Thanks to The Movie Blog for picking up on the new V for Vendetta movie due in 2005 which is bound to pull at comic lovers' heartstrings, already taut from the Alan Moore spazzes of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell - both of which spin towards the eternal: is it okay to just be alright on their own terms?
How, for example, will The Matrix clan deal with the lack of physical action - where's the opportunities for wired kung-fu, the slow-mo spread eagles? How will they deal with the original's main pleasures - the minor characters, the grey shady dealings and political machinations of the bit part players?
You can see how 'The Shadow Gallery' scenes will succeed on screen but how are they going to approach the comics palette? David Lloyd's artwork always seemed to capture the mundane horror of as British Totalitarian State perfectly - are we going to get anything even approaching that?.
And how are they going to deal with a lead character who's always in a mask?
I see the Judge Dredd movie... I see V taking off his mask early on... I see him and he's, my God, he's...
V's anonymity goes beyond Dredd's (which was always a geek's mystery anyhow: you knew he had a Napolean Dynamite perm under there); taking the mask off destabilises the plot and leaves V simply another freaky super-hero, destined to twirl capes and tip hats to the ladies...
And isn't V a terrorist? And aren't they, like, bad? Will they let him blow up public buildings? Let him murder people? Post Sept 11th how is that gonna play?
Let the bitch fest begin!
8 comments:
It's certainly an extraordinary (and probably unwise) idea to turn V into a movie. My head spins at the thought of how they'll get it all into a single film without losing at least 75% of what made the comic so great. And presumably they'll have to re-contextulize it, as the original premise was that Labour won the 1982 general election, dismantled the UK's Nuclear Weapons arsenal and were thus spared annihilation when the bombs started flying, which is itself improbabable as Moore was not then aware of the scale of enviromental damage that the planet would sustain (nuclear winter). So what other upheaval will they concoct to give a believable explanation for Britain turning to fascism? Will they even bother trying? Will it even be set it Britain?! Will we get to see V performing "This Viscious Cabaret"? Will it stay true to the original score? Questions, questions....
Geez......great minds think alike......yours was cleverer - mine had a daft pictiure.....same old same old....
I don't know.
This could be a great year for comic films.
Between Sin City and V we may be seeing the equivalent of what happened to comics in the mid-80s. Maybe comics characters are starting to mature on film now, too.
Of course, we'll still have our Fantastic Fours, Batman Begins and Elektras to appease the merchandising monguls.
I still use the PG-13 vs. R rating to decide to watch a comic film or not. If it's PG-13 then it's generally watered down with action figure posing and set up mostly to sell merchandise.
Rated R means they're not held back and they are really thinking of the movie first.
Just thought...I guess the Bristol premiere will be a good excuse for another Idiot's guide summit?
Never mind the murders and the blowing up of buildings, are they really going to show V subjecting Evey to psychological torture for her own good? Maybe, instead, he will end up in bed with her and the love of a good woman will exorcise all his demons.
I'm also suspicious as to how the English setting would play with a US audience, perhaps they'll move the whole thing Stateside?
'spose we could all suffer together, but surely we can sort something sooner than that?
i don't see the difficulty in updating it for amerika now. we are in a fascist state for all practical purposes. the u.s. government is conducting electronic surveilance of its citizens, the u.s. has internment without trial or representation for however the fuerher, er sorry president, sees fit. ecological disaster is accelerating with the full consent and power of the government and the giant corporations that run the country. it has happened, it is now.
the only question is will the controlling corporation allow something disturbingly real to be released. they probably will not; hence it likely will be something "acceptable" to the corporate suits and therefor fail to reflect the graphic novel or the very real parrallels that exist.
sorry about the anonymous entry but well, we are all being watched and you can never be sure who will end up in quantanomo or a gulag in eastern europe.
I have seen the Movie Vendetta and i was quite impressed with the cation sequence
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