Graphic Novels to the Big Screen: What Next?
Mar 02The Onion’s AV Club has posted an article today suggesting 24 graphic novels that, hot on the heels of the super-hot Watchmen, should be turned into movies. And it’s an interesting list, with some good choices, some bad choices, and a missed opportunity.
I’ll start with the bad choice – I don’t think Ronin would make a good movie. I realize Frank Miller is a big thing in H’wood these days (slightly less big, after The Spirit, but a Sin City sequel supposedly in the works could offset the damage), but Ronin is one massive mind firetruck. 3/4 of it is begging to be made into a film, and the final chapter is enough to make any screenwriter toss an award statue through the giant picture window of his home on the Hollywood hills, and jump out after it. But hey – Lord of the Rings and Watchmen weren’t supposed to be filmable either.
The rest are up for debate – which do you like? (I think Concrete would be a great, if hard to pitch, film.) Which do you not agree with? Which do you think are missing?
Manga is conspicuously missing from the list, and that’s a shame – while it’s often assumed that manga can only become anime, I don’t know that this list discounts that possibility, but there is a strong suggestion that this is a Hollywood list – Japan isn’t invited. But the list also doesn’t discount the possibility of manga to live-action. And I’ve got a good possibility;
Written and drawn by Katsushiro Otomo two years before Akira, Domu: A Child’s Dream is a beautifully story self-contained in a Japanese apartment complex. A new child has moved into the the apartment with her family, only to find that strange things are happening. The strange things are being caused by a psychically powerful, and terribly senile old man, who is driving those with weaker minds to do terrible things. And then the little girl stands up to him, as she’s as powerful as he is. And all hell breaks loose on a level that puts The Matrix to shame.
I think a straight adaptation is long overdue, but I also think that a live-action version would do well. Even if the money-men can’t wrap their heads around a movie set in a Japanese apartment complex, there are American parallels to be found in the various apartment projects and inner-city projects. This story would work just as well there, maybe even better.
OK, your turn – what’s right and what’s wrong with their list?
NYCC 2009: Alert Nerdian for Sunday, 2/8
Feb 07Tweets from our correspondents on the show floor! A beautiful day in The Bottle City! Cosplay is fun, lady cosplayers are funner!
Don’t forget: Hard copies at NYCC. Scope out the freebie tables. Follow @AlertNerd, @SarahKuhn and @TheOtherJeff for the latest from the show. Follow @castewar and @MattSpringer cause we’re not at NYCC and we’re lonely.
Lunch Bag Art
Jan 26
I’m not a dad, nor do I prepare lunches for anyone in a paper bag, but I’m inclined to pick up the pencil again and get practicing, just in case I need to try and be even half as cool as this guy.
Jingle Bell Grok: Holiday Movie Backups
Dec 24Quick. You have 12 hours to get to the video store before we’re locked down for Xmas day. And while you’ll no doubt catch your favorite holiday flicks, don’t you think it might be time to mix it up a little? Perhaps clean the mental palette a bit, and try something different. Something not typically considered a holiday movie.
I’m not talking about Die Hard. I’m not talking about Gremlins. Everybody looking for a quirky xmas film picks those. No no no. You need something off-the-radar, something that would win you a bar bet. And don’t sweat it, I’m here to help. Better yet, these movies are typically in stock on Christmas Eve – everyone else is fighting over the last copy of Jim Carrey’s crappy Grinch, but you’ll be set.
I'm posting this from my iPhone
Dec 17I’m also reading Grok #3 on it. Then I’m going to Twitter about that… From my iPhone.
Also;
iPhone.
Haterz.
