Comic book movies -- the other discussion
Jul. 17th, 2008 08:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newmanSo, over in his LJ my friend Justin raised the question "What comic book(s) do you think would make a good movie? Feel free to assume that it's a competent adaptation, not a hatchet job, but assume that it has to fit into the usual constraints of a movie: about two hours, and has to be able to make enough money to be worth its budget".
In terms of adaptations, novels often make poor source material for films. Even a long movie has trouble fitting in all of the elements that make a novel appealing. Short stories and novellas work pretty well, as do plays, which are already about move-length. Comic books are often serialized novels, taking months or years of issues to complete a story arc. While individual issues (or short collections of issues) might make good films, there are some that just shouldn't be done — either because of reasons of length, or because a good comic book is more than just a storyboard.
Wanted is a prime example of this. It was a fine movie, but it had nothing to do with the comic book. The comic book was a dark, loving, homage to the two great houses in the comic book world, and, if it had been translated to screen accurately, most of America would have said "huh?". Better to have left it on the comic book page — or do what they did, which is the equivalent of never having attempted an adaptation.
There's been a great interest in a Sandman movie or a Watchman movie. I'd happily pass a law declaring these sources off-limits to Hollywood. The adaptation isn't going to to do the inspiration justice.
What comics are simply better as comic books? What comics don't want to be adapted to the big screen? Most of the ones I can think of are comics about comics (Wanted, for example -- but I can think of others). Thoughts?
In terms of adaptations, novels often make poor source material for films. Even a long movie has trouble fitting in all of the elements that make a novel appealing. Short stories and novellas work pretty well, as do plays, which are already about move-length. Comic books are often serialized novels, taking months or years of issues to complete a story arc. While individual issues (or short collections of issues) might make good films, there are some that just shouldn't be done — either because of reasons of length, or because a good comic book is more than just a storyboard.
Wanted is a prime example of this. It was a fine movie, but it had nothing to do with the comic book. The comic book was a dark, loving, homage to the two great houses in the comic book world, and, if it had been translated to screen accurately, most of America would have said "huh?". Better to have left it on the comic book page — or do what they did, which is the equivalent of never having attempted an adaptation.
There's been a great interest in a Sandman movie or a Watchman movie. I'd happily pass a law declaring these sources off-limits to Hollywood. The adaptation isn't going to to do the inspiration justice.
What comics are simply better as comic books? What comics don't want to be adapted to the big screen? Most of the ones I can think of are comics about comics (Wanted, for example -- but I can think of others). Thoughts?
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Date: 2008-07-17 01:28 pm (UTC)Usagi Yojimbo springs to mind as something that would lose it's charm and look ridiculous on screen.Any of Matt Howarth's stuff would have to be too compromised to go on screen. Pedro and me doesn't seem terribly adaptable , but then again.I wouldn't have thought Pekar's stuff could be done either
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Date: 2008-07-21 08:40 pm (UTC)Hmm. I don't know if I agree -- I actually suspect that a faithful animated adaptation of a story like Grasscutter could work fairly well. Live-action or CGI would be a *total* disaster, but I think it's decently suited to traditional animation.
However:
Any of Matt Howarth's stuff would have to be too compromised to go on screen.
I would go further, and say "butchered". The *closest* Howarth has ever come to filmable is probably the Post Bros, and that would probably be terrible; Keif Llama would be ridiculous.
(Although, now that I think of it, Keif Llama could actually be great for little ten-minute shorts: the sort of thing that used to show up on Liquid Television and now shows up on YouTube. Again would absolutely, positively have to be animated, but it actually might just work in the right form-factor...)