W (not 'Film it in color and develop it in grayscale like Pleasantville was)would be the perfect way to go, especially considering the noirish 'Year One' story. It'll never happen though, WB wouldn't pay big bucks for a movie that x% of people wouldn't see just 'cuz it wasn't in color.
What TPTB should do is have many directors work on many short Batfilms and show them all on HBO. Give them lots of freedom, but not much budget and see what happens. I'd get HBO just for 'Martin Scorsese's Batman', or a 'Blair Witch'-style Batman from the POV of a street criminal.
"Bugger this, I want a better world." - Jenny Sparks
Emo Philips. ;)
...will work for Chick tracts...
After the last two movies, I wouldn't be surprised if they did include Arcade...
I'm on a chair.
IIRC, Catwoman's still got 1 life left (yay, get MP back in that catsuit!), and Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy are still alive, albeit in prison.
But that was a point for X-Men. Some of the reviews said stuff like "Oh, they've killed off some of the characters" and folks were getting all upset about their favourite comic-book chars dying in the first movie. Well - Toad gets lightninged, but may just be scorched (even in RL, you need a connection to the ground to be electrocuted, and he was in mid-air when he got hit) and Sabretooth has his fall broken by a boat (don't tell me that someone who can throw tree-trunks around can't take a fall). Definite potential, and maybe we'll get some more character development, esp from the bad guys! Admittedly it'd be difficult to reinstate Senator Kelly.
Incidentally, the X-Men website has "mutant reports" on Wolvie and Sabretooth, saying that there's some previous history between them. That does rather suggest that Sabretooth is coming back, since they didn't develop it at all in the film.
Grab.
> Does anyone know who the villain[s] will be?
Bah! It's high time they made a movie that's actually _about_Batman_, rather than a movie about a bat-villian. I think Frank Miller's primary accomplishment was reminding us that the true antagonist in the Batman saga is not an individual psychopath but is, in fact, Gotham City itself. Batman can be so much more than a modern cowboys & indians (Bat-clan vs. Arkham inmates) cliche. To show Bruce coming to the realization that humanity needs a protector in order to prevent it from feeding on itself would be to restore the sociological implications of the story that Tim Burton & company so blatantly ignored.
_If_ the movie actually gets made, I hope it stays true to the comic and presents the Gotham City Police Department as the eventual antagonist.
This WAS my teenage years.
I don't think Pi was startlingly great, but you're not reading it right. It was not attempting to be realistic, or to present the viewer with a Theory of Everything.
In fact, it was about how the kind of person who can't understand the world without an eschatological ToE (a rabbinical sect, a loony ex-mathemetician, and a paranoid, in this case) is essentially insane.
The math, the cabalistic name-of-god nonsense and bogus geometrical stock-market prediction, was metaphorical. It wasn't supposed to make sense to anyone but the main character in the story, and it only made sense to him because he was paranoid. The increasing complexity of the nonsense that made sense to him paralleled the mounting acuteness of his paranoia; its not continuing to make sense to the rest of us was the point. He hitched onto it and rode it to the end; we weren't supposed to, because we're not nuts.
When confronted with a piece of art which is full of obvious errors (Picasso didn't understand perspective; James Joyce had bad grammar; Schoenberg's melodies aren't memorable), it's wise to assume its maker knew what he was doing, and ask yourself why he did it. I know it's easier to say it's shitty and feel superior, though.
Your mouth is like Columbus Day.
Capt. Ron
crazy dynamite monkey
Let's not forget though that Frank Miller also penned Robocop 2 and 3 for the big screen.
I'm a major Frank fan when it comes to comic books, but this makes me nervous, because I'm also a major Batman fan.
The YO story also I don't see working very well with some of the old tricks from the former movies. Rubber suits are too gimmicky. Will they actually have a car? all the cave stuff and goofy gadgets?
I want this will be cool but I'll hold my breath until it actually happens. Bring in Matt Wagner too, that would be cool.
No sig for you!!
As for the Matrix, what more do you want? A... wonderful never-done-before plot
Never done before?
Let's forget the hundreds of books that deal with similar concepts. Let's forget all the talk of "virtual reality replacing real life" that dominated the early '90s.
No, let's go back to at least four independent inventions of the basic concept, three verifiably more than a millenia old and the fourth probably that old. Those of the Ancient Greeks (Plato, the Cave of Shadows), Chinese (Lao Tzu and the Butterfly Dream), Indians (Buddha and the nature of Existence), and Australian Aboriginies (originator unknown, the Dream).
Oh, and myself, who came up with the idea in the FREAKING THIRD GRADE! I had dreamed an entire school day, complete with homework assignments, without realizing it was a dream until people started looking at me funny the next day. And it's happened to me at least three more times in my life (it may have happened a few more with my dreaming a boring day that didn't have an effect on later days -- how would I know?) I wrote a very amateur short story as a sixth grader on the theme years before the Matrix came out.
Steven E. Ehrbar
That sounds like you're referring to the Elseworlds line (out-of-continuity stories placing some version of Batman in a different setting). The Batman Beyond series is set a few decades in the future (an elderly Bruce Wayne has reluctantly passed the mantle to Terry McGinnis).
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/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Batman is from the 30s. The really well-known campy Batman TV series (which was live action anyway) is from the 60s.
Of course, lots of modern comics are crap - Spawn, for instance. (which got made into a crappy movie, whaddya know)
Most good comics these days have virtually nothing to do with superheroes - I'd love to see a Thieves and Kings cartoon on TV, but most people don't associate comics with anything but superheroes anyway.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Star Wars was aimed at children. Fortunately, it involved themes that 'kids at heart' could get back in 1977. Hence, the whole world went nuts for the good/evil battle. Today we have kids/adults/teenagers that are so used to knock-offs of the original that we've become too jaded to see the good in it. Episode 1 was great for those younger than twelve who didn't yet have that 'I'm too cool for this' attitude.
As for the Matrix, what more do you want? A hacker-mentality movie with an absolute (and you have to agree) kick-ass soundtrack around a wonderful never-done-before plot and cool fight sequences (they should pay royalties to John Woo though..). The Matrix is a true tour-de-force on the senses, and the DVD set the standard (currently the best selling DVD of all time) of all DVDs to come after it. Its a real trip to go into the mindset that nothing you do means anything for two and a half hours.
Pi broke through the barriers of mathmatics being boring, intertwining the Jewish use of numbers as letters (and names) along with simple geometry and the stock market all in one. It worked on so many levels, and still manages to impress me on multiple viewings (the DVD kicks as too. Can you say TWO commentary tracks?). The ability to make such a low budget black and white film while still making it amazingly interesting and well written (could that ending BE any more shocking?), Pi is a great movie that most people have heard or expect too much out of. When you just take it for face value, the tempo and the mood and the pacing just take over.
I'm sorry if I pounced on your 'I'm to cool' attitude, but maybe you should go into films with lower expectations.
For all Frank Miller fans (you seem to be one) .. Robin was.. nevermind, wont spoil it for you if you want to read it :).
Get the Frank Miller leatherbound Batman book. It is probably 250 pages or more, of full page drawing with little one page poems and prose.
The most powerful tale of the dark knight I have ever seen.
Here's an entry for what I'm talking about:
Miller, Frank. The Complete Frank Miller Batman. 1st ed. Stamford: Longmeadow Press, 1989.
After reading this book, I'm sure that the effects and cinemtography of Pi will compliment and complete any movie bound version of a Frank Miller story. Of course
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I'm not sure if I'm thinking of the same concept, but I have a Batman story called (I think) Red Rain, which is a modern Batman vs. vampire story, set in a really cool Victorian-style context. Great art, really vivid colors and a neat story: Batman is visited by a woman who slowly turns him into a vampire in order to defeat Dracula, who is building an army of undead from the homeless and prostitutes of Gotham.
Anyway, my original point was that the introduction to the story said it would be part of a series of Batman stories set in dramatically different contexts than the "normal" Gotham -- Is that the Batman Beyond series? It would be neat to see more of those.
As for the movie, maybe it's time to retire the Batman movie franchise. I mean, Miller's Dark Knight is awesome and all, but maybe it's better on paper than as a Big Movie.
-schussat
The hour of noon has passed. Let us go and get some Kentucky Fried Chicken.
lf.o
I actually think that *The Dark Knight Returns* would be the better story line to do. I've always wanted to see that one done anime-style with a great voice cast. They need to have Clint Eastwood voice an older batman before he dies.
It's time that America produced an intelligent, engaging animated feature for adults, and *The Dark Knight Returns* is the perfect storyline with which to do it.
I'm glad they're getting an incredible director and an equally incredible writer to work on a comix film. While I'm kind of sick of previously published stories being turned into movies (Pi was so great, not only because it was a tight, well-done film, but also because it was an original story. WHen I took my Mom to see it, she asked what book it was based on, and I smiled when I told her it was an original screenplay), I think that Frank Miller's graphic novels, being so inherently visual (duh) and so good, would make a great film. Graphic novels are practically movie story boards, anyway.
I didn't like X-Men. I'd like to see a good comix film. Maybe this will be the one. Also, J Michael Straczynski's *Rising Stars* is supposed to be in the works as a film down the line. That would be good, too.
Think like a person of action, act like a person of thought. --H. Bergson
It was all Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I'd love to see it on the big screen as well, but give credit where credit is due.
Maybe this time, Batman will beat the bad guy by differentiating him.
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I just hope the new Batman won't be trying to solve math riddles
That's exactly what the new one is about. It seems that after The Riddler's last crushing defeat, he's been going to community college at night in an attempt to add something to his already extensive repertoire.
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Michael Keaton, where art thou?!
BOSTON SUCKS!
Aronofsky needed the money that bad, eh?
One of the many things I hate. thingsihate.org
True, but it was innovative and interesting! Darren Aronofsky (sp?) did a ver intersting job on that - intensity and edgy, and emotions and general craziness were portrayed claustrophobically as is the viewer was in the flawed hero's head. I liked that. Hollywood could do with a lot more of that.
I really hate this Hollywood-blockbuster-let's-make-this-thing-as-DUM BED-DOWN-as-possible mentality. Aronofsky will reverse that trend. And they're getting Neal Stephenson in on the act. Imagine what those two brains are going to come up with together.
Let's hope their creative juices aren't too diluted by corporate bullshit.
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NO TOUCH MONKEY!
To your last point: why did Pi have shitty lighting, in your opinion?
And to your first: have you ever seen Clean, Shaven by Lodge Kerrigan? That movie presented us with a paranoid and borderline personality and totally withheld judgement, allowing you to see clearly all the judgements imposed on him from the others in his life. In Pi, the filmmakers valorize the main character's illness. The movie kept pushing the question on us: insane paranoid, or genius? When the old math professor with the goldfish started in with his Icarus story, I wanted to leave. It's the oldest cliche in the book - that the search for knowledge leads to insanity or pain. That the filmmakers confused the main character's pain and insanity - which had an organic and physical basis - with some kind of shining genius was, I thought, just irresponsible and exploitative. And certainly not realistic, the other poster's complaint.
FBI agents, ancient goldfish, a quest for divine knowledge... bah. The guy needed medical attention.
+++ Chromalon.
I can't wait to see this...PI rocked my world....hopefully he'll take things back even more bizzare than Tim Burton did with the first movie.
-Julius X
-Julius X
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Sweeet!!!! That was one of Framk Miller's finest storie lines. I can't wait to see the film... I just really hope they don't screw this one up.
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But don't forget about Frank Miller! The Batman work he died was great...almost everything he's made I love. However, SinCity will always hold a special place in my heart:
Well, the good thing about B:Y1 is that it is most certainly NOT about neon-pain and nipple costumes. IIRC, the costume is barely even in it, and when Bruce (or whoever) makes the first costume, it looks like a 12-year-old made it. So we'll be spared the S&M-fetish version of the Bat, at the very least.
I'm interested - did you pull that bit about Picasso not understanding perspective out of your ass, or is my understanding of "talented draftsman" totally different from reality?
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Ah, wait - I figured out what you meant all on my own. I was just misreading your point, and in a way, proving it. Sorry about that.
-=Best Viewed Using [INLINE]=-
While I think it is excellent that they would like to do a Batman movie based off of Batman: Year One let's not forget that Frank Miller hasn't been at his best when writing Hollywood scripts. I remember being all excited when I heard he was writing Robocop 2, and that was utter crap (with a hanging ending to boot.) I am hoping that since the script is basically already written it will be better.
While I have read that people would like to see Dark Knight Returns as a film, would anyone be up for The Killing Joke? I think that that graphic novel is the finest Batman story written and I think if anyone could make a fabulous Batman movie it would be Alan Moore.
Thank god that the League of Extrodinary Gentlemen is being made...
yep, it's titled (oddly enough) "We Want a Rock" and is off of their 1990 Flood CD.
The pivotal "spooky" moment in the film, where the n-letter name of god (in the hebrew alphabet) was somehow supposed to translate to an n-digit base-10 number didn't fly. The dude who gave the go board a swirly before he went insane was laughable, and the cranial drill at the end was ho-hummer.
I hope this director does well with a budget.
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
I've always had a place in my heart for the series (and resulting movie) starring Adam West. Love those sound effects! Kapow! Kazaam! Wonk! My favourite line from Batman & Robin is where they land on the island and Robin proclaims "Holy rusty metal, Batman!" I laughed my ass off, I don't think anyone else in the theatre got the joke.
Needless to say, I've never been too impressed with the plots of the "recent" set of Batman movies. They're corny, but portrayed as serious. Bleah.
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
No more technicolor neon black light effect Batman movies!
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ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
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I think that that graphic novel is the finest Batman story written and I think if anyone could make a fabulous Batman movie it would be Alan Moore.
Except that because of the fact that DC(WB) told Alan Moore to take a flying leap over Twlight of the Superheros he left them in disgust. And after they took his beautiful concept, watered it down and turned it into Kingdom Come, I think the chances of involving one of the greatest writers of fiction in the 20th century are zero.
That being said, I have faith that as long as Frank Miller doesn't let some hack get ahold of his script (like RoboCop2 & 3), we'll see a fine fine film out of this.
Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
PI was the first movie made by and about wannabe nerds. This movie was so simple-minded and so poorly executed and so high on itself for no good reason. I am astonished that anyone liked it, especially /.ers that are as intolerant of poseurs as anyone.
When I saw the movie (which was excellent, by the way), I was never under the impression that the math was anything other than gobbledygook.
-- $SIGNATURE
I think 'they' should put out the Watchmen as a movie. Miller really churned out a winner with that series, and it would RULE on the screen.
Not to pick nits, bu that was Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Wu-Tang Name: Half-Cut Skeleton Get your own Wu-Na
Well, I'm going to go ahead and count the chickens before they're hatched, and say that bringing this kind of director in is a triumph for the adult fans of comics everywhere. I'd imagine the high gross of the well-adapted X-men kinda convinced Warner, Inc. to keep away from the neon-pain and nipple-costume Batman deisgn concepts.
Of course, I'm going to be wary, because those behind the WB shield have the incredible ability to fuck something up. I'll survive on 'Return of the Joker' and let the news for this one pass...
--
Feminism is the wild notion that women are human beings.
What would really be interesting would be to see a Batman movie filmed in black and white. I think it would really go hand in hand with the dark, shadowy setting of Gotham city, and it would serve as a excellent counterpoint to the neon-tinged 'Batman and Robin'.
have really ended up a disappointment so far. I'm hoping this is an improvement. I don't want to rant too much, but killing off every major villain was never a smart move on the part of the people behind the previous movies. Especially joker! One of the things that really impressed me with X-Men was that they left the possibility of all of the villains making returns in later movies. Batman was working towards only having scarecrow and arcade left to kill.
I'm on a chair.
I wonder if Bruce Wayne will use a drill to rid himself of the demons which are chasing him?
Tim Burton come back and feature Howard Stern as the Scarecrow. 'Course that's a little pipe dream that many fans of the first 1 1/2 movies (bat 2 only gets 1/2 and thats for putting Mischelle Pfieffer in a rubber cat suit) have been nuturing ever since the early 90's.
Pi was ok, but a bit disjointed, and amateurish. I think that Burton did a perfect Batman, and I personally doubt the new ones will be as good as his. Burton's were more about the 'Dark Knight' than 'Batman', per se, which is what made the movies so damn cool. I just hope the new Batman won't be trying to solve math riddles...
Pi was pretentious tat.
I quite liked the soundtrack, but the acting, script and direction were all way, way overdone.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the odd arty film, but I don't think Pi had much to offer.
Never mind, it's not as if I would have gone to see the Batman film anyway :-)
Matthew.Will the next Batman movie be called "Batman 3.14159..."?
but what about the stock market????
Every single batman movie has been progresively worse than the one before it. The first one was hands down the best. I think this in part because the movies slowly began to turn more cartoonish and were less and less gothic/dark. In the first one Jack Nicholson played a Joker that really changed our perceptions of a villain that had been around for decades. I though Michael Keaton was a bad choice for the part of Batmen but I was proved wrong and to this day he is the best Batman ever. The second movie was pretty good. A little over the top and looked more fake than gothic. Dany Devito just can't compete with Jack Nicholson. Michelle Pfeifer was prety good as cat woman I always peceived cat woman as a tall brunette though. But every once in a while stupic stuff would happen in the movie like when cat woman starts licking herself. that was just silly. The third movie again was more cartoonish than the second one but it still retained some of the darkness of the dark knight. Val Kilmer was ok as Batman. He seemed to match the part than Michael Keaton but the only problem is that Val Kilmer is not such a good actor. The real problem with the movie was casting Jim Carey as the riddler. He played the riddler more like a hysterical idiot tan anything else whereas the riddle r is supposed to be one of the smartestvillains that Btman ever encouters. The fourth movie was so terrible and cartoonish that i deserves nothing more than to be mentioned. All i can say is that i hope that the new infusion of more independent film talent will take away the layers of cheese that have been slowly been adde to the Batman movies until the point where Arnold Shawrzenidiot gets to play a part. Pi was a good solid movie witha few problems but I am sure we can all see how adding the ddirector of this movie will bring some life to what is now the tired Batman series.
since the Batman role is usually played by someone who was rececently famous but is slowly declining each time a movie is made, there is only one logical pick for the next Batman.
Richard Hatch from Survivor.
I can hear him taunting a 3rd-rate supervillan already...and he'll finally get those muscles he has always wanted (albiet they'll be part of the suit).
Who's ready to hear Batman yell "Let's get naked and walk around on the beach, Robin?"
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Let me give you the lowdown
"Anyone that has ever gotten an idea based on any of my work and done something better with it-good for you."--J.Carmack
You all remember how dark the first movie was, and me as a kid I remember just being absolutely enthralled with the retro-modern look that Tim Burton created.
As a kid? Man...thank you very much - that statement there just made me feel VERY old.
IMHO Pi was *terrible*. I couldn't finish watching it. It drove me crazy watching bad mathmatics combined with mysticism combined with bad technology combined with pure bullshit. I'm sorry but 99% of the time I see science and mysticism mixed it's done horribly. I'm a fan of both Sci-Fi and fantasy but when they're mixed poorly it stands out quite obviously.
For those of you who didn't pick up on the "mysticism" I'm referring to I'm talking about that special "magic number" that kept popping up and that handy geometric shape (the spiral) that had amazing results when plotted on a page of stock market listings. The easiest and most glaring error in all that is that each paper prints the stocks a little differently (position, layout, etc..) so there's no mathmetical reason why plotting some shape against the paper would have any special result. In my view that's mysticism and they never really bothered to explain it, just tried to hide it in fake mathematics.
Anyway. Done ranting.
-Zane
This sig is worse than my last.
Frank Miller is the man. The Dark Knight Returns comes to mind, as well as Year One.... the two best interpretations of Batman ever, AFAIC.
Let's hope the movie is better than Robocop 3 though (also penned by Miller)...
``Year One'' was about Commissioner Gordon's first year in Gotham. I wonder how they're gonna work batman into this one.
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You all remember how dark the first movie was, and me as a kid I remember just being absolutely enthralled with the retro-modern look that Tim Burton created.
I would like to see them create live action based on *a lot* of plots. For instance I think the newer Batman Beyond has taken some cool dark themes (BM murdering Com. Gordon)... and I also remember some *brilliantly* dark stories written by guest authors in a book I read once (btw... anyone know what book that was? not a comic, but guest authors writing BM stories)...
However, if the story inferrs that this movie is going to be the beginning of the legacy, then I'm all for it... what a great timeless story... how this man came to be after the murder of his parents. It has inspired countless generations.
Technology. It's always been rather unrealistic. But the one thing I loved about PI was his convincing portrayal of fictional math. The stuff didn't make sense at all after some thought, but *damn* you sure thought it did.
Perhaps he will take a cool technology edge to BM?
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Let this be better then Batman and Robin... I don't see how it could be any worse.
Goddarn, that's one of the better batman series ever. Finally a movie dealing with the hairy part of character growth, the early years... now all we need is the dark night returns... maybe later.
The whole reason the Batman franchise started to fall apart was because they tried to make it campy like the t.v. series.
Batman is a dark and gothic character and for it to be done well it has to be told like that.
I especially like the "Year one" series as it portrays batman as a little bit of a lunatic..
it kinda goes into how crazy a guy has to be to put on a bat costume and go and fight crime.
Although it's going to screw up their cat-woman character..
since in year one she's a professional dom.