Easy.

"Stuart Little IS Maus"

Think about it. You could cross market the stueart little stuff with a line of holocause memoribilia. Little could become a charactor accross several movies of wildly different natures and become the first truly virtual movie star, a la max headroom. Treating CGI characters as real actors is long overdue.

Impolite: "Maus" comment was funniest thing on thread. And then it occurred to me that they are just about dumb enough to try. And I became afraid.

Occam,

I agree with you completely. Elements as The Martian Manhunter seeing the Martian version of the God of Dreams and the entire Scott Free arc of Preludes and Nocturnes would alienate everyone except for the hardcore Sand-fans. An HBO style with a new episode released every week would work perfectly while remaining true to the content and feel of the comic book. I understand that certain elements of the whole story would have to be rewritten slightly or removed altogether. But even the stand alone stories (The Dream of a Thousand Cats, Caliope, Three Septembers and a January, Ramadan) works as stand alone episodes. Larger story arcs like The Season of Mists or The Kindly Ones would require more episodes to flesh out the entire story.

Morocco,

Again, I agree that the entire storyline must be shown in order for the entire concept to be understood by the casual watcher. However, I disagree with the point of both Lucifer and Destruction. I believe by now a story containing Ol' Morningstar can be accepted by watchers as book was known to sidestep a definitive slant towards one religeon. G-d in the storyline was always refered to by "The Creator".

Destruction was always a much different character as he was always benign towards everyone else. He considered and reconsidered his role as Destruction countless times in his existance and he made the decision to change. Morpheus, sadly, was incapable of change (as you had stated). In order for the idea to work, important characters as the Adversary and the prodigal member of the Endless HAS to be included.

Sorry I have to go right now. My mother is calling me from upstairs...

So, can we start casting this?

Stacy Keach as the Comedian.

Dr. Manhattan has to be CGI.

Silk Spectre is Stephanie Powers

Laurie should be Denise Richards

Nite Owl II is Nicolas Cage

Ozmandias has to be Walken.

Weaver95

Want to really offende *everyone*? Put Lucifer up on screen.

Why would it be offensive? Because the portrayal of him in The Sandman doesn't dovetail with the popular view of his character? I can see where people might not buy the idea of Lucifer as neither being Evil nor out to kill God, but I don't see it being an offensive idea per se.

Now, if you wanted to rock the fundamentalist's boat you'd want to adapt some of the storylines from the Lucifer comic itself -- with him creating his own Creation to give himself (and anyone else who was interested) a place of refuge from God's omniscience, or where the entire point of Creation was to see who Yahweh would pick as his successor, eventually choosing Lucifer over Michael.

Now *that* would stir up trouble.

My problem with the way the Watchmen ended was that the "solution" to unite humanity was a blatant rip-off of an old "Outer Limits" episode starring Robert Culp called "The Architects of Fear."

Am I totally and completely alone in thinking that while Watchemen was awesome in most respects, the ending was just farking ridiculous?

I felt like I had been reading this riveting, emotionally-driven story about the toll it takes on a person to be a hero and what a hero even is, only to be slapped in the face with a schlocky sci-fi ending that required a TON of explanation, worthy of a James Bond villain.

Anyhow, I think they should pass this project along to HBO and turn it into a mini-series. I demand Pirates in my Watchmen.

DarthBrooks makes me weep.

I love the Watchmen, and would love to take a class on it somehow. That would be neat.

Who else loved the failed sex scene with Laurie and Dreiburg?

Oh please please please let this movie not suck let it not be like League or From Hell please please please oh who am I kidding -- Hollywood will systematically ruin every Alan Moore property. Asshats.

Kuno

/Keanu Reeves as John Constantine? Just shoot me now. Or, better, him.

oops...



Here is my desired Watchmen cast. Alec Baldwin as Night Owl, Val Kilmer as Ozymandias, and George Clooney as the Comedian. Come on, look at him, he's perfect! Also, Christopher Walken should TOTALLY play Moloch the Mystic (not pictured).

Can't you see it now? "That ain't the kinda cancer I got..."

This *MIGHT* have worked as a mini-series on TV.

It will totally suck as a movie. Even if it's a brilliant adaptation, it will forever beg comparisons to the comic on which it's based.

It's a no-win situation for the production house and the director. Bail now, gentlemen. You can't appease the fan base of this book.

Actually,

I had a conversation/arguement about Watchmen with one of my friends and he thinks that the work is also a progression through the evolution of storytelling in comics. You start out with masked avengers and work your way up to "super men" before finally getting to super science sci-fi. If true I would be interested to see how the last few issues would have progressed if the comics we read today were in that chronology. (but then, many made today owe their evolution to Watchmen)

bort13

I could see Jude Law as Veidt.

Jude Law's got a tattoo of Rorshach on his arm, and has admitted in interviews that he would like to play Veidt in any upcomming Watchman adaptation

I shouldn't know those things, but I've got a lot of time on my hands.

Keanu, hmmm? Is it because directors see him as a complete void that they can imprint their artistic vision any way they please? Is that why he keeps getting these cherry parts?
Now, Hugh Jackman would make a good John Constantine.

Torchsong

That's the thing; they don't need to appease the comic fans, since we'll likely all line up to see it anyway. Thus, they can settle for amusing the non-fans for the movie.

/still hopes it won't suck, but isn't betting on it.

Willem Dafoe as Rorshach.

I am in agreement about the need to do this as a mini-series, there is no way to do it as one movie, or even two.

12 parts, 80 minutes each.

And yeah, pretty much PLAN on this being bad; Hollywood doesn't do gritty noir and comic fantasy well as a combination. How are they going to craft Dr. Manhattan and the impotent Night Owl in the same movie? Not well....

I agree with you totally, Occam, about Lucifer. I can't imagine the outrage if Carey's Lucifer were to be translated to the screen. Good thing they won't try, since it would ruin one of the most original comics out there right now.

As far as what could make a fantastic HBO mini-series, how about _Y: The Last Man_? It already has a great episodic feel to it. Also, I'd love to see _Bone_ as a animated series. I mean, come on, it could be fantastic and introduce a lot of kids to a wonderful story.

//stupid, stupid movie execs/rat creatures

Mini series. Great idea. Sci Fi channel, break it into 80 min blocks. I love it. And never never never again show what they did to Dune.

No Dr_4_Bob

SciFi is bad! Very Bad!

And I don't want to see a pussy-fied version of this piece of work. Its HBO or not at all, I want to see all my blood and rape and death, etc. Just wouldn't have the same impact if it were safe for cable TV

As far as Constantine goes, I think James Marsters could really have done a great job of it, since Spike was always basically Constantine any way.

However, I'm not sure why I'm so surprised their ruining Hellblazer, considering what they did to the _Swamp Thing_, J.C.'s source book. I almost didn't read Moore's run on the book because of that god awful movie. Now that would have been a true shame.

Dr_4_Bob

I didn't think the Sci-Fi version of Dune was that bad given what they had to work with.

Well, maybe Dune sucked, but I thought Dune Messiah/Children of Dune wasn't too bad.

Kwai Lo exclaimed:
"Willem Dafoe as Rorshach."

Perfect. Though I hated how much they hid his face in the Spider Man flick... he's a wonderful actor to watch.

Marsters is already tapped to play Harry Dresden from the paperback series. Maybe that won't suck, if we're lucky. . .

zeroeffect, you won't like him as Rorshach much then.....

Thanks for the heads up, Farkthulu. I think that could definitely work, though I imagined Dresden as a little more bedraggled than Marsters.

I'm sure someone already posted this, but I'll do it anyway.


Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Wow, a u2 (music) thread and a comics thread in one day, and both of them hopping.

Life is great now that the politicians are done with the dog and pony shows.

Hey Hillary -

Flaming Carrot could be a strange and surreal movie. Bob Burden wouldn't let them touch the Carrot for "Mystery Men" (talk about an adaptation gone astray) because he knew they wouldn't be able to do him justice.

Favorite Carrot Quote:

"Tomorrow I will buy many grapes and squish them all in my mouth at once!" (or something to that effect)

troutstomper

Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Me and my best friend in High School would take turns sneaking into our Latin class and writing that on the board. No one got it.

Best moment in Latin class: Having to translate and act out a movie scene into Latin. You guessed correctly. We chose the graffiti scene from _Life of Brian_.

Undead_Elvis:

I like "Wheaties, breakfast of champions! Is good?" myself.

I remember thinking that Kubrick was the only director I thought _might_ do _Watchmen_ justice. Too bad he's dead, and spent his time doing that pice of crap _Eyes Wide Shut_ instead.

Miracleman is greatest comic storyline I have ever read. Period. Watchmen is a solid second place.

Ozymandius

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whos frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandius, king of kings:
Look on my words, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Kimota! Fark. Nothing happened.

Rorshach: Johnny Depp
Dr. Manhatten: George Clooney (alt: Hugh Jackman)
The Comedian: Tom Sellack
Ozymandius: Ralph Feinnes
Nite Owl: Stephen Root (alt: Tom Hanks)
Silk Spectre 1: Lucy Lawless
Silk Spectre 2: Natalie Portman? Too young. Probably need someone more muscular, true brunette, can actually act. Michelle Forbes is probably a little too old. Maybe Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Psychiatristic: James Earl Jones

Occams_Electric_Razor:

As an aside, I've always thought that Clint Eastwood would have been *perfect* to play the Bruce Wayne portrayed in the story. Granted he doesn't have the physique that Miller gave Batman in the book, but no human has a body like that.


Well back a few years ago Brian Dennehey would've fit the mold for a LOTDK elder Bruce/Bats. With a girdle maybe and a padded suit :-)

Is there a script floating around out there on the internets?
Maybe. Anyways my friend actually bought a copy of the script off of ebay about 3 months ago. I don't know they have changed anything to that script since, but Hayter did a pretty good job.

Anyways some plots changes and ***Spoilers*** below:
1.) Yep the pirate sub story is gone
2.) Silk Spectre is now called Slingshot because John gives her some power where she shoots something
3.)Adrian is now shot with Laurie's said power, but he throws it back at her.
4.)No more alien, instead its something like some giant laser beam
5.)Dr. Manhattan's origin is still there and he does go to Mars
6.)So is Rorschach's story about killing the dogs
7.)Adrian gets killed at the end
8.) The Comedian and Dr Manhattan still go do the Vietnam thing
9.) Minute Men are only mentioned
10.)Dan likes the Beatles now
11.)Rape is mentioned not shown
12.)Kovac's prison escape is included, swirly and all!
13.)Its no longer the Russians but some Middle Eastern country

Slingshot and Laserbeams aside, the screenplay seems close to the original as you're going to get.


/Preacher needs to an HBO miniseries, has anyone else seen the photos of the Arseface prosthetics?
//V for Vendetta could be decent

Oh come on. You all KNOW why this movie is really going to suck.

There is one, and only one, person on Earth who looks anything REMOTELY like this guy.



And you know who it is, and it frightens you.

Yes.

You know it to be true.

The only one who can possibly play Rorschach:

Thank you Malathion. I hope you're willing to pay my therapy bills.

Samwise Gamgee, I'm with you ...

but ... this movie will create entirely new levels of suckiness.

OMG

In another thread, I just realized who The Comedian is.


Dennis Farina.

Wow, DarthBrooks, bullseye!

Stop casting based on looks. I, for one, could give a damn less if so-and-so looks like the character in the comic. You pay enough attention to how close someone resembles his character, and you end up passing over people perfect for the role. Also, some of the fantasy casts listed here would assume the film has a budget of 200 million dollars. The less big-name actors, the better, I say. Oh, and whoever made this is beyond help:

Malathion: Thank you. I'm going to have nightmares for a week.

Am I totally and completely alone in thinking that while Watchemen was awesome in most respects, the ending was just farking ridiculous?

definitly agree with you here, ending was a total letdown for me....altho i should say nothing could have possibly lived up to my expectations due to the MASSIVE hype surrounding watchmen (read this thread for example, you'd think it was passed down by god himself)...

now the comic movie that REALLY needs to be made is Quantum and Woody...it could only be hilarious...

maybe Planetary as well (best book being published today, IMO), altho i don't see how they could possibly make it into a movie as the writing style involves dropping subtle hints over a long timeframe (i guess they're trying to make 100 bullets, so who the hell knows)...

Henchman
Alan Moore admitted he got the idea from "The Outer Limits" episode. In the background of one panel in the last issue they even mention "The Outer Limits".

at first i thought that was a really high-brow headline, but then i discovered its just really nerdy.

williamzabka:

Corpulence, I use Constantine (Hellblazer) as a prime example. Casting Keanu Reeves as John COnstantine could not have been more off base. Switching the location to L.A. from England. Everything about it just seems wrong for Vertigo's flagship character.

Hollywood has already destroyed "From Hell" and "League of Extraordinary Gentleman." I just don't think Alan Moore's writing translates well to film. It is too intelligent.

And don't even get me started on "Preacher." If they do this movie right it will be NC-17. I just don't see them making a great film that is less than 10 hours, and me enjoying. Check my profile if you want to see how much that story means to me.

It, at least appears, they might get Sin City right. The casting, directing, and writing appears spot on so far. They can destroy superheroes all they want, but please do not mess up the truly great comics.


what he said :-(

Okay, all you late 80s comic geeks, what about St. George?



Very stunning editing / blocking in the series, and interesting character development in the part of the warrior priest. It was the first time I'd seen a print book that lent itself so well to a cinematic style. I could easily picture the series being adapted to a motion picture, even with a Mr. Voiceover.