G-Man pointed out this great editorial on Film School Rejects about the possible damage comics book flicks might be doing to the movie biz and asked me to comment. The commentary revolves around a statement the Brothers Strause made about how they opted to make their new movie SKYLINE independently after deciding that they couldn’t get such a big genre movie made through the studios unless it was based on a comic. More frustratingly, they feel like filmmakers often have to jump through the hoop of making a comic just to get their movie greenlit, even if the comic doesn’t sell anything.
Here’s what I’ll agree with...
Yes, I would prefer to see more original material at the movies. Nothing gets me more excited than seeing a new mythology unfolding that I haven't seen before and, thus, can’t predict. I also dislike dis-genuine comics that are carelessly thrown together just so the creators can chase a movie deal. I agree with all that.
But none of this is really new. Look at THE MATRIX. The Wachowski Brothers basically made a comic with Steve Skroce and Geof Darrow - - just piles and piles of dynamic, fully-realized art - - to illustrate the complex story to execs who probably couldn't picture it from the script. Supposedly (and ironically,) the brothers shopped that story around for years, trying to get it made into a comic, before deciding to turn it into a screenplay. If filmmakers want to get a complex sci-fi epic made (and they're getting more and more complex,) then they need visual proofs of concepts to explain it to people. But what really matters is that it was great in one form and it was great in another, as well. The project didn't "cheat" it's way into anything. == TEASER ==
THE MATRIX's development goes back 10 or 15 years, but this has been going on since long before that. I always find it amusing whenever film aficionados point to, say, the GODFATHER as an examples of time when original storytelling ruled. That's a classic, sure, but it was based on a novel. And is its integrity compromised by the fact that Mario Puzo, the author, none-too-coincidentally co-wrote the script and went on to to write the screenplays for EARTHQUAKE and the first two SUPERMAN movies? Does the fact that it wasn't a graphic novel allow for a double standard? Because I guarantee that many, many novels have been written as pretexts to get movies for decades.
I don't think any damage is being inflicted and, if it is, then it's the same damage that's been inflicted forever, only in a different form. And all this stuff waxes and wanes, anyway. People are saying that INCEPTION might be the watershed that gets more of these made and, judging by how many sci-fi spec screenplays, are getting bought up.Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here .