Preacher...

[fajrdrako]

I just read on Warren Ellis' blog that they're making a TV series based on Garth Ennis' comic Preacher.

How? Seems to me it's perfect for the comic book form... I can't picture it as a TV show. A failure of my imagination, no doubt. I know HBO does some outre stuff, but still.... Especially if Mark Steven Johnson is writing it - based on what I've seen from him in the past, I suspect he couldn't even understand what Preacher is about, though I may be misjudging. Is is fairly visceral. He probably gets that.

I guess television really isn't what it used to be. I see from the Wikipedia article that they'd once thought of making Preacher into a movie with James Marsden playing Custer. That would have been cool.

Comments

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

I heard something weirder - they're making a comic book of Wuthering Heights. Why??

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Why indeed? Do you know who is doing it? Or attempting to do it? Anyone talented?

It's like the idea behind the old "Classics Illustrated" - which in my opinion resulted in really bad comics and really pathetic adaptations of what were originally good novels. But the series is highly regarded by collectors, and I have a good friend who has conscientiously collected them all. I have never told her I think they're substandard.

They were good as variations of Cliff's Notes or Coles' notes or whatever, I suppose. But I wouldn't want to depend on them in any exam.

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

Sorry, no idea. I read it in an article in the Times about the Bronte rights.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Could be anyone, then! Well, I'll keep my eyes open for it, just out of curiosity, even if I'm prepared to run the other way.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

they're making a TV series based on Garth Ennis' comic Preacher.

Very strange. Can't think that it would work. Though, to be honest, I've never managed to explain the fascination it holds for me in comic book form.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Can't think that it would work.

I don't think so either. I just can't imagine it....

I've never managed to explain the fascination it holds for me in comic book form.

Well, it was a fascinating comic - original, well written, full of impact (not to mention shock value!) and interesting characterization. I just don't think it would work as a TV series, though. It isn't adaptable to other forms ... It is what it is.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I expect it'd work better in TV form than in movie form, to be honest--or at least that it would require much less in the way of distortion. TV's a naturally episodic format, and (especially with the prevalence of DVDs and other rewindable media)[1] there's much more of a chance to let something build slowly, and tie things in and back and through.

This is invaluable for actually suspending people's disbelief. I figure that if you had to fit Genesis, Custer, Tulip, Cassidy, and the Saint of Killers into a two-hour movie, then (a) it wouldn't fit well--if you just read all the dialogue in the first seven issues aloud, I suspect you'd go over two hours, and that's not even counting time for spaces between lines--and (b) around the time (I'm guessing twenty minutes in) it was confirmed that you had metaphysical spawn symbiotically possessing a preacher *and* a hundred-year-old Irish vampire, most of the audience would have written it off as a bad job (which is a shame, as they would be in no fit frame of mind to appreciate the Saint of Killers).

Brief related note: Movies that are referring to something outside the immediate story toss in little references to please the viewers who know that story (Wolverine's joke about yellow spandex in X-Men, or Sean Beane's "Still sharp." in LotR) and let it go. TV shows have a chance to drop it into the background and come back to it; the slow build of character and plot in /Deadwood/ is something I don't think I've ever seen equalled in a movie. (The fact that you're looking at a dozen hours a season may have something to do with this.)
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[1] Which strikes me as giving the viewer the same broad access to the material that you can get in a graphic novel, which still seem to be beating the hell out of the paphlet form, tangent.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I expect it'd work better in TV form than in movie form, to be honest--

Oh, definitely - it is serial fiction. A movie might cope with a story arc, or a part of a story arc, but the whole thing needs scope to make any sense at all.

I really must find a way to get to watch Deadwood.

What we need, in my opinion, is good movies and TV shows based on comics. Heroes is good, int he right ways. Most comic-based movies aren't and even some that are halfway successful - say, John Constantine still generally aren't what they really should be. I don't mean that Keanu Reeves did a bad job, or that they shouldn't have rewritten Constantine, I mean that the story was less substantial than it should have been.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

There are several. Ghost World, A History of Violence, and Road to Perdition spring immediately to mind.

...of course, very few people seem to know that all those are based on comics.

I've found that the Spiderman and first two X-Men movies that came out recently to fall firmly in the "good" category, and other superhero movies have been at least decent of late (with a very few sad exceptions).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ghost World, A History of Violence, and Road to Perdition spring immediately to mind.

Which I haven't seen. Must do something about that!

Though Unbreakable was not based on a comic book, I consider it a comic book movie, and it was excellent.

I've found that the Spiderman and first two X-Men movies that came out recently to fall firmly in the "good" category,

Mmm. Yes. They didn't lived up to the quality of the comics at their best but they certainly made watchable, entertaining movies that were neither embarrassing nor superficial. I would put "Constantine" and "The Punisher" in this category, too - the 2004 version, not the 1989 version. There is another group of movies that, though mediocre, had good moments, decent characterization, good special effects and weren't excruciating - like "Fantastic Four" - mediocre, but not bad. In all these cases, the scripts have been at least a little bit disappointing. Then there are movies like the Ang Lee "Hulk" and "Daredevil" that still had there moments but were really quite disappointing, not capturing the potential quality of the material at all.

I'd love to see a movie based on "Love and Rockets". I've been hearing rumous about a "Bone" movie, do you think that will come to anything? "Akiko" too would make a wonderful animated movie.

I suppose I would really love to see good movies about my favourite characters - well cast, well written, tense and action-filled stories with lots of characterization about Pete Wisdom, or Cable, or Gambit.

I wish I had more faith in the upcoming Iron Man, Magneto and Wolverine movies. I hope they are as good as they could be. Clever, witty and dramatic. At least two of them will have Ian McKellen and Hugh Jackman. Robert Downey Jr. strikes me as very bad casting for Tony Stark, and the writers don't seem to have done anything much before.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Really? I found that the Spiderman movies and the first two X-Men movies fall firmly into the category of "as good as comics at their best"--in terms of depth, story, relevance, and characterization I would say they all (except possibly X-2) handily surpass God Loves, Man Kills and The Phhoenix Saga, and that's even in light of my soft spot for that latter.

For me Constantine was generally decent but hampered by stiff acting on the part of Reeves.

I though Punisher had one excellent and touching scene in an otherwise generic revenge/action movie. I'd plug F4 into that group as well--the honest throwback to the Silver Age excuse for powers[1] was kind of sweet, but it felt like a home video they'd watch years later.

Have heard nothing about the other movies in development; I confess that after the disappointment of X-3[2] I have not been trying to keep up with news on these lines. (Though I confess to being especially cautious regarding Magneto; *that* backstory had better be handled with dignity and grace.)

(I would put Batman Begins</> in the first category, despite the one shrieking technical error.[3])
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[1] "Because it's so him!"
[2] When a prominent antagonist says things like "When I get out of here, I'll kill you myself" instead of "People like you were the reason I was fraid to go to school as a child", it does kind of sum up the switch from the people to the powers.
[3] People not exploding in the streets. Good Christ, they could have fixed that with *two lines* of dialogue...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I partially agree with you about the first two X-Men movies, though my less-than-enthusiastic attitude now probably mostly has to do with what to me were poor story choices and poor casting choices with regard to particuarly Rogue and Storm. That put me off rather badly. The good characterization of some of the others (particularly Wolverine,a nd good acting by Hugh Jackman) did a lot to compensate.

hough I confess to being especially cautious regarding Magneto; *that* backstory had better be handled with dignity and grace.

Yes, I have similar mixed feelings. Ian McKellen is one of my favourite actors but his Magneto is not quite "my" Magneto, which is more like the Jim Lee version... McKellen gives him the right intelligence and arrogance but not the right machismo or aggression. Which is okay. But - it would be only too easy to make the character look simplistic or foolish. Dignity and grace? We shall see.

I agree about Batman Begins, though my main problem with it was the pacing - and the casting of Katie Holmes in a role that was well-written enough to deserve better. (Compensation: good acting by Christian Bale, whose looks are in his favour.)

When a prominent antagonist says things like "When I get out of here, I'll kill you myself" instead of "People like you were the reason I was fraid to go to school as a child", it does kind of sum up the switch from the people to the powers.

Good point.

they could have fixed that with *two lines* of dialogue...

And I really wish they had.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

I dunno. Not my cuppa, but I suspect the right talent could make it a good adaptation.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that Mark Steven Johnson is the talent who could do it. I was thinking that the Rodriguez/Frank Miller team who did "Sin City" might make a good job of it. Not that the style of "Sin City" would be appropriate, but the ambience would be.