Comics To Film

Just been watching a particularly maligned comics-to-screen translation, 'Spider-Man: the Dragon's Challenge', a full length movie version of the final episodes of the Amazing Spider-Man live action TV series from 1979. Stan Lee apparently hated this show, but I was surprised to find myself quite enjoying it after all these years. And despite J Jonah Jameson being somewhat softened up, and Nicholas Hammond's Peter Parker being far too much the standard all-American good guy, it isn't as far removed from the comics as it might have been. He even uses Spider Tracers...

Apparently, they were plans at one point to have a crossover between this show and The Incredible Hulk. I think that might actually have worked rather well.

It's not on DVD at all is it? YouTube?

Spiff_B wrote:It's not on DVD at all is it? YouTube?

I'm not actually sure. It was released twice on VHS, most recently in the late 90s, but I've yet to see a DVD version. Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't one...

Just bought the second series of The New Adventures of Wonder Woman on DVD for a fiver. I watched the first series awhile back, and I'm looking forward to some more pleasant evenings with Lynda Carter, fighting for our rights in her satin tights (a line from the theme song which made no sense, as WW never wore tights).

tony ingram wrote:I'm looking forward to some more pleasant evenings with Lynda Carter, fighting for our rights in her satin tights

I bet you are!

I've not long started watching series 2 of the Hulk (Bixby/Ferrigno)... 'Comics to TV Series' thread required, to include cartoons as well as live action?

Spiff_B wrote:

tony ingram wrote:I'm looking forward to some more pleasant evenings with Lynda Carter, fighting for our rights in her satin tights

I bet you are!

I've not long started watching series 2 of the Hulk (Bixby/Ferrigno)... 'Comics to TV Series' thread required, to include cartoons as well as live action?

A very good point! It shall be done!

Do you think theres any comics which probably shouldnt be made into a film? The only one I can think of is Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee as I dont think they'd work.

Could we have "Veering Wildly Off Topic" section please?

alanultron5 wrote:Could we have "Veering Wildly Off Topic" section please?

We could, but it would be too confusing working out which topic we were supposed to be veering wildly off of.

Hourglass wrote:Do you think theres any comics which probably shouldnt be made into a film? The only one I can think of is Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Squee as I dont think they'd work.

I don't think those comics should even exist, they're so unfunny they suck funny out of the world. A copy of The Beano left next to one changed into a Look and Learn with the Trigan Empire pages ripped out!

And idiots keep making copies of them (Emily The Strange and Lenoire being two i have seen around) and pretending it's something new and original.

A Series of Sexton Blake films would be good. Or a TV series which jumps around his 116-year continuity giving it a bit of a doctor who style time travel aspect. Only with solving crimes and action.

A "The Truth about Wilson" film would be pretty good i think too, if it was told in the style of the original story, with modifications. For instance it could be told as a film about a hard-up sports journalist who wants a story then encounters this amazing athlete who seems to be brilliant at everything, but keeps vanishing. Eventually he tracks him down and learns, well, the truth about Wilson!

I spent a pleasantly mind numbing three hours last night watching Swamp Thing and The Return of Swamp Thing on video, with the assistance of several cans of beer. The opening credits of Return, with shots of that spookily brilliant artwork from DC's groundbreaking eighties series, leading into a so-bad-it's-good movie with Dick Durock in a rubber suit, have to be the most misleading in cinematic history. Great fun, though. Though it was a pity Heather Locklear wasn't in the first one. I'd have liked to see her in 'that' scene in the swamp where Adrienne Barbeau strips off for no readily apparent reason...

And whatever happened to Louis Jordan, anyway?

The opening credits of Return, with shots of that spookily brilliant artwork from DC's groundbreaking eighties series, leading into a so-bad-it's-good movie with Dick Durock in a rubber suit, have to be the most misleading in cinematic history.

Don't forget the first few minutes of Judge Dredd!

felneymike wrote:

The opening credits of Return, with shots of that spookily brilliant artwork from DC's groundbreaking eighties series, leading into a so-bad-it's-good movie with Dick Durock in a rubber suit, have to be the most misleading in cinematic history.

Don't forget the first few minutes of Judge Dredd!

Good point. The beginning of the movie made it seem as though it was actually about Judge Dredd!

Finally got a chance to see Fantastic Four the other day. I'd only seen the second film till then. I must admit I was very suprised at how enjoyable it was, as I utterly loathed the second film. The actors seemed to work so much better in this story, which was very interesting. I also loved Doom, what a wonderful take on the character. A tad sad much of his character was lost in the sequel.

I actually preferred Roger Corman's unreleased FF movie to the 'official' ones, but yes, I'd agree that of those two, the first was definitely the better. The second movie I think suffered from the same flaw as Spider-Man II: it tried to cram too much in, and became a bit of an underdeveloped mess as a result.

I just hated how they killed Galactus. I also hate how they didnt actually show him clearly despite a full CGI image of him being shown in SFX. Why would he make the Surfer be equal to power in him to the point the Surfer could kill him? It was a really dumb ending.
Liked the Stan Lee appearance though

Hourglass wrote:I just hated how they killed Galactus. I also hate how they didnt actually show him clearly despite a full CGI image of him being shown in SFX. Why would he make the Surfer be equal to power in him to the point the Surfer could kill him? It was a really dumb ending.
Liked the Stan Lee appearance though

Stan gets a cameo in every Marvel movie these days. Who can blame him?

Didn't spot hm in the second HULK film, where abouts was that?

He's there. His film credits so far include: The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (jury foreman), X-Men (hot dog vendor), Spider-Man (bystander who rescues a little girl from falling masonry), Daredevil (old blind man saved by Matt Murdock), Hulk (security guard; his fellow security guard was former Hulk Lou Ferrigno), Spider-Man 2 (still the same heroic bystander, repeating his rescue stunt), Fantastic Four (Willie Lumpkin the postman), X-Men: the Last Stand (one of Jean Grey's neighbours; the other is Chris Claremont), Spider-Man 3 (man in times square), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (himself), Iron Man (himself, though Tony Stark mistakes him for Hugh Hefner), and The Incredible Hulk (man who accidentally drinks a soft drink containing Bruce Banner's blood).

tony ingram wrote:I actually preferred Roger Corman's unreleased FF movie to the 'official' ones, but yes, I'd agree that of those two, the first was definitely the better. The second movie I think suffered from the same flaw as Spider-Man II: it tried to cram too much in, and became a bit of an underdeveloped mess as a result.

I preferred the second FF movie, though both are quite poor.

And Spider-Man 2's one of the best ones!

Spidey 3 was utter crap, of course, and coming after the fairly crap X-Men Last Stand, was enough for me to give up on Marvel movies. Got the Ghost Rider on DVD 'cos he's a fave character, but haven't bothered with anything since.

Sorry, I meant to say Spider-Man III, of course. Just too many villains!!

My big problem with spider man 3 was, the first two films established Jamesons son as being an astronaut, so was clearly building up the the whole Venom storyline, but then that whole build up was thrown to the wall. Has this ever been explained why this action was chosen?

I don't think so. There seem to have been numerous rewrites along the way. It didn't help the movie at all, really.

Being a big fan of Daredevil I was incredibly dissapointed in the Daredevil film (2003) the first time I saw it. Although good in places, and thinking Ben Affleck actually made a decent Matt Murdock, the whole thing just seemed so rushed and a bit of a missed opportunity. The film was uneven, inconsistant, there was something 'missing'.

Then, two years later they released the Directors Cut and I've never seen such a transformation on film from one version to another. There is at least an extra 30 minutes in this, which not only introduces a completely new sub plot, but gives each main character extra scenes which make the movie and the characters 'breathe' more. It's a lot more darker, a lot more violent and is just a more polished version that the cinema release version.

Apparently 'this' was the film the director made and Fox (in partucular producer Gary Foster) made all these 'cut's' trying to squeeze some kind of wham bam action adventure movie (a la the first Spidey film) out of it. The question of the certificate came into question also, and here Fox also 'dropped the ball'. Why have a director pitch an idea and then go for it, only to decide at a later date, after the success of Spiderman, that this film needs to be similar.

Big mistake. If people had been allowed to see the original version at the cinema they would have had a successful franchise on their hands, instead of a dead duck in the water, made worse by the awful decision to follow this up with the awful 'Elektra' movie.

Apparently Fox have given the go ahead for a 'reboot', as they say in the US of A. In other words, the other version is too old or too crap, let's pretend it didn't happen.

My main problem with the Daredevil movie was that they seemed not to really understand the character. That scene in the subway? Daredevil might be the grim n' gritty vigilante, but he does not let people die. He just doesn't. Colin Farrell was dead on as Bullseye, though...

I agree that there is lots wrong with the take on the character, not least leaving the rapist to die in the subway, as well as the 'flamming' DD left there as a 'calling card'. But the director would argue that, at this point of the film, Murdock was a man who had completely lost his way, forgotten the reasons why he became a 'hero' in the first place, and 'saw' himself as doing good. He 'believes' himself to be in the right and cannot understand why the small kid is terrified of him after beating the crap out of his 'enforcer' father ("I'm not the bad guy, kid"). There is a great little scene in the Directors Cut with Murdock in a church, a man cut adrift from his original ideals and trying to find some kind of solace, but failing.

The character does go on a kind of 'journey' in the movie and does end up in a place more in tune with the comic by the end, as he spares the life of the man who killed his father (the Kingpin).

I agree the theatrical release is a mess, and the Directors Cut still contains those parts that many people with knowledge of the character found so confusing/annoying/downright awful. Its just the Directors Cut paints a fuller picture thats more in tune with certain aspects of the comic, despite remaining a flawed take.

The only comics to film adaptations I can say I really enjoyed were Batman (1989) Spiderman 2, and the recent Iron Man.

I am possibly the only person alive who loved Howard: a New Breed of Hero.

LOL! Yep, quite possibly.

Even if true, thats still more than could ever love the movie monstrosity that is 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'. I swear it gave me a migraine!

kembel wrote:LOL! Yep, quite possibly.

Even if true, thats still more than could ever love the movie monstrosity that is 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'. I swear it gave me a migraine!

As Kevin O'Neill pointed out to me 'the canals of Venice cannot accommodate a submarine'. On the whole, that was one time I could understand Alan Moore disassociating himself from the movie...

I actually thought the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film was better than the comic, in the comic they were so busy making references it was like they forgot to include a storyline until the end!

Might just be my love of Boys' Own adventures though, a bizarre battle against "not Fu Manchu honest" and then some conspiracy stuff doesn't compare to an improbable across-the-world chase to discover a mad baddie who everybody thought was dead is building a steampunk army to take over the world with. Shame the sequel will never be made.

My main problems with the movie were: the submarine in Venice, the fact that the sub in question kept changing size between scenes, the inclusion of the annoying American, Quartermain being turned into a generic hero figure, and (and this is the big one) the fact that the story bore no resemblance to the comic. They might just as well have called it something completely different.

GBF wrote:The best thing about the casting in Watchmen for me was the fact that I didn't know who any of the actors were - I've not seen them in anything before this, so I had no expectations and there was no 'star' to be set up for the take. Similar to Star Wars (Guiness aside) they were all largely newcomers, bit parters. That's one of the reasons it worked so well. The same applied to 'Band of Brothers'. Believe it or not (and you probably will) I'd not seen Matt Damon before 'Ryan'...if fact Tom Hanks was the only 'star' of the cast I'd seen before this film. The same with Gary Oldman - he'll always be Lee Oswald to me.
Who would make a good 'Charley'? - the guy who plays Rorshach?

I think the answer to that would be, Daniel Craig? No. Wait, he's James Bond.......Clive Owen??

tony ingram wrote:

GBF wrote:He's an actor - he should be able to do an 'English' accent (our Damien Lewis makes a good yank after all - but then, he's talented!!). 'Rorshach' is too old though. But that Charley guy does look older than his 16 or 17...they all did back then!! Maybe Hollywood could buy it and film it in Hawaii or something...you know, turn it into something else like they did with 'Pearl Harbour'...

That's what I'm afraid of. If any Battle strip were to be filmed by Hollywood, it should be Major Eazy. He'd fit into that kind of storytelling. Charley has to be a British production.

How about Peter Jackson? Yes he's a Kiwi, but.....Saying that I've never really read Charley's War.

Just looked it up on Wiki, and found out that Charley is actually 16yrs old . So maybe Clive Owen wouldn't make a good Charley being as he's pushing 50.

3hZ wrote:

tony ingram wrote:

GBF wrote:He's an actor - he should be able to do an 'English' accent (our Damien Lewis makes a good yank after all - but then, he's talented!!). 'Rorshach' is too old though. But that Charley guy does look older than his 16 or 17...they all did back then!! Maybe Hollywood could buy it and film it in Hawaii or something...you know, turn it into something else like they did with 'Pearl Harbour'...

That's what I'm afraid of. If any Battle strip were to be filmed by Hollywood, it should be Major Eazy. He'd fit into that kind of storytelling. Charley has to be a British production.

How about Peter Jackson? Yes he's a Kiwi, but.....Saying that I've never really read Charley's War.

Just looked it up on Wiki, and found out that Charley is actually 16yrs old . So maybe Clive Owen wouldn't make a good Charley being as he's pushing 50.

Not without one hell of a face lift!

What did you chaps(ets) think of the Hellboy movies?

Hourglass wrote:What did you chaps(ets) think of the Hellboy movies?

Only saw the first one, but I was quite impressed despite not really being a Hellboy fan. There've been worse comics adaptations...

I've just watched oneof the most infamous comic book inspired TV shows, the 1978 Hanna-Barbera live action "classic", Legends of the Superheroes! For those fortunate enough to have been mercifully oblivious to this until now, it starred Adam West, Burt Ward and Frank Gorshin reprising their famous roles as Batman and Robin alongside Captain Marvel, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Black Canary, the Huntress and (briefly) the Atom, facing a "Legion of Doom" comprised of the Riddler (Frank Gorshin), Dr Sivana, Weather Wizard, Solomon Grundy, Mordru, Sinestro and Giganta. I can't decide if it's hilarious or just embarrassing, though Hawkman is very definitely the latter. Anyone else seen it?

tony ingram wrote:I've just watched oneof the most infamous comic book inspired TV shows, the 1978 Hanna-Barbera live action "classic", Legends of the Superheroes! For those fortunate enough to have been mercifully oblivious to this until now

It's awful. The other one is just as bad. Terrible.
For decades I thought I'd imagined seeing it, as people I'd ask about it would tell me they'd never heard of it, including comic fans. And then I got a copy off Ebay. I wish it had been my imagination. I still don't understand the point.

Mbast1 wrote:

tony ingram wrote:I've just watched oneof the most infamous comic book inspired TV shows, the 1978 Hanna-Barbera live action "classic", Legends of the Superheroes! For those fortunate enough to have been mercifully oblivious to this until now

It's awful. The other one is just as bad. Terrible.
For decades I thought I'd imagined seeing it, as people I'd ask about it would tell me they'd never heard of it, including comic fans. And then I got a copy off Ebay. I wish it had been my imagination. I still don't understand the point.

I'm not entirely sure there was a point. I gather it originally aired during a segment of the Super Friends Hour...

That thing's on DVD now? I think I know what I'll be asking for this Father's Day. . . .

Sam_Vimes wrote:That thing's on DVD now? I think I know what I'll be asking for this Father's Day. . . .

I found it on ebay. £10.99,

tony ingram wrote:I gather it originally aired during a segment of the Super Friends Hour...

No, it aired at night. At least when I saw it, it was prime time.

Sam_Vimes wrote:That thing's on DVD now? I think I know what I'll be asking for this Father's Day. . . .

Good grief, why? I mean, I have the intention of owning all the superhero stuff from movies or tv I can find, but I can't see me getting this.

I have a very low bar when it comes to comic book stuff. Example: I loved Superman 3 and 4 just as much as IF NOT MORE (the damning part is in caps) than the first two.

I have to admit, Superman III is one of my favourites of the series (I liked Supergirl, too). Superman IV was pretty dire, though. Not even Gene Hackman could save it.

Oh yeah, Supergirl! I like that one, too. I'm glad someone else will admit to liking 3. I've always felt so terribly alone in that. . . .

As for 4, I understand. It took me at least 3 viewings to force myself to like it, mostly because it took me that long to accept that Superman had "reassemble-the-Great-Wall-of-China-vision" or whatever. I think I had to view it as a parody of a satirical take on a bad comedy (or something) before I could really enjoy it. But enjoy it I do, and thus I think I will enjoy "Legends of the Super Heroes" whether I should or not. And, hey, Burt Ward and Adam West. Come on.

Have you ever read the novelization of Superman III? It's hilarious!

Sam_Vimes wrote:I have a very low bar when it comes to comic book stuff. Example: I loved Superman 3 and 4 just as much as IF NOT MORE (the damning part is in caps) than the first two.

Well, ok, then. I guess that's that. I have a low bar for a lot of stuff, but that one is just below the bar. I like Superman 4, and I can watch half of Superman 3, so there is a limit, I guess. Then again, I also like Star Trek 5.

Sam_Vimes wrote:As for 4, I understand. It took me at least 3 viewings to force myself to like it

Part of the problem, from what I've read, is that 4 has been cut up to the point where it's hard to follow. I remember watching it wondering about some things not making sense, and I guess this is a decent explanation.

As to the novelization of 3, I haven't read it. I don't think I even knew there was one. Have you ever read the Maggin Novels? Brilliant.

Mbast1 wrote: Have you ever read the Maggin Novels? Brilliant.

Superman: Last Son of Krypton is my favourite novel based on a comic. It is brilliant.