Well I have to give it to Mr. Wil Wheaton. He definitely knows how to get a point across on a blog. In a featured post Mr. Wheaton spared no emotions in denouncing the corporate execs that went to the recent Comic-Con. Minus the expletives, he hit the nail on the head.
Mr. Wheaton is upset at all the crappy ‘revisioning’ and ‘updating’ of great stories and movies that is the recent craze in Hollywood. I’ve constantly mentioned my distaste for virtually anything ‘revisioned’, actually I don’t recall any movie that modified or updated a great old concept with new, hip, modern ideas [Batman Begins may count, but it’s not quite right as it deals with the origin of Batman and not the Mr. Michael Keaton/Mr. Tim Burton version, nor the Dark Knight graphic novel they were somewhat based on]. That goes for every genre and has no connection to where the source material comes from.
Madonna’s American Pie sucked the life out of the original. The Hitcher, Psycho, The Honeymooners, Mortal Kombat, Flash Gordon, Dukes of Hazzard, and Starsky and Hutch are all great examples of screw-ups created with the ‘revisioned’ concept in mind. And that’s not the worst of it. Hollywood executives are so without ideas that they are not only making a movie of EVERY comic book character ever made (it seems) they are completely ignoring the storylines that made them popular. And for those movie studios without a comic book deal (yes there is one or 2) they are re-making movies for the 3rd time or more.
I know someone is saying 3rd versions? You have got to be kidding. Nope. An upcoming example is the new Invasion movie starring Ms. Nicole Kidman. Original movie – Invasion of the Body Snatchers – first remake was in the 80’s (as I recall) which was redone to create a heroine, and a back-story that were neither needed nor added to the story. The “new” movie tries to trick everyone with a shorter title (like we are all too dumb to figure it out) another twist to the back-story, another heroine that is now motivated by maternal desires and I predict will utterly fail as they miss the point of the whole damn original concept that made it worth being remade.
All of this is not lost on Mr. Wheaton. His comments on the ruined storylines for Daredevil, Electra, Fantastic Four, Captain America (done at least 2x on television), The Hulk (I can accept the television series, but the movie failed both the comic book and the series), Ghost Rider, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and many others rings pinpoint true. Hollywood exec generally have no clue what the draw is for these films and substitute their own ideas of what might pull an audience, and fail miserably.
The increasingly rare exceptions continue to be where an actual fan is involved. The Spiderman series, the first 2 X-Men movies, The Fly remake, The Lord of the Rings dutiful transition, are all part of a handful of fans dedicated to getting it right.
Which brings up the Watchmen movie. If you have read the graphic novels you probably get what it’s about. It’s intense, powerful and direct without having to hit you over the head. The fact that it is planned for a movie is fantastic. My expectation for Hollywood to get it right is low. I hope they get it right. But I can’t see an exec understanding the joke that is the Joker, or the paranoia of Rorschach. I can hope, and if the director is a fan we might just get lucky. We shall see.
This is what I think, what do you think?
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