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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."
A little salt is just the thing to liven up a bowl of hot grits.
You know what?
The real challange is to see which sucks more, this or the movie version of Watchman.
- Crow T. Trollbot
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?
So there will be Calvinist overtones divided into three parts, the first of which will be revolutionary and mind-blowing. The second will be an advancement, more action, have lots of confusing theology, and twins (albino). The third part of the movie will suck...but have the longest "die already!!!" scene ever.
Oh, and due to the whole pandering-to-the-audience thing they seem to be infamous for, there will be a scene with Portman and hot grits.
...and create a subdomain "hotgrits.slashdot.org" so these stories can go about their ignoble-comment-collecting business.
... well, proof that hope springs eternal, I guess, but not much else.
I mean, I'm a Natalie fan, too, but posting anything remotely relating to her *here* and expecting a meaningful discussion is
Xentax
You shouldn't verb words.
Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers will produce for Warner Brothers
Don't you mean the Wachowski Siblings?
Hm....
On the one hand, this is one of my all-time favorite graphic novels. I would love it if more people became aware of it.
But on the other hand, I just know it's going to get butchered. The Wachowskis had a chance to tell a subtle and ponderous story in The Matrix and they completely blew it.
I need to read this quick so I'll know what to hate about the movie when it comes out!
Thinkin' Lincoln - a web comic of presidential proportions
Alright, one liners for Larry/Linda:
If that's what the blue pill does to you, I'll take the red pill ANY day.
Even if he looks as good as that lady in the red dress, I still wouldn't want to arrange a meeting.
How does he know what chicken tastes like...oh, nevermind.
I can only show you the closet door, you must come out of it on your own.
If he's the guide, I really don't think I want to find out how far his rabbit hole goes.
The matrix used a lot of console-based stuff, but I bet if he had his way, there'd be a lot of click and Drag.
Hey isn't he signing up to do the next Transformers movie? Certainly more than meets the eye.
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.
I was just reading through V for Vendetta again yesterday, and fear that they will mess this one up quite bad. "From Hell" didn't go particulary well, but it has a quite complex storyline and many characters, and in the movie some characters were merged in to one, trying to be less confusing.
V might have a simpler story line, but the mood the drawings set is so much more important. Have a look at some of the panels to see what I mean.
But oh, it would be nice if they could pull it off, though.
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
Perhaps the mention of Natalie Portman makes it "news for nerds?"
... I'd love to defend Hollywood. But I know it's shit, so what's the point.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Natalie Portman is Evey is unexpected but perfect casting.
She actually played a similar role in her first movie, the brilliant Leon (aka The Professional). Both Evey in V and Mathilda in Leon are young girls forced to grow up before their time by the harsh world they live in, and who form an intimate relationship with a cold blooded but sympathetic killer.
a world in progress...
...You may remember me from such movies as "M is for Murderousness"...
I wonder if it will be released before Bush gets out of office.
On a similar thread, I wonder if the political/philosophical background will be changed to suit mass audience demographics. Telling the public they are responsible for their own problems usually doesn't go over too well with them.
A terrorist is someone who uses terror to influence others. The plot to blow up Hitler wasn't a terrorist thing, they just wanted Hitler dead. Lee Harvery Oswald wasn't a terrorist.
By the strict definition V isn't a terrorist as he aims to destroy the regime not terrorise it until it gives up. He does, however, use terrorist techniques and does scare the people in power, but his main aim is to pull the common people out of their complacency by using shock tactics.
The problem I see with this movie is that the original storyline may not seem particularly amusing for the current political and moral environment.
Right now the preview says: "a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask who fights political oppressors through terrorism and seemingly absurd acts", but this description doesn't fit the darker spirit of the original.
While the description does mention terrorism, V is much more complex than that, as described in several reviews and analysis, like this one. Thus I'm expecting that along the road, V will be transformed into some kind of "masked avenger" or Batman-like superhero, better suited for the post-9/11 era.
I don't expect the movie to portrait V blowing up government buildings, killing policemen and a priest, questioning Justice and promoting Anarchy, like in the original. So, what's the point of adapting it? If these Wachowski guys want some story about oppression, they'd be better off adapting Cinderella for that matter.
If it's changed in such a way, it will be ironic that a story that shows a world of totalitarianism and lack of freedom won't be translated verbatim into another medium because of issues with "political correctness".
- Otaku no naka no otaku, otaking da!!!
The jury is still out, but the Wachowski brothers have been accused of plagiarizing a woman's material for the Matrix series.
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There was a time when these movies had not been made. There was just you and the comics. And life was good.
After these movies are made, there will still be you and the comics. Life will still be good.
There was a time when there was a bad movie in the theaters, but you did not go see it, and you did not suffer. Life was good.
There was also a time when there was a bad movie, and you did go see it, and you did suffer. But then the movie was over, and life was good again.
These movies can't "ruin" anything, since the comic still exists, and your enjoment of it was uninformed by the yet-unmade movie you fear so much.
Try not to get too worked up over a problem you simply do not have.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
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.
Make a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.