Watchmen, Superman, Honey Moon, The Ride, Spaceship Down, Transformers, Battle Angel, Rex Steele, Weathercube, Shirow, Megacity909, Aeon Flux, Lance..

9/10/2004

It's time for a Blog Freebasing Binge:

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Watchmen: How about a script draft review?!

ZING! ZOWIE!

:::SPOILERS:::


"Some SPOILERS follow but if you know the comics ...

Like the comic it is based on, Watchmen takes place in an alternate reality where superheroes really do exist ... that is until changing times and legislation turned the public against them. Our protagonists include: the withdrawn, chubby Daniel Drieberg (a.k.a. Nite Owl); the psychotic vigilante Walter Kovacs (a.k.a. Rorschach); second generation superheroine Laurie Jupiter (a.k.a. Slingshot, although she was Silk Spectre II in the comic); the god-like Dr. Manhattan (p.k.a. Jon Osterman); the brilliant, wealthy Adrien Veidt (a.k.a. Ozymandius); and the cynical, blackhearted Comedian (a.k.a. Edward Blake).

It is the murder of Edward Blake that kicks off the plot to Watchmen. The mystery of who is out to get the ex-heroes propels the narrative forward but it is the deconstruction of superhero mythology that has made Watchmen intriguing for the last two decades. As Rorschach ruthlessly pursues the truth behind Blake's death, Dan and Laurie are gradually pulled back into their old crimefighting ways and fall in love. Laurie had been involved with Dr. Manhattan but, as both the comic and this draft show, he is no longer capable of behaving like a true human being.

The quest for Blake's killer uncovers a conspiracy concocted by Pyramid Developments, a far-reaching organization seemingly out to ignite World War III (and given the perilous state of the world of Watchmen that's not too hard to do). But when the mysterious enemy manages to take both Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach out of the picture, it forces Dan and Laurie to suit up again and confront the individual they believe is behind it all. Can they accomplish this before a catastrophic tragedy befalls America?

That's Watchmen in a nutshell but Hayter's script, like Moore and Gibbons' comic, works because of its rich, complex characters. Hayter has penned an amazingly faithful adaptation of the graphic novel, jettisoning the pirate story-within a-story, many of the news vendor cutaways, and updating the tale to 2005 without losing the meaning and power of the original tale. Indeed, it was wonderful to see how many images, lines of dialogue, and entire scenes were kept intact from the comic.

Watchmen may seem like it took a simple approach to adapting the comic but that's deceptive; I can only imagine the many tough decisions that were made of what had to be to cut. Hayter has compressed the narrative down to its core elements, remaining true to the nature of the characters (especially Rorschach) and captured its essence while rearranging events and excising subplots and minor characters.

But there were some issues I had with this draft that I can't discuss these without issuing yet another SPOILER WARNING.

I've always had a problem with the end of the graphic novel and I had similar issues with the ending of this draft. Without revealing too much, I will say that the identity of the secret enemy remains the same in the script as does their motivation but the actual catastrophe is different. I always thought the comic book collapsed under its own weight, ending with a James Bond-esque mea culpa by the villain and slowed down by exposition and flashbacks. While I've always liked the villain's Utopian agenda and their ends-justifies-the-means-approach, the logic and purpose of their actions no longers seems as persuasive post-9/11, given how quickly the sense of unity and purpose that stemmed from that tragedy evaporated.

Much of the mystery villain's backstory is no longer present in this draft, which robs them of their mystique and zany delusions of historical grandeur. This lack of development of the villain – a case of stripping the character of too many of their comic booky qualities – is arguably the weakest part of this draft. That said, this new approach to wreaking Armageddon was less convoluted than the one used by Moore and Gibbons but it still had some holes in it.

Overall, though, David Hayter has managed to accomplish what so many fanboys thought impossible: he has written a faithful and entertaining adaptation of a work almost universally considered the very best its medium has to offer. Despite my nitpicks with some of the changes and alterations made, I commend Hayter for not betraying the graphic novel and its fans. Here's hoping that Paramount might actually let us someday watch the Watchmen. - STAX"

Watchmen Script Draft

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Superman:

ComicReel referenced some random Superman casting rumorness I hadn't seen yet, in a piece of the Fantastic Four film, which is currently boring me.

"...Apparently the 'Angel' star came close to snagging the role of Ben Grimm/The Thing in the film, but Michael Chiklis was the winner at the end of the day. All is not lost for Buffy's beau. He's just tested for 'Superman' and word is, Bryan Singer liked him. Whether he likes him enough to headline the pricey blockbuster is yet to be determined, but Singer did take to the former WB fave."

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Sin City: Here you go, it's Sin City film caps for the first time... and this reluctant robot admits: "Click!"

Sin City Film Caps

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Honey Moon: Want to know what it takes to get arrested for drawing obscene images in Japan, post-Obscenity Law Repeal? This. Well, these:

Honey Moon Overdoes It?

[[This is a naughty illegal site selling access to these images, so of course, don't actually give them money because they suck.]]

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The Ride: Jason Pearson: Despite a devestating personal tragedy, Jason pearson is putting out some of his most exciting pages in years, to be seen in the delayed Ride #2. Here are preview images:
Jason Pearson's Ride




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Sun Particles Served Sunny-Side Up: Watch the video footage of the capsule crashing to Earth... despite the stuntmen in those coptors trying their darndest to catch the gently falling, parachuted spacecraft, they were left limp as the chutes did not deploy and the decahedron wobbled it's way earthside at terminal velocity, burying itself half-way into the ground like some sort of Hollywood effect. No flipping taxis or whatever, but it's freakishly like the kind of thing they'd be watching in the beginning of Signs before things get whacked. Anyway, watch the video. It's truly surreal.

The Ominous Beginning of Signs!


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From ComicReel, a few tidbits:


[Mexican Not-a-bot]

"Transformers: Producer Don Murphy keeps stirring the pot on his official site with more details about the upcoming adaptation. Murphy said the live-action film will feature "a core team of Autos and Decepticons. ... The audience needs to care for the characters. Of course we will need a human way in – but when you think about it, the X-Men films featured Wolverine FIRST, then Professor X and Magneto and then Cyclops and Jean and then.... petering out. I never said that there would be only 7 on either side. Just seven that are fully prominent and fleshed out. And hell, it might be 6 or 8." Murphy claims that he and producer Tom DeSanto "spent the last 6 weeks since the announcement negotiating Paramount into the DreamWorks deal. Boring stuff but it needed to be done. Now we will have a writer IMMEDIATELY and more news will follow." Of more interest to fans, Murphy said, "Simon Furman has contacted me directly offering to consult. What do you fans think of this?"

Superman: IESB.net has some new details on the casting process. "There has been no official announcement but two of my 'inside sources' and I mean very 'inside source' has told us today that Jim Caviezel is not going to be Superman for two reasons. Bryan believes that he is to old for role and that he does not look enough like Superman. The latter is up to debate but his age isn't. The storyline is supposed to take place right out of college and that would put Clark in the mid twenties not mid thirties."



Battle Angel Alita: An anonymous tipper emails the Comic Reel to give us some news from our friends in Asia. "Yukito Kishiro, the creator of Gunnm (Battle Angel Alita in the US) has said that he has given James Cameron official permission to make a film based on his work. The only reason this is significant is because it atleast shows Cameron has acquired some official permission to make this film. Rumors have circulated for years of this deal being made, and among the fans of the comic, it was understood that a movie never happened because Yukito Kishiro was not satisfied with the terms. Anyway, draw your own conclusions. If this is old to you, please disregard my message. Also here is a the official site of the creator and the section where he makes this announcement. Its short, but also holds alot of questions about when and if."

Hmmm... Cameron on another sexed out gunchick, maybe Supes shouldn't be 35, and Transformers are making a comeback, with or without break-dancing...I'm with it so far...

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Rex Steel- Nazi Smasher: Just go to the site. Everything you touch makes rad weird dying robot sounds. And if there's anything that will put a comic and animation about nazi hunters over the top, it's when the company knows it's monkeys, and sounds like robots. Get me?
http://www.monkeysuit.com/monkeysuit.html

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Ambient Devices Weather Forecast Beacon: [RETAIL: $179 ($6.95 per month for optional premium service)] Is it nice outside? Is looking out the window too much of a hassle? Check out this prismatic climate beacon. The lamp receives your local weather data from a special wireless radio network. Glowing blue means you better pack some mittens; red means high temps. In temperate San Francisco, it displayed green continuously -- we were better served by configuring the unit to report the pollen count. The device won't win any design awards -- it looks like a modern-day lava lamp. And the poorly placed power cord keeps it from sitting flush on the table. Still, it's the ultimate in weather-checking gizmos for those with cash to burn. Me, I'd rather save my money and bookmark weather.com. -- Donald Ngai [RATING: 2/10] [ ambientdevices.com ]

-thanks to Wired Gadget labs

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Megacity 909: Say, isn't Masamune Shirow great! Look what he's doing as a follow-up to Ghost in the Shell! Megacity 909

...

Oh, uh, wait, that's just a BLATANT FUCKING RIP-OFF...

But what IS Shirow up to?



Oh, right: super-fetish porno calenders.
Huh.


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Aeon Flux: OK, the word is out... despite our internal theory that the Charlize Theron on-set injury was from big game sport fisting... the word on the street was that it was generated from an attempted backward flip in high-heeled platform shoes... so that proves it wasn't on-set after all. Wauuugh!

Charlize Theron is Fucking Nuts

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Ultimate Nightmare: Trevor Hairsine spoke with Comicon Pulse about his Ultimate Nightmare mini-series, touching on some of the comments floating around in the Supernet after the mysterious first issue was released last month. For a review of Ultimate Nightmare No.1, see our Comic Review in the left index there...
Hairsine on Ultimate Nightmare



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Lance is OUT of T-Mobile International SF Bike Race:
Busted knee, plus embarrassment at his wretched custom motorcycle that he rode without a helmet down the road to retrieve, as Paul Sherwin would say, his 'suitcase of agony.'

No mas Lance

So says...Wrongrobot!


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