V For Vendetta: The Movie

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re: Swamp Thing = um yeah BERNIE WRIGHTSON, HELLO!?!?

LXG was awful.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:56 (nineteen years ago) link

http://www.culttvman.com/swampthing/assets/images/toon4t.jpg

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 20:01 (nineteen years ago) link

From Hell would have made a perfectly great movie, and still got ruined.

― Pete Scholtes, Friday, 18 March 2005 00:00 (nineteen years ago) link

oh I dunno about From Hell having the potential for a great movie. For one thing, it doesn't work as a thriller/mystery if the murderer's identity is established in the first act, as it is in the book. also there are numerous digressions into minor characters, hallucinations, flashbacks, etc. that would not have worked in a traditional movie framework...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 18 March 2005 00:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Not to mention that half of the damn thing was footnotes. Fascinating footnotes.

― sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Friday, 18 March 2005 00:15 (nineteen years ago) link

It's a common device for serial killer films to let you know who the killer is right away. As for the rest, a good adaptation always involves editing. It's really a question of whether you want to tell the story or not, and whether you care what the author is saying. My guess is From Hell was just another property passed off from one indifferent owner to another... Moore refused to have anything to do with it.

― Pete Scholtes, Friday, 18 March 2005 00:22 (nineteen years ago) link

oh I dunno if I'd call the Hughes Bros "indifferent" - I thought they were pretty well-suited to the themes of the book actually. But they *did* try to frame it as a "whodunnit" (possibly at the behest of others, I would guess), and that kinda tore up the whole fabric of the story.

"It's a common device for serial killer films to let you know who the killer is right away."

Please tell me what these movies are, because I disagree. Obviously Jason/Mike Myers/Freddy etc are not analogous with Dr. Gull. I guess there's "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" and the various Gacy movies, but those don't involve a cop/investigator as the main protagonist - they feature the killers themselves as the protagonists (an approach which also wouldn't have worked with From Hell, I don't think).

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 18 March 2005 00:28 (nineteen years ago) link

pk dick made into a musical comedy = WHY HAS THIS NOT HAPPENED YET!!

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 18 March 2005 00:30 (nineteen years ago) link

yes yes and everyone must be wearing totally horrible/awkward clothes! (why this perennial detail of Dick's books has been left out of every movie adaptation I have no idea - why wasn't Tom Cruise swaddled in a Wub Fur!)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 18 March 2005 00:36 (nineteen years ago) link

as shakey mc says, the idea of it being gull — besides the fact that it's hopelesly silly in terms of actual real life history* — wd surely have fallen apart horribly fast if tackled w.gull as protagonist

*this has always vaguely annoyed me abt moore's "from hell" actually: gull is the easily least interesting of the various proposed rippers; a "from hell" based round james maybrick wd have been better

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 18 March 2005 00:37 (nineteen years ago) link

i'm actually genuinely surprised more dick books haven't been made into movies

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 18 March 2005 00:39 (nineteen years ago) link

I dunno enough about Gull being the least interesting (tho to his credit Moore does acknowledge he didn't actually think Gull was the killer in the appendices).

It would've been nice if they'd squeezed Oscar Wilde and the Golden Dawn into the movie, but what can ya do... at least they managed to get the Elephant Man in there (tho not the reference to Ganesha, the Opener of Ways, sadly. Actually that's what I missed most from the movie - the depth of magical/mystical ref. points)

Dick's being thoroughly mined now Mark, don't worry. He wrote enough trash to fuel a million crappy sci-fi flicks.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 18 March 2005 00:40 (nineteen years ago) link

Bah. V for Vendetta was always (for me anyway) about the crapness of British fascism and the ease by which common-or-garden british traits would easily lend themselves to fascism (ie, how the 'it couldn't happen here' scenario was predicated on enduring british characteristics which I saw no real evidence for other than a desire to believe they were there because it made people feel good, but I did see a lot of evidence of the characteristics required to create and tolerate fascism.)

Anyone, turns in to more counterfactual nazi pron. yawn. Still, Natalie Portman eh? Can't all be bad.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 18 March 2005 00:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Please tell me what these movies are

Henry, Silence of the Lambs, The Minus Man, American Psycho, Felicia's Journey (arguably), Eye of the Needles (arguably), Freeway, Natural Born Killers, I Was a Teenage Serial Killer, Summer of Sam, Bonnie and Clyde...

― Pete Scholtes, Friday, 18 March 2005 01:34 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah i'm kinda having a hard time thinking of a serial killer flick that doesn't let you know who the killer is right away

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 18 March 2005 01:35 (nineteen years ago) link

tho to his credit Moore does acknowledge he didn't actually think Gull was the killer in the appendices

Wow. I missed that. This thread makes me want to reread those comics...

― Pete Scholtes, Friday, 18 March 2005 01:39 (nineteen years ago) link

Henry - I mentioned/discussed this one
Silence of the Lambs - mmm, debatable, the "identity" of Buffalo Bill isn't really firmly established until Clarice stumbles across him.
The Minus Man - didn't see it
American Psycho - ehhhh, okay, might have to give you this one.
Felicia's Journey (arguably), Eye of the Needles (arguably) - didn't see either
Freeway - um, what? do you mean Kiefer? He is not the main character/protagonist.
Natural Born Killers - oh please, this movie is a cartoon, not a "thriller" or a mystery.
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer - didn't see it
Summer of Sam - Sam is not the main character, and anyone seeing this film knows who Berkowitz is.
Bonnie and Clyde - this is not a serial killer movie

and anyway none of these suggest a workable template for From Hell (w/the possible exception of American Psycho)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 18 March 2005 01:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Let us discuss the differences between the serial killer genre and movies about serial killers (no, really!)

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 18 March 2005 13:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Taking Sides: V for Vendetta vs Q the Winged Serpent.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 18 March 2005 14:12 (nineteen years ago) link

Q the Winged Serpent has six limbs = is an INSECT!

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 18 March 2005 14:14 (nineteen years ago) link

That's why the identity of the killer isn't obvious from the first scene.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 18 March 2005 14:21 (nineteen years ago) link

Minus Man: wistful, laid-back, slacker serial killer romantic comedy starring Owen Wilson.
I thought Total Recall got the awkwardness of PKD the best out of the lot.

― Silky Sensor (sexyDancer), Friday, 18 March 2005 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Columbo always started with the reveal of whodunnit, and the intrigue/entertainment was in watching C-man piece together the how and the why.

― Huk-L, Friday, 18 March 2005 16:44 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah, and the best part of it is that Columbo seems as if he knows the solution all along and he's just piecing it together to torture his opponent. Ace when the bad guy is Cassavettes or a hot blonde.

― Silky Sensor (sexyDancer), Friday, 18 March 2005 16:49 (nineteen years ago) link

Alan Moore should write a Columbo GN.

― Huk-L, Friday, 18 March 2005 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Also, Johnny Cash, William Shatner & Patrick McGoohan!

― Huk-L, Friday, 18 March 2005 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, and Monster, which makes a great double feature with Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer.

Dude, just let me have my From Hell movie dream.

― Pete Scholtes, Monday, 21 March 2005 03:49 (nineteen years ago) link

how is silence of the lambs 'debatable'???????? shakey have you seen silence of the lambs?

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 21 March 2005 04:03 (nineteen years ago) link

Scott Glenn was actually the killer.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 March 2005 04:07 (nineteen years ago) link

three months pass...

Teaser poster is out

ihttp://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/img/poster_1.jpg

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 19:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Verily.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 19:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Va va voom!

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 28 June 2005 20:01 (eighteen years ago) link

I sat in at the Whitechapel/Westminster shooting last month watching everybody in their Guy Fawkes masks and appreciating how their disguises hid their average looks [ /shallow]. The scene looked pretty good. Didn't spot Portman, though she was around somewhere, I know it!

― Negativa, True Believer (Sheryl Crow in a Britney costume) (Barima), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 08:21 (eighteen years ago) link

Is it just me, or is "an uncompromising vision of the future, from the creators of the Matrix trilogy" one of the most unappealing taglines ever?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 08:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I blame the font.

― Negativa, True Believer (Sheryl Crow in a Britney costume) (Barima), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 09:17 (eighteen years ago) link

A timely revival - I just spent much of yesterday evening in the pub with V For Vendetta artist David Lloyd, as it happens (and a guy who coloured about half of it, but he's one of my best friends and that was the third day in four that I'd seen him, whereas I hadn't see David in years). Gives me an easy way of doing some quality small-time namedropping without having to contrive a reason, hurrah!

Actually, a unique namedropping encounter, in that David was saying 'hello Martin' to me while I was still not sure if he was who I thought. I've not met a famous person before where that's happened.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 11:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Is he getting any royalities?

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 11:27 (eighteen years ago) link

isn't he getting it all? that interview Stewart Lee did with Moore, Moore kept saying that after his first major disillusionment with each further film that got optioned he was going "give the money to the artist, i'm not doing this" - and by the time it got to the 5th or 6th film he was saying it through gritted teeth.

― Britain's Jauntiest Shepherd (Alan), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 11:32 (eighteen years ago) link

I didn't ask him, what with not remembering that there was a movie on the way.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 11:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Hahaha, he sounds cool if he doesn't even remember they're filming his work.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 12:53 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, I heard reports that Moore signed over all royalty rights to David Lloyd. He also severed his working relationship w/ DC Comics because they used his name in a press release w/out his permission. (Not in a "created by..." context, but in a "Alan approves!" context.)

― David R. (popshots75`), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 12:55 (eighteen years ago) link

the font on the bottom tagline is Futura, appropriately enough.

― kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 13:53 (eighteen years ago) link

No, I mean I had forgotten there was a film, and no one else brought it up, perhaps oddly. We did talk about films some, and with his attitude to modern action-adventure and special fx films, I suspect VfV will hardly be his kind of thing.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 29 June 2005 19:57 (eighteen years ago) link

one month passes...

Saw the trailer the other day. Had a white-hot feeling of rage rush up my spine and into my scalp. Not because it looks that bad, just on Moore's behalf.

I haven't heard any more advance press about it. Are they still going with the Nazi angle? Is he still not going to blow up any buildings?

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 29 July 2005 20:02 (eighteen years ago) link

i thought the nazi thing was just press misunderstanding

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 29 July 2005 20:27 (eighteen years ago) link

Yeah, Im getting that vibe, too. One IMDB entry says that it's about the Germans winning WWII, but another, the one that appears on the main page now, simply says "fascist government." It seems almost like a correction, but the original abstract hasn't been removed, only moved to a secondary page.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 29 July 2005 20:30 (eighteen years ago) link

The trailer doesn't look bad. Bullet time seems to be a sticking point with most, but I didn't mind it. Way too much red however. I don't recall any fully saturated colors in the GN. The movie should be filmed in hangover-vision.

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Friday, 29 July 2005 21:16 (eighteen years ago) link

The visual style of the comic book was part of its theme, yes. Fincher's black-and-blue palettes would have suited better.

And no, it doesn't look bad. Shame about casting Natalie Portman, but it has Stephen Rea, too, and it's always good to see him. And Hugo Weaving will be perfect if they can resist an unmasking scene.

The repeated use of the word "uncompromising" in the ad campaign is perhaps a good sign. Did they actually stick very close to the source material? They want us to believe so, at any rate.

Surely there's a good (if un-PC, heady, and uncomfortable) movie in the material, no doubt. And the original GN has always been my least favorite of Moore's works -- it's him finding footing, and it's messy.

I have hope.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 29 July 2005 21:52 (eighteen years ago) link

I should say, my least favorite of Moore's major Graphic Novels. I remember spotty Swamp Thing issues. I'm not counting those.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Friday, 29 July 2005 21:55 (eighteen years ago) link

say, what was the reasoning for miracle-/marvelman going fucking bugged out for a run, anyway?

― kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 29 July 2005 21:59 (eighteen years ago) link

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