V for Vendetta Going to Hollywood

gludington writes "Alan Moore's "other" early masterpiece, V for Vendetta, is in early pre-production. Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers will produce for Warner Brothers, and Natalie Portman will play Evey Hammond. The rest of the movie is as yet uncast (and unwritten), so release dates on the article and the imdb entry should be taken with a sizable grain of salt."

Comments

What is Vendetta?

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh. Call me stupid, but what the hell is Vendetta? And why is Slashdot posting blurbs about random movies all the time these days without, you know, offering a sentence explaining what the fuck said movie has to do with anything?

Re:What is Vendetta?

[dynamo_mikey]

Okay, Stupid. RTFA.

From said article: "Synopsis: A powerful story about loss of freedom and individuality, V for Vendetta takes place in a totalitarian England following a devastating war that changed the face of the planet. In a world without political freedom, personal freedom and precious little faith in anything comes a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask who fights political oppressors through terrorism and seemingly absurd acts. It's a gripping tale of the blurred lines between ideological good and evil."

and furthermore: "An adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel of the same name, the action-heavy script was written by the "Matrix" writers."

Re:What is Vendetta?

[lukewarmfusion]

I'm going to take the opportunity to respond to one thing you said while ignoring most of the troll portion:

"grow up and realize that Sailor Moon and X-Men are not literature"

While I agree that most "comics" are not literature, there is a fine distinction between comics as entertainment and comics as art form. A good friend of mine presented his graphic arts thesis - a four foot high series of comic panels. I don't like the word comic because it naturally implies humor. So the term I've started to use is "graphic novels."

I don't consider serials or regular comic books to be graphic novels. But looking at something like the Pulitzer Prize winning Maus by Art Spiegelman, you see that it's not all funny or action-related. I read that when I was in seventh grade, just a year after it came out. I picked it up thinking it was a comic book... it's not.

I just read Blankets by Craig Thompson. I got sucked in and a few hours later it was all over. Most normal books don't have the emotional impact that his work does.

Graphic novels try to bridge the gap between literature and visual art. It's not often that they really succeed, but when they do it can be far more effective than a regular novel.

Re:You KNOW Hollywood Will Screw It Up

[Wandering Wombat]

I have faith that there are enough people in Hollywood who violently admire the Watchmen movie to make sure it stays roughly true to the story. If they don't, we'll find out just how many people in the rest of the world feel the same way. :)

Please don't butcher this, please.

[dominion]

I really hope they don't fuck with the storyline and the politics of this classic. Alan Moore is one of my favorite political writers, and it'd be a shame if this is given the same treatment as "From Hell" was.

If you don't know, V for Vendetta was about an anarchist (in the classical theoretical sense, not the bs modern punk rock sense) revolutionary who uses "terrorist" tactics to save Britain from fascism. It's not something that I see Hollywood understanding, even though I think most people would understand why the tactics were used, and the politics behind them.

In the book, V straddles the line between anarchist and vanguard, taking actions into his own hands, but with the express purpose of encouraging the people to fight back. It's not about an anarcho-socialist utopia, it recognizes the compromises that an anarchist would have to make in dire circumstances.

And ultimately, it's really, really fucking cool. Please, hollywood, please don't fuck it up.

Re:Please don't butcher this, please.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, they are.

1)From what I've read, the Norsemen are now Nazis.
2)There was no WWIII, instead only WWII with a hang over for 60 years.
3)We'll be lucky if they say "Remember remember" ever. You know, us stupid americans never learn anything about another culture. [for the un knowning, this is a story on "Guy Fox"(I know, not right spelling, but now we will be able to sound it out)]
4)Oh, and we still won't know how "The Vicious Caberet" will sound like.
5)and last but not least, I know they like the story, but it's perfect the way it is.

But that's my two cents.
{and I'm not posting ac becuse I want to, I just forgot my lp Mr. Bubbles712)

Re:You KNOW Hollywood Will Screw It Up

[oDelicious]

Agreed. They've having this comics frenzy at the moment which was fine as long as the victims were spider-man, x-men and other daredevil (one fucked up movie!). Also, the league of extraordinay gentlemen, average comic book, terrible movie, no problem. But now, sin city? (good please dont let them screw that one), V for Vendetta? (with Portman?nooooooo) and even scarier, the WATCHMEN??? please tell me who in hollywood is able to make a watchmen movie that will satisfy the readers expectations! About V for Vendetta, the W brothers have shown us their talent in Matrix (revolution.. yeah right) ad the third one (can't remember the title). As we say in French, it's giving jam to pigs...

Wachowski Brothers Hacks?

[JMPrice]

The jury is still out, but the Wachowski brothers have been accused of plagiarizing a woman's material for the Matrix series.

Article Link

A note on screenplays past

[dionwr]

Being a fringe movie geek, I often get a chance to read unproduced screenplays. Sometimes, it is possible to see the train hurtling towards the bridge that is out way before they ever turn on a camera. "League of Extraordinary Gentleman" was like that. There have been two screenplays for "V" that have floated around Hollywood in the last ten years. One of them, completely ghastly, turned "V" into a superhero fighting an evil world dictatorship. The surprise twist was that "V" turned out, in that version, to be the evil world dictator, himself. I don't know who wrote it, but it was truly awful. His acts of terrorism were very carefully done so as to kill no innocents. That was NOT what Moore wrote. The other version, while not as completely putrid, suffered by trying to bring genetic engineering and super-science into the mix, and make it a more science-fictiony sorta story. It also watered down the terrorism and V's utter, insane ruthlessness. The movie already exists, in my mind if no where else. Buy the graphic novel and read it. If Hollywood was smart (always an open proposition) they would use it as storyboards and shoot it, as written by Alan Moore. But remember, Hollywood is the place that gave us the Will Smith "I, Robot" rather than the Harlan Ellison version.