After the crushing disappointment this past weekend at the hands of Watchmen I began thinking about Comics as a medium and if they can ever really be faithfully adapted into a film. Below is a list of series due to be given the Hollywood treatment.
PREACHER
To try and sum up Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s landmark series in a small blurb would be futile, it’s a gothic, religious western spanning years, worlds and realms. Preacher follows Jessie Custer a Texan preacher with the power of a hybrid offspring of a demon and an angel. He is joined by his girlfriend Tulip and he best friend Cassidy who also happens to be a 100 year old Irish vampire. Along with a brilliant main quest Preacher also benefited immensely from a brilliant miniseries and one shots which touched upon supporting characters back stories. The characters in Preacher are so rich and unique to try and think of actors to play any of them is nearly impossible.
Why it won’t work as a film
Preacher is a dynamic ballsy story that has more controversies than a Michael Richards Stand-up album, The film would be protested by every major Christian group and would never be able to do the story justice. The project would be hard to market to a mass audience of people who haven’t read it, and what we would be left with is an audience friendly watered down version like Watchmen, that will never reach it’s true potential, The film would be the hardest R imaginable to the point where it would verge so far towards an NC-17 that significant cuts would have to be made. You would need 10 plus films as each chapter is so vivid and dense, plus like Watchmen and Y:The Last Man these stories don’t have huge overblown climaxes, the pleasure comes from the journeys, the only true way to show this would be a miniseries.
Plans for a film
I already covered most of this a few months ago when the news came that Sam Mendes was attached to direct the film and the writer John August states that, “there’s no release date, no cast, no locations, no nothing. I’m writing a script which could become a movie if everything lines up correctly,” how likely it is that this project will actually be made is hard to make clear. Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier were involved in negotiations with Miramax, after that project failed Smith and Mosier eventually left and the project and it went to HBO for the idea of a lifetime – Miniseries. HBO hired Mark Steven Johnson who wrote outlines for the series then by 2008 HBO decided to scrap the project (Maybe they watched Ghost rider) which takes us to now with Mendes’ proposed film. Its interesting Mendes’ is extremely talented and did excellent work with Road To Perdition, if a film has to happen he is a perfect choice, it’s just a shame he wasn’t attached to the series, and it’s also a shame that James Marsden is no longer involved as he would have made a great Custer.
In a Perfect World
Showtime* have bought the rights, for a miniseries, Mendes is Directing, Smith, Mosier and Garth Ennis are producing and writing, Marsden is Jessie Custer, Cassidy’s played by someone who’s actually Irish like Colin Farrell and we don’t have to hear a really bad accent. Patrick Stewart is Herr Star, and The Saint of Killers is played by Ron Pearlman.
*decided to put Showtime here as they are just as good as HBO but seem like a great choice as they are willing to go very dark with shows like Dexter.
Y THE LAST MAN
Brian k Vaugn’s epic story follows Yorick Brown and his monkey, they are the two last mammals on the earth with a Y chromosome and they are also mankind’s last hope to continue. Aided by Yoricks protector Agent 355 they group battle Amazons, pirates, and government officials all in search for a cure and Yorick’s girlfriend.
“Y” it won’t work as a film
Yoricks quest is a long one he travels the earth for years, we see him age and we see every crushing, devastating event in his life, just trying to cover these events would take two films alone before the plot is actually weaved in. Not to mention trying to get a monkey to be nearly as full of expression as the one in the book without having to resort to a cheesy CGI or animatronics thing. The story itself doesn’t have much action it is all character driven and any attempts to draw out the action would feel lame and uninspiring like Watchmen. The film is not an I’AM Legend clone, it spans the globe and follows characters for ages, it would need a minimum of 4-5 films to truly reach its potential and I can’t really see that happening.
Plans For A Film
Right now the rights are owned by New Line and D.J. Caruso is attached to direct, after watching Caruso’s previous films Two For The Money, Disturbia and Eagle Eye, he does not seem capable of handling the project, Disturbia was just a remake of Rear Window with nothing original or interesting, and Eagle Eye was the same run of the mill, no payoff with a terrible third act, I think Ebert pretty much summed it up calling it “an assault on consciousness.” This brings me to my next quam with the project so far, many thin that Shia Labeouf is primed to play Yorick due to him starring in Caruso’s previous films. This is just an awful choice, I’am not on the “I hate Lebeouf” bandwagon I actually think he is very entertaining, Even Stevens was a really good show and he has done good work since, I thought he was excellent in Holes and made a good transition from a child actor in Transformers, and in all fairness his acting was fine in Disturbia and Eagle Eye, those were just films that didn’t need to be made. Casting Lebeouf is just to make money on his name and is completely the wrong reason to do so. The best suggestion I’ve heard is Zachary Levi who stars in the hit series Chuck, the reason could be because Chuck is thrown into a crazy world and adventure just like Yorick, but also Levi is very fun to watch and he just seems like a perfect choice.
In a Perfect World
HBO have bought the rights for a TV series thrown shitloads of money at it, planed for twelve episodes, used creator Vaughn’s scripts, cast Levi for Yorick. Got some great post-apocalyptic directors like George Miller, Alfonso Cuaron, John Carpenter and Terry Gilliam to guest direct some episodes and get Stephen King to help write some episodes.
What do you think, will these work as films?
Next time we will look at more comics which wont work on film and ones that will.
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