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'Bourne' Director to take on Watchmen
Here's one of those mixed blessing stories: Paul Greengrass, the director of the Bourne Supremacy has been tapped to direct a film based on The Watchmen, one of the greatest comics ever made. No word on if Paul plans to add Tom Sawyer to the cast.
I first heard about The Watchmen through my g/f this year as it is on the required readings list for one of her English courses at Queen's University in Ontario. I'm looking to reading it during the Christmas break this year, as she really enjoys the book. Thought it was kinda cool to be doing literary analysis of a comic in a university English course. Also great seeing more comic books come to life on screen.. lets hope this one will be better than some of the latest ones that have come out--I won't mention any names as to hold back the flames.
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One of Watchmen's great strengths is its interconnections. How is Hollywood NOT going to screw that up? I mean, movies like Memento are a rarity.
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
Have you noticed how Alan Moore's comics tend to be a little skruffy in movie form?
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell weren't exactly the greatest movies every made.
"Darren Aronofsky? I'm on the phone NOW!" said Law, clearly excited. "Adrian Veidt, King of Kings!" And then, as if to show off his Watchmen fanboy credentials, he whispered conspiratorially. "I'm tattooed with Rorschach, did you know that?"
If Greengrass finds a camera man who doesn't suffer from non-stop epileptic seizures, I'm cool with it.
There's a reason Terry Guilliam opted out of working on a film adaptation of Watchmen. The man stated in a book dedicated to Moore's fiftieth birthday that he drew comfort from the fact that he wouldnt' be the one to fuck over the work.
:(
This is Watchmen. This ain't spiderman, this ain't X-men, this ain't dime-store fluff. This is one of the greatest works in the genre and an absolute masterpiece of the superhero medium.
And Guilliam is on the record as being happy he won't be the one to fuck it over. Paul Greengrass has stepped up to the plate, proving he has some sort of perverse urge to alienate pretty much everyone who's ever read the book.
Watchmen can't be done in 90-120 minutes with Big Name Actors. Leastwise, it can't be done right, and if it can't be done right, it shouldn't be done at all.
The thing that worries me is the "based on" bit - just as "StarShip Troopers" was "based on" the book by Robert Heinlein - in that some of the character names were used, but that's about it.
If Watchmen the movie is "based on" Watchmen the graphic novel in the same way, I suggest installing seat belts in all the theaters to prevent the audience from being pulled from their seats by the suction of the movie.
If, on the other hand, this movie is a reasonably faithful rendition of the graphic novel... then count me in.
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What's next??? V For Vendetta starring Vin Diesel?? The Rock IS The Sandman... *gag* *wretch* *puke*
For those of you who haven't heard of Watchmen before, or haven't read it - you should. This is one of the works that really showed just how well comics could tell adult stories and be more than spandex and capes.
[insert sig file here]
Greatest is always subjective in that sense - however the fact that you are poorly read in the genre in no way effects the greatness of the work.
I've seen very few chick flicks, but some of them might be considered great by those that enjoy.
UNless your name is 'comic book guy' I frankly dont give a fuck if you think the watchmen was a great comic or not. And even then - I probably wouldn't give a fuck as you'd be claiming pokemon 12 with the foil back cover and the accidental nipple on panel 4, page 12 was the greatest comic ever.
Damn - ranting and swearing again! Why am I here?
Because it's a jealously guarded secret. If it were to slip into popular culture and everyone knew about it then it would become a UPN television series starring beautiful twenty-somethings portraying beautiful teenage versions of the characters in the comic book. To transcend it's own genre it would have to be cheapened and it's just not worth the risk.
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Despite the major labels use of the word "greatest" in place of the term "best known," they are not synonymous. It is actually sadly rare that the greatest of anything (at least, anything artistic) is remotely well-known. I'm sure that many copies will eventually be sold of "Britney Spears' Greatest Hits," but none of those hits will be great - unlike much of Guided by Voices' ouvre, none of which is a hit.
On a different note, I suggest you read The Watchmen.
November 23,2004
This city fears me, because I have seen its true face. The Hollywood people want to tell my story. They think they can tell my story? No one can tell my story. No one except me.
In the past there were men who could tell my story. Men like my father or President Eisenhower. But that was before the lawyers and the pornographers and the bleeding heart teachers took over.
Now the smell of their corruption is in the air, polluting everything with their filth and their pornography and their so-called civil liberties.
But their reign will not last. There will be war soon. A Great War sewwping over everything like a storm. And it will wash away the stench and corruption of Hollywood, Las Vegas, New York and all the other cesspools of this country.
And, in their desperation, the people will look up to me an beg me for their help.
And I will look down and I will say
"No."
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
Who will watch the watchmen?
When this happens, please do the right thing and save us the trouble of having to hunting you down.
It's not going to happen, but I think the only way to do Watchmen is as a trilogy. There's just too much information to fit into a traditional Hollywood three act structure.
The first movie deals with romance between Laurie and Dan
Sets up Rorsharch's serial killer conspiracy.
Ends with Dr. Manhattan leaving earth and Rorscharch's arrest.
The second deals with Rorsharch's psychosis
Shows Laurie's appeal to Dr. Manhattan on Mars
Ends with the realization Ozymandias is behind things
The third focuses on the complex resolution of Ozy's plan
Resolves with Dan and Laurie's happy relationship
Has a scene post-credits that portrays the cliff-hanger of Rorscharch's diary.
1. V for Vendetta
2. Watchmen
I can't think of anything that I'd put anywhere close to those two.
I've said it previously on Slashdot (in someone's journal, if I remember correctly) but V for Vendetta would make a great movie. The only problem is that movies that have a terrorist attacking the machinery of a fascist state aren't exactly easy to sell in today's political climate.
Seriously, if you haven't read V for Vendetta (or Watchmen) then do whatever you have to to do so. I found copies of both at my library recently, together with a whole bunch of great graphic novels. which totally blew me away. Even the librarian who checked out my books remarked at how much she'd enjoyed them.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Strikes Back on the big screen seems more appropriate.
Think about it.
And the number 1 question:
Rorschach should instead be cast with William H. Macy. I've always been impressed with Macy, and I think that with appropriate study he could bring the role to striking life. Rorschach was a man under intense self control, which in my opinion Macy has striven for in several of his prior roles.
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
It sounds like picking up "The Watchmen" as a way to start/renew reading comics(1) may be a bad thing.(2) If it is indeed "the greatest" comicbook,(3) then anything else in the genre won't be as good(4) and you'll probably tire of the genre pretty fast, having sampled its best.(5)
(1)I did.
(2)It was.
(3)It is.
(4)It wasn't.
(5)I did.
The Watchmen is the only comic book story I've ever seen which had to be told in a comic book, because no other medium could do the work justice. It wasn't just a great story which was told through comics, it was a complete work of art which would not be nearly as compelling in any other form.
For example, the comic-within-the-comic that wove through the story. The panels of the kid's pirate comic were juxtaposed agaist the scenes on the street where he was reading it, describing the emotional context of both images as if it could have been the narration box for either scene. Even Terry Gilliam, who briefly considered making a Watchmen film, understood that you could never make something like that work in a motion picture.
The clippings of fictional periodicals which provided much of the depth of the world were also something which could only be done in a comic-book format.
Furthermore, the writers of some of those periodicals, as well as the writer of the pirate comic, were extremely important characters to the narrative, who we got to know almost exclusively through "their" writings. Genius!
The Watchmen will probably continue to stand alone as the most ground-breaking and important work in an art-form which is usually very crass and disposable.
The film however... Let's face it: It probably won't get made, and if it does it will probably suck.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Gee, thanks!
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