V For Vendetta: The Movie

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Watch them put in an "unmasking of V!" scene

jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:45 (nineteen years ago) link

They wouldn't make a website for a movie they're not going to make!

http://www.watchmenmovie.com/

Huk-L, Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:48 (nineteen years ago) link

the original comic plot, for people who don't know: The series is set in a future Britain where, in the chaos following a limited nuclear war that left the country mostly physically intact, a fascist one-party state has arisen. It resembles the Nazi regime—including government-controlled media, secret police, and concentration camps for racial and sexual minorities—but with a British cultural flavor, and a greater reliance on technology, especially closed-circuit television monitoring in the mode of George Orwell's 1984. (CCTV had not yet become common in England at the time Moore wrote the series.) When the series begins, political conflict has ended, the death camps have finished their work and been closed, and the public is largely complacent, until "V"—a terrorist and self-proclaimed anarchist, who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and has an improbable array of abilities and resources—begins an elaborate, violent, and theatrical campaign to bring down the government.

now its just about them evil nazis taking over.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:49 (nineteen years ago) link

god forbid we make a film about how a fascist state can rise during times of war and terror. GOD FOR FUCKING BID.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:51 (nineteen years ago) link

"They wouldn't make a website for a movie they're not going to make!"

That's just a singe splash page, not a website! And I'll believe it when I see it.

Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:51 (nineteen years ago) link

If that change was specifically done by the Wachowskis, I must raise my eyebrows quizzically.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:52 (nineteen years ago) link

I've long suspected the "Germans won WW2" business is just the work of a hack blurb-writer and has no bearing on the actual script.

Watch them put in an "unmasking of V!" scene

Count on it!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0700856/ is a hottie!

Huk-L, Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:52 (nineteen years ago) link

I hope you're right, Huk-L, cuz seriously how fucking safe and neutered is that? Vigilance against government totalitarianism vs. STOP THE NAZIS.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:53 (nineteen years ago) link

Also, God forbid we discuss awful things done to prisoners during wartime.
It appears that imdb stole their plot description from amazon:
"A frightening and powerful story of the loss of freedom and identity in a totalitarian world, V for Vendetta takes place in an alternate future in which Germany wins WWII and Britain becomes a fascist state."

jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link

If the plot is the same as the comic I'm definitely more excited, though the idea of this being some First Assistant Director's debut film does excite me. Big topic for a techie.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:57 (nineteen years ago) link

woops, does NOT excite me.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 18:58 (nineteen years ago) link

V for Vendetta is an ideological minefield, anyway. I'm surprised it got filed at all. I wish it hadn't.

sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link

filed = filmed

sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link

The "Germany wins WWII" meme can be traced back to Hollywood Reporter or EW or something, just a little blurb. Similarly, when the Flash movie was first mentioned, the media reports kept saying that the Flash was Jay Garrick, which is sort of accurate, but not relevant to the movie in a Multiple Earths sort of way.

Huk-L, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:03 (nineteen years ago) link

I used to think it might make a good animated mini-series, but 2 hour movie - I dunno. Watchmen would be harder to do reverently but easier to simplify (just remove the Minutemen stuff and make it about Rorshach, Silk Spectre, Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan figuring out Ozymandias killed The Comedian to do the big alien thing). Both deal with near-apocalyptic shit in a way that I'd be impressed if Hollywood dared tackle with the same spirit.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:05 (nineteen years ago) link

I dunno. The plot as it is was surely vetoed by someone somewhere along the line. "You mean there was a nuclear war that allowed Britian to become crazy-jackbooted-racist-and-fascist? And the hero is a terrorist?" There's just one too many easy parallels there. Who would fund that?

sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:06 (nineteen years ago) link

killed The Comedian to do the big alien thing

From what I've heard, all versions of the script up to now have taken out the big alien and the ending. Don't ask me how. One screenwriter (I forget who) said, "You can't have a movie end with four million people dying in Manhattan. It's too ugly."

sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah the Nazi thing is a really depressing cop-out that's easy to believe. though does Alan Moore own the rights? Would HE be crass enough to allow it, especially when the original story couldn't be better timed?

x-post Fuck, yet another depressing yet believable cop-out.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:09 (nineteen years ago) link

if they really take out the alien from Watchmen and add Nazis to vendetta I have no desire to see either movie whatsoever.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:10 (nineteen years ago) link

If they take the alien out of Watchmen, it has no depth and no teeth anymore. It's... what? A superhero movie? About superheroes living in the "real world"? Who th' fuck cares?

sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:13 (nineteen years ago) link

this sounds awful. The only Watchmen script/screenbplay I ever saw was back in '98 or '97 or so and it ended with Rorschach and Nite Owl fighting off some mob (no alien, and Rorschach still alive = wtf?!)

The only ostensibly positive thing about either movie getting made would be raising Moore's profile/making him a bunch of money and giving him a modicum of financial stability.

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Starring Natalie Portman.

and, more importantly, james purefoy

fe zaffe (fezaffe), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Moore gets financial stability by neutering some of his greatest works before sharing them with a wider audience then fuck him.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:17 (nineteen years ago) link

If Moore

(if he has any say in the matter, I mean)

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:17 (nineteen years ago) link

of course he doesn't have any say in the matter - the options for this stuff were all sold years ago, and were never owned by him anyway. Moore himself doesn't particularly care what films get made based on his material - it's a different medium, entirely separate from comics, and they don't diminish or replace the original work in any way, so why should he?

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link

Moore's refusing any monies from film adaptations of his work. He's been directing that his cuts go to the books' artists.

Curious George Finds the Ether Bottle (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:21 (nineteen years ago) link

they don't diminish or replace the original work in any way, so why should he?

oh I can think of a way they replace the original work. A SHIT LOAD MORE PEOPLE SEE IT, WTF.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:22 (nineteen years ago) link

there hasn't been a good film made of a moore work yet so I'm not about to expect them to start now.

kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:22 (nineteen years ago) link

He's also been taking his name off of all of the films.

Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:25 (nineteen years ago) link

ok. THAT i respect.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:26 (nineteen years ago) link

"Moore's refusing any monies from film adaptations of his work. He's been directing that his cuts go to the books' artists."

haha - good for him. he's an upstanding chap.

"oh I can think of a way they replace the original work. A SHIT LOAD MORE PEOPLE SEE IT, WTF."

but the original books are still there, perfectly unmolested, available for all to read if they so wish. Movies are not comics. One does not replace the other - they exist parallel to each other.

let's face it - the best hope for a decent Watchmen movie was when Gilliam wanted to make it. But then Munchausen bombed and Gilliam got cold feet re: translatability of the script...

Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:27 (nineteen years ago) link

What if they took the alien out of Watchmen and put it in V, and the Nazis they added to V into Watchmen. That would be rad. (not really).

At the bottom of the Aronofsky Watchmen thread linked above there's another link to an interview with the guy who IS directing Watchmen that might allay some concerns.

Huk-L, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link

portman to shave her head, purefoys face not shown. at least they dont get everything wrong

fe zaffe (fezaffe), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:42 (nineteen years ago) link

"Moore gets financial stability by neutering some of his greatest works before sharing them with a wider audience then fuck him."

Easy to say when it isn't your words putting bacon on the table. PK Dick was so damn broke at the end of his life, he would have been elated if they cut him a check to turn one of his movies into a musical comedy.

Moore has already had one movie not translate from the comic very well with "From Hell".

earlnash, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:43 (nineteen years ago) link

if alan moore isn't able to survive off the money he's made writing as many comics he has and from the money from From Hell and League then he's just not trying

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:45 (nineteen years ago) link

sorry, but "dude's gotta eat" argument ain't gonna cut it here (beside he's evidently not taking his cut from these movies anyhow, see upthread).

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:47 (nineteen years ago) link

moore looks like he eats fine

kyle (akmonday), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Purefoys on wearing the mask through the whole film (see also Judge Dredd): if it was good enough for Escalus, it is good enough for me.

Huk-L, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:49 (nineteen years ago) link

that interview with Greenspan is interesting. I'm pretty skeptical he's gonna fit both the generations AND the clock in one movie. That thing implies they don't even have a script yet! Enjoyed The Bourne Supremacy a lot though. Dude can direct.

miccio (miccio), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:51 (nineteen years ago) link

Moore has already had one movie not translate from the comic very well with "From Hell".

One?! Can we get the full list of bad Moore adaptations? I'll start with LXG and SWAMP THING!

Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link

Oh, like the Swamp Thing movies had anything to do with Moore's work on the character.

Huk-L, Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:54 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm glad that they are not making it too futuristic, I guess after the Matrix I just had bad visions of raves in London and everyone in black vinyl.

jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 17 March 2005 19:55 (nineteen years ago) link

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

it just seems so sloppy. once you get past the novelty of "ooh look they're quoting Beaudrillard!" it's just kind of a mess of ideas that don't really fit together in a coherent way. and, not being a goth, I don't swoon over people in trenchcoats and sunglasses shooting at each other in the rain or whatever... I got a similar cognitive dissonance thing with Inception, where the characters are occupying an imagined/dreamed world but their dreams are all so action-movie conventional.

xp

lots of janitors have something to say (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 20:50 (twelve years ago) link

or, y'know, people are in a war against machines so what tools are they using? more machines. oh, yeah that seems like a bright idea.

lots of janitors have something to say (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 20:51 (twelve years ago) link

yes but you go into entertainment predisposed to hate it

anarcho-misogynist puppies (DJP), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 20:52 (twelve years ago) link

(nb: that was not a serious comment)

anarcho-misogynist puppies (DJP), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 20:53 (twelve years ago) link

This was one of the first ILE threads in which I participated!

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:12 (twelve years ago) link

i don't know the source material at all but this movie was ridiculously bad

horseshoe, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:14 (twelve years ago) link

i saw it with friends and said something like, "well that was a turd" as we walked out and they were all >:[. it turned out they all liked it. i learned a valuable lesson about stfu that day.

horseshoe, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:15 (twelve years ago) link

If the screenwriters had rewritten the movie so that Stephen Fry was the Big Brother, then it would have been awesome.

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:17 (twelve years ago) link

i saw it with friends and said something like, "well that was a turd" as we walked out and they were all >:[. it turned out they all liked it. i learned a valuable lesson about stfu that day.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, June 15, 2011 9:15 PM (4 minutes ago)

i learned this same lesson at a little movie called 300

lemon kerrang! (jjjusten), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:20 (twelve years ago) link

ok to be fair i didnt actually lean the lesson of stfu, but i was given the opportunity and squandered it

lemon kerrang! (jjjusten), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:21 (twelve years ago) link

but yeah tacking on a trad fist-in-the-air we-the-people ending to a story that ended on a vague, disquieting, totally unresolved note was always gonna be an ugh.

― strongo hulkington's ghost dad, Wednesday, June 15, 2011 3:28 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha yeah before i realized how much i was alienating everyone i was like, "isn't that ending kind of...fascist?"

horseshoe, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:24 (twelve years ago) link

i saw it with friends and said something like, "well that was a turd" as we walked out and they were all >:[. it turned out they all liked it. i learned a valuable lesson about stfu that day.

― horseshoe, Wednesday, June 15, 2011 5:15 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hope you learned a valuable lesson about friends too

☂ (max), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:27 (twelve years ago) link

the answer is yes, totally

xp

lots of janitors have something to say (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:27 (twelve years ago) link

It's an unpleasant experience watching a would-be blockbuster with the wrong kind of friends.

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:28 (twelve years ago) link

aw they're nice people! seriously, i have learned that many people don't want to jump into an impassioned argument about whether a movie was horrible/the best ever immediately after seeing it.

horseshoe, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:28 (twelve years ago) link

have there been any other recent movies about mass uprisings/civil unrest/rebellion (or whatever)? this is the only one i can think of, which might explain why its imagery's been coopted by contemporary protest movements/scientology-hating nerds

☂ (max), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:29 (twelve years ago) link

horseshoe i had the same experience as you after seeing the matrix 2 at midnight with a bunch of people. there is a photo somehwere of me w/ like a dozen people and they are all giving a thumbs up and i am the only person in the group giving a thumbs down

i feel as though i have been vindicated by history

☂ (max), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:30 (twelve years ago) link

i feel like you have posted about that before and it made me lol on that occasion as well

horseshoe, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:30 (twelve years ago) link

haha probably. it was a formative experience in my time as a young contrarian. i have to find that photo

☂ (max), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:32 (twelve years ago) link

have there been any other recent movies about mass uprisings/civil unrest/rebellion (or whatever)?

there was that one about the aliens in south africa and that one about the blue people lol

lots of janitors have something to say (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:33 (twelve years ago) link

t/s "THE END?" vs "THE END" followed by a 5 second pause at which point the question mark dissolves into view

― lemon kerrang! (jjjusten), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 20:26 (47 minutes ago) Permalink

it really depends on the film. If you're talking Inception the former, Black Swan the latter.

― da croupier, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 20:28 (45 minutes ago)

This comment is fantastic imo

Gravel Puzzleworth, Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:34 (twelve years ago) link

i learned this same lesson at a little movie called 300

― lemon kerrang! (jjjusten), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 4:20 PM (28 minutes ago)

I learn it all over again every time Sandra Bullock makes a movie.

Mr. Patrick Batman (WmC), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:50 (twelve years ago) link

You have friends who go to the theater to watch Sandra Bullock movies? (I understand DVD)

The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 21:57 (twelve years ago) link

My wife is a Bullock fangirl.

Mr. Patrick Batman (WmC), Wednesday, 15 June 2011 22:03 (twelve years ago) link

ten months pass...

What images immediately embody rebellion in recent decades? Let me suggest two: the smiley face for the ecstasy generation in the late 80s and early 90s, and the V mask which is currently the icon of global anti-capitalist protest. Both images have spread beneath the level of corporate dictat: neither were concocted by an advertising agency. Both were, and are, recognisable across the planet, and were communicated as memes from user to user.

okay, sure
More remarkably, both emerged from the work of one man - Alan Moore, a working-class Northampton comics writer with a polymath's range of references, and a really rather scary beard. It is hard to suggest another creative artist - certainly not a British one - who has had such an impact on popular culture and above all popular protest.

The smiley face came from Watchmen, his seminal counter-factual exploration of superheroes and politics...


uhh...

10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Friday, 11 May 2012 23:36 (eleven years ago) link

that is all wrong

Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 11 May 2012 23:39 (eleven years ago) link

OG smiley face was created by an advertising agency, V's Guy Fawkes mask is obviously more of a folk thing but is owned by Time Warners.

Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 11 May 2012 23:40 (eleven years ago) link

yeah, i'd intended to cut the last couple sentences out of the first quote block. i'm okay, for the sake of argument, with the suggestion that these are important symbols of rebellion.

10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Friday, 11 May 2012 23:45 (eleven years ago) link

you know who should have directed this? the ghost of alan clarke.

jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Friday, 11 May 2012 23:56 (eleven years ago) link

was gonna go for whoever did that 60s Batman movie

like Joe Pasquale and Gandhi (Noodle Vague), Friday, 11 May 2012 23:58 (eleven years ago) link

sorry is that what happened irl?

like Joe Pasquale and Gandhi (Noodle Vague), Friday, 11 May 2012 23:59 (eleven years ago) link

adam west/burt ward v for vendetta would be good too

jesus christ (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Saturday, 12 May 2012 00:00 (eleven years ago) link

burt ward has a look of skinheady sadsack about him

like Joe Pasquale and Gandhi (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 12 May 2012 00:03 (eleven years ago) link

If the screenwriters had rewritten the movie so that Stephen Fry was the Big Brother, then it would have been awesome.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, June 15, 2011 2:17 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

have never seen this movie but knew stephen fry was in it and until now had assumed he was the big brother, just like how when i heard he was in sherlock holmes 2 A GAME OF SHADOWS i assumed he was moriarty. but he wasn't. what the hell. how hard is this.

their private gesture for bison (difficult listening hour), Saturday, 12 May 2012 16:39 (eleven years ago) link

six years pass...

Somehow I never got around to watching this until last night. Mild head trip watching it now in 2018 looking back at 2006 potential future history but it is as politically astute and timely as pages 4-5 of the Maximum Rock & Roll letters column from 1985. Commodify your dissent!

Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 2 October 2018 21:16 (five years ago) link

this is a funny thread.

Οὖτις, Tuesday, 2 October 2018 21:43 (five years ago) link

three years pass...

this was better than decent tbh, I'd much lower hopes for it but flung it on last night to good effect personally speaking

Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Saturday, 29 January 2022 21:04 (two years ago) link

I really liked it!

mardheamac (gyac), Saturday, 29 January 2022 21:15 (two years ago) link


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