Being a fan of the 3-issue mini-series, Red, by Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner, I was a bit disheartened to hear that it had been optioned by Summit Entertainment for a motion picture deal; but, that occurred around the time that my ideals towards cinematic adaptations were finalizing their maturation, plus, several Warren Ellis properties were being optioned or had already been optioned.
Global Frequency had it's probation-fire doused before even hitting television's airwaves, but it did find critical and sub-cultural commercial success via the internet. I did get to see it and, personally speaking, it was damn good and had all the potential in the world to be a fine series, but the budget-per-episode is what killed the show. Since then, Ocean and even Gravel have been optioned for either a movie or television deal.
With Red, though, there seemed to be a light at the end of the watered-down ketchup bottle. Bruce Willis became the lead of the film, although he still seemed too young in comparison to the Paul Moses of the comic book who is in his late-fifties, but when it comes to Hollywood, changes are inevitable for the sake of a dollar, especially considering that the original source material for Red could not possibly fill even a ninety minute feature film; so there was no doubt that the Hollywood puppets assigned to the movie would have to expand, even change the root of the source.
Once I saw the trailer for the Red feature film, I was immediately frustrated, and if I were the uptight comic-geek that I was - - not even three years ago, I would have thrown a fit, but I stated before, my ideals towards adaptations and remakes were changing, maturing; and I allowed myself to finish viewing the rest of the trailer, happy that the film was starring a handful of my favorite actors next to Bruce Willis - -Hellen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, and John Malcovich - and listening to the Hollywood script, it did seem attempting to channel some of Warren Ellis' unapologetic brevity. And for these qualities, I am looking forward to the film even though I cringed during those first few seconds of watching the trailer, knowing that these bastards had butchered an already well-told-tale. The tone of the original mini-series and the tone of the movie are as far apart as oil and water, but it doesn't mean that both stories cannot be and are not good ones.
I have read the Red mini-series, enjoying it to no end, and even though the movie will be nothing like the comic I still look forward to being entertained by the film, because as the multiverse continues to reveal and explain itself; what is good for one culture, one era, one medium, doesn't always make itself so relatable to the next medium; which is one reason why this recent uprising in remakes and reboots of fan-favorite films isn't so hurtful. Comic books have been rewriting their super heroic characters' origins for nearly eight decades - - eighty fuckin' years - - and Hollywood has been remaking/rebooting their films for almost an entire century, but Hollywood movies were accepted into households and adult lives far quicker than comics. Right now, it is the year 2010, and comic books are just beginning to be accepted into the main stream of pop culture; loyal followers are just now feeling courageous enough to read a comic book, particularly a superhero comic, in public without fear of complete ridicule, because there will always be a lingering sense of a lower social ranking, but only with an open mind can anyone know where to stand on top when it comes time to watch the rest of the world collapse and burn.
No comments:
Post a Comment