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

[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])
---
[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.