It’s been a while now since I engaged in a full on rant. Stop on by She Has No Head! to see what all of the fuss is about this week.
Here’s a hint:
You are currently browsing the archive for the hollywood category.
Tags: comics!, she has no head!
Artwork by Zugma
The “hot topic” section in my new 3 Chicks Review Comics podcast with Sue of DC Women Kicking Ass and Maddy of When Fangirls Attack! was about a Buffy film remake sans Joss Whedon, and tangentially the lack of a Wonder Woman film. Sue made an excellent point that perhaps Hollywood didn’t care much for the existing fan base and was simply trying to capture the “Twilight” audience with a Buffy remake, and I think she’s right. But reading this piece from the LA Times, confirms my suspicions that Hollywood is totally deluded about the Buffy fanbase that exists and what it wants.
This quote by Charles Roven (a producer involved with Batman Begins) is so misinformed and ignorant about the Buffy fanbase that it’s hard to have confidence in anyone involved: “There is an active fan base eagerly awaiting this character’s return…”
Um. No. There IS an active fan base, but it’s in love with a character and world created by Joss Whedon (and his devoted team of actors, writers, and producers) and that character and world WILL NOT be reproduced in a re-vamped movie. Anyone remotely interested in this, please keep in mind that as I understand it nothing you love of the television show: Willow, Xander, Anya, Oz, Angel, Spike, Wesley, Riley, Cordelia – even Giles will exist in this remake. Those are creations of the television show, not the film – the film has no rights to those characters. Buffy and the slayer concept is the sole hold over from the movie to the television show (everything from the city Buffy lives in, to her Watcher is different), and Buffy and the slayer concept sound as if they will be the sole hold over to the new film. And I think most of us agree, that as much as we love Buffy, that she’s not much without those other characters.
Is it possible that new writer will be able to come in and build a great new supporting cast and storyline around a retooled Buffy? Sure. But in order for it to be good and not feel like a complete rip off of the television show it’s going to have to be so different from the original…that I’m not sure why WB is bothering? Why not just come up with something NEW? If Ms. Whit Anderson has such a fresh interesting take on these things, why not just let her create something new…is that so unfathomable? Why try to co-opt something fans love and want preserved respectfully in its original form and via its original creators instead of just creating something NEW to capture those young “Twilight fans”? There are infinite vampire stories to be told – some of them are even good – why not go there instead of disrespecting something that already owns its place in the world.
I also have to say, as a writer who, like Ms. Anderson, grew up on Buffy (and based on the article she clearly proclaims a loves and respects for Buffy), I would NEVER deign to even touch Buffy without Joss Whedon’s okay. And I find it a little hard to believe that Ms. Anderson respects and loves the material as she purports but is also more than willing to go against Whedon’s wishes and do this remake that shuts out all original creators. There’s an argument to be made that if Anderson doesn’t do it someone else will…and that’s totally valid, and is probably just one more reason why I’m not crazy successful and rich. Doing the right thing…it doesn’t usually make you rich, what can I say?
Anyway, if you have any doubts about the fan base Warner Brothers…take a look at the comments on the LA Times piece…332 and counting, and they swing wildly toward the negative.
I for one, don’t believe in Buffy without Joss (and maybe not Joss without Buffy? Whoa…just blew my own mind) and will be boycotting for sure. And probably talking about it…a lot. Prepare yourselves.
Pushing Daisies has been canceled.
Well, no new episodes have been ordered, which is basically pussy network code for canceled. This is one of those times when you remember that Hollywood totally blows…oh wait, that’s all the time. Damnit! A great show.
I always feared it was too quirky and quite frankly too GOOD to survive on television (it should have been on HBO perhaps) but the fact that it was renewed last year gave me hope. Silly me to try and hope, why do I never learn? I think in this case the writers strike really did hurt Pushing Daises – it had such a tenuous grasp on a small quirky intelligent audience…and people forget quickly these days. I have to admit that I was not as enamored of PD this year as I was last, but I still watched, and it still remained one of the smartest shows on TV…also, ironically, one of the most upbeat…and who doesn’t need upbeat these days?! C’mon!
There’s talk of the show finishing as a comic book, but I think we all know how fulfilled that will leave the majority…hardly the same number of people read comics that watch TV…and that’s just part of the problem. The Buffy “season eight” comic book series works well – largely because Joss Whedon knows his comic books and is heavily involved…also, while the Buffy universe is an always continuing growing and changing universe, we were not left on a cliffhanger with the actual series end on TV, the way Pushing Daisies supposedly will. So having a “season eight” in comic books was not absolutely necessary, but rather a decadant way for fans to let the show live on long beyond when any actors etc. would want to stay involved. Angel also has an ongoing comic based off the show, and it is less successful in my opinion. There is the cliffhanger aspect the show was left on, which is pretty difficult to live up to in comics, and also just the handling of the book has been complicated and difficult to follow, as the show was in certain seasons as well. I also think, all due respect, that there’s not quite as much talent in the room on the Angel books as with the Buffy book. That said, I’m still reading the shit, so it can’t be that bad.
Would I read a Pushing Daises comic? Maybe. Probably, but only if I was already at the comic shop. If I was the average fan there’s no way I’m heading into comic stores (unknown territory for many people) to find out about an ending to a show that is pretty much guaranteed to be a let down. Then again, maybe this “we’ll finish it in a comic book” revolutionizes the industry and brings thousands (hundreds of thousands!?) of new fans to the comic book industry…a girl can hope. Wait…wasn’t I just saying something about hope a little while ago…? Hmmm…I forget. Oh well.
Definitely Hollywood.
Let me just say, before everyone (anyone?) jumps all over me for not liking the first two Spiderman movies, I will give the people involved credit for really trying, but it just didn’t work for me. The dialogue, the kind that DOES work well in a comic book, was laughable on the big screen. They also had a huge strike against them in that I cannot stand Kristen Dunst, and so to buy her as Mary Jane is difficult for me and frankly I just don’t want to make myself do it. I will admit that I find the train sequence in Spiderman 2 to be shockingly powerful. I almost cried the first time I saw that scene…which was a huge surprise to me since I found the rest of the movie to be pretty terrible. Let’s talk about the new Incredible Hulk movie for just a second. Why the F’ is this movie being made? I don’t know anyone who is interested in seeing this movie. How did the project get a greenlight? Just because Edward Norton was interested? I really don’t understand. The first film, only five years ago by my beloved Ang Lee was a very obvious and horrible miss (I’ve seen enough of the horror to agree – though I never saw the whole thing), so why is there a need for another bad Hulk? Looks terrible.
You’ll notice I only really included the “new” comic book movies, I didn’t go all the way back (too much work) and deal with the original Superman series, and the Batman movies and all that. Suffice to say most of those are hit and miss…I mean is there anything better than Michelle Pfieffer’s Catwoman in Batman Returns? Is there anything worse that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin? No. No there is not.
Also absent off my list this morning I realized is Sin City. I have issues with Sin City. I love the graphic novels by Frank Miller, and I really wanted to love the movies because I respected the exact literal translation they did for the film, and I also respected Robert Rodriguez for giving Frank Miller co-directing credit (it was well deserved) even though it consequently got Rodriguez kicked out of the Directors Union (jerks and their jerky rules). But for me, it doesn’t really work on screen. The exact translation, much like in Spiderman, involves behaviour and dialogue that feels stilted and false, or worse laughable. Which is really sad, because it had my beloved and adored Clive Owen in it, among other talented powerhouses…but it doesn’t matter, it still ultimately failed.
The best of the best, for me, in comic book films, are the first two X-Men films by Bryan Singer. I never would have expected to like these films because X-Men were my favorite comics growing up and so they were precious to me like few other characters and stories. But Singer handled the material expertly. He understood that a direct translation of what was in the comic books would not work on the big screen, but he also understood that these were truly beloved characters that had to be treated with respect. He did treat them with respect, and he stayed as true as he could to their personalities and storylines, and as such he established the standard on which future comic book movies should be built.
I’m finally seeing Iron Man this weekend, and I have high hopes that my beloved Jon Favreau built his Iron Man on these standards. If the masses can be believed, he did, and he was successful.
Sidenote: Though Singer gets mad props for the first two X-Men films, I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to forgive him for abandoning X-Men 3 (one of the worst comic book films of all time), allowing a hack like Brett Ratner to get ahold of my beloved characters; and all so that he could make a terrible new Superman movie.
Sidenote 2: Sin City is when I first really lost respect for Jessica Alba – there were plenty of opportunities to lose respect for her prior to this I know – but this one sealed the deal. The fact that she plays a stripper, but doesn’t take her top off? C’mon. If Nancy from the Sin City graphic novels didn’t take her top off I’d be okay with it, but Nancy is topless for at least 30 to 40 percent of her time in Miller’s books – so what happened to our frame for frame literal translation? Suddenly Jessica Alba’s boobs are so precious they can’t be shown? They should have gotten a real woman, who could have respected the material and the character more than her “precious reputation” which is crappy anyway. Boo to Jessica Alba (who I’ve always wanted to like – ever since the surprisingly good Idle Hands).
Sidenote 3: Apparently the world and I are very in synch, as I found today, the 20 worst comic book movies of all time on EW. I don’t know that I agree with their order (is it even in order? I can’t tell) but I agree that all the films on the list well deserve to be there. Except maybe Barbarella. Not that Barbarella is a great film, but the clothes and craziness alone should maybe save it from the list. Notably missing are Hack Ratner’s X-Men 3; Lee’s Hulk; Spiderman 3; and Fantastic Four #2 (though it’s at least implied that the whole Fantastic Four franchise is terrible).
#39. I Am Legend. Richard Matheson. 3.5 Stars
This was a great piece. I read it less because of the upcoming film and more because of what Adam told me it was about, which is awesome.
For the uninitiated, I Am Legend is a pretty remarkable story about a man that is the last survivor in a world plagued by “vampires”. I’m hesitant to give away much more so as not to spoil the story plot(s), as that is the best part of the book, it’s a pretty interesting idea, and certainly for its time (written in 1954) it must have been mind blowing in its revolutionary thinking. From reading Legend it is no surprise that Matheson was one of the primary brilliant minds behind many of the Twilight Zone stories. Overall the story idea was what won me over, and what is the strength of Matheson’s piece. I found some of the writing to be a bit weak, and the ending to be rushed, when it should have been milked for all its brilliant revelations, but overall it was a fast and interesting read.
After reading I Am Legend, Adam and I watched The Omega Man, a 1970’s film starring Charleton Heston, which is loosely based on Legend. And when I say loosely based, I mean they took some of the awesome ideas and then went off on their own with terrible terrible ideas (including but not limited to: monk’s robes, sunglasses, “badass one liners”, a stereotypically black power “hot mama” character, young white kids with innocent little faces, and bad white make up) and made a truly horrific movie. It was cringe-inducingly bad. We plan to also watch The Last Man On Earth this week, also based on I Am Legend, which I doubt, but hope, will be better. As for I Am Legend, the upcoming Will Smith vehicle, based on previews, I am cautiously optimistic, from what I have seen there are far more similarities to the original story, and thus a more interesting film.
At the risk of going into a full blown rant, I must say Hollywood pisses me off to no end with their assumption that they can somehow better an author’s original vision. Of course some changes must be made to a novel as film is a different medium and therefore there need to be adjustments to make a story effective in a new medium, but most of the things I see Hollywood doing to films has nothing to do with adjusting for the medium and more with pouring ideas into the “hollywood machine” and mushing things together until they get something nice and bland prepared for the idiotic masses and then cranking them out one after the other like barbie dolls. It’s so very arrogant. I don’t understand why they bother in acquiring an author’s original vision and then not trusting that vision to lead them through. Ahh…it makes me tired just thinking about it.
I Am Legend…3.5 stars, and recommended to anyone who likes Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian stories.
This is a great little article, and I have to give Tim Kring props for being a man and admitting the failures of the show. He pretty much hit all of them on the head – except he forgets to mention that the future evacuation/vaccination story is not super interesting because we saw something VERY similar last year – that said – if that was the only thing wrong with this season I’d be a pretty happy girl.
In case Tim Kring’s people are scouring the globe for brilliant thoughts on how to get us back on track, here’s a little list from me, the 1979 Semi-Finalist…
1. KILL A LOT OF CHARACTERS. The Wonder Twins should be the first to go, preferably painfully; West – really painfully; and either kill Micah’s cousin or replace her with a new actress or a new writing staff and lose the accent while you’re at it, she is just painful to watch, though her power is interesting. Kill Nikki/Jessica (LONG overdue). You have a beautiful canvas of characters. Why overpopulate it with poorly developed new characters? As fans we are so over the whole “learning about new characters” thing. Maybe we could meet a new character or two over the course of the new Season, but five new “heroes” and another half dozen plus supporting characters in the first couple episodes? Huge mistake. Go back to the characters we love and let them grow and change. Trust what you’ve already created.
2. Lose the accents. They’re great when done well, but they’re not being done well, and when every third character has one they lose their “specialness”. Let Adam Monroe keep his, it’s the only convincing one anyway, and toss the rest.
3. Bring back the old Claire. She was occasionally whiney and bratty in Season 1, which is to be expected, she’s a whiney/bratty teen, but she’s out of control and unlikable this year.
4. Pull back on the sappy drama and exposition. Show what is happening to these people instead of letting them run off at the mouth with poorly written and poorly performed solioqy’s…it didn’t work for you the first season, and now it’s happening at a frightening clip this season and is working even less.
5. Utilize your best actors. I know there are plans for Kristen Bell, make them better and bigger. While her role weeks ago was small and was a little cheesy, she’s a talented actor and did a better job of saving the bad writing than some of your less talented new actors (Wonder Twins, Copycat, etc.).
6. Never send Hiro off on his own like that again. He’s a great character, but he’s best in a lighter and somewhat comical role. His bravery and idealism was refreshing last year…bring that element back to the character. Let him grow in a more natural way.
7. Stay away from romance unless you hire some people who really can handle it, both onscreen and in the writer’s room. The romance has been the stuff of ridiculous after school specials and harlequinn romance. Truly, it’s been painful to watch.
8. Last but not least, stop being afraid of your powerful characters. I know you have limits on budget and graphics etc., but there are plenty of clever ways to still allow your powerful characters (Sylar, Peter, etc.) to spread their wings on the show, without giving them annoying cliched amnesia or de-powering them. Don’t be afraid, instead get creative. Fortune favors the brave my friends.
I’m hanging in there, especially after reading Kring’s article…but please…implement change…save this show!
Chris Ware is a god among men, it’s good to see EVERYONE is finally getting this. I was already interested in seeing the Savages thanks to a couple great previews I saw in the theaters that look chock full of amazing performances by powerhouses like Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. And now I see the poster. Created by cartoonist/genius Chris Ware, this is the best movie poster I have ever seen. Let’s have more of these.
You know what would be really great? If when the DVD came out this was the cover…I am so sick of horrible DVD covers that only slightly resemble the original great movie poster, because of actors and agents and studios (or WHOEVER) deciding that we have to have photoshopped floating heads and huge names printed all over what was a beautiful original work, because apparently we won’t buy or rent or whatever a dvd if it doesn’t have a giant floating Robert Downey Jr. head. Zodiac (see below) is a perfect example of this. Great poster. Horribly destoryed DVD cover. I almost didn’t buy the DVD because of it, but the strong performances made me cave in the end. Curse you Hollywood.
Look at this poster – GORGEOUS.
And here’s the crappy DVD version, complete with giant floaty heads. Just terrible.
Yea!
You can read about Joss Whedon’s new project Dollhouse with Eliza Dushku here and here. Let me say again, YEA!
Perhaps I am just overly hopeful since this season’s television, including favorites of mine from last year have been so terrible, but I’m excited about the idea of having some creative Joss Whedon ideas and dialogue on the small screen. I have minor concerns that I may have outgrown Joss’ style, in that though I still love my Buffy I’m forced to admit that I can’t be sure I would be as obsessed with it today as I was then. However, his work on the Buffy comic is current and great and totally enjoyed by me, and as mentioned earlier here, his Astonishing X-Men (also current) is totally brilliant. So okay, I’ve decided I’m excited no matter what. Yea next year! Boo to this year!
On a related sidenote, NBC is scrapping the Heroes Orgins show that was set to air in the spring, during the Heroes regular season hiatus. The official word is that it’s because of the writer’s strike issues, but I suspect it’s more because Heroes currently stinks to high heaven and who wants a spin-off of stinkage.
So I watched a couple minutes of Bionic Woman last night with the idea that I would change the channel the first time it made me audibly groan. I actually don’t think I lasted a couple minutes. Maybe 90 seconds. Please don’t watch this show. It is just insulting to our collective intelligence and it encourages Hollywood to keep thinking of us as insipid idiots. TURN IT OFF…it is CRAPTASTIC…without the TASTIC part.
Here is something you should be watching though, Pushing Daisies. This looks to be a great show. It’s quirky and clever and has gorgeous production values…the world these characters live in his about 40% Tim Burton 30% Amelie and 30% real life and it works in beautiful harmony.
The story focuses on Ned, a piemaker and owner of The Piehole, who has a gift/curse to be able to touch someone and bring them back to life. However, if he ever touches them again they die instantly, never to be revived. There are also major consequences for bringing someone back, e.g. if he doesn’t touch them again and “re-kill” them within 60 seconds then someone in close proximity bites it.
This dynamic is set up in the first episode with Ned discovering his powers when his mother dies suddenly and when he touches her she is instantly brought back to life. Sixty seconds later, his neighbor Charlotte’s (Chuck) father drops dead. Then of course that evening when Ned’s mother tucks him and kisses him on the head she drops dead. So Ned and Chuck are separated, Ned shipped off to boarding school and Chuck raised by her quirky aunts. They share their first kiss at their mutual parents funerals, and never see eachother again, until now.
Now. A private eye discovers Ned’s “gift” and ropes him into a scheme in which they briefly re-animate corpses to find out who killed them and then collect the reward money and split it. This leads them to Ned’s childhood friend Chuck that has recently become deceased. Chuck does not know who killed her when she is re-animated, and then Ned of course cannot bear to “re-kill” her (unfortunately someone else has to die for this, but it’s a relatively “bad” guy which makes Ned feel better about things). Of course now, totally smitten with his childhood love (and she for him) they can never touch or she will instantly drop dead.
The Good: Despite all the “dead this and re-killing that” the show is not dark in the least, a credit to everyone on the show from the creators, set designers, writers, actors, and directors. The show is light and quirky and fun and likeable, largely due to the great cast a series of fairly new faces and great but almost forgotten faces. Anna Friel plays Chuck and has a giant credit list on IMDB, but I’ve never seen her in anything until now, and how sad that is for me because she is absolutely delightful. She brings a charm and innocence to the show that is completely infectious and never saccharine. Lee Pace plays Ned and he is a delightful new face as well, playing his “gift/curse” with a slightly cynical and protective edge, instead of the high pitched whine that is so prevalent on Heroes. Chi McBride as the private detective Emerson is a nice contrast to the sweetness and “unreality” going on everywhere else. Kristin Chenoweth, seen (by me) previously mostly on West Wing is likeable as Piehole waitress Olive, but hopefully her character gets fleshed out a bit more, currently of all the characters she has the least development happening. Delightful are Swoosie Kurtz as Chuck’s one-eyed ex-synchronized “mermaid” swimmer aunt and Ellen Greene looks FANTASTIC as Chuck’s other ex-synchronized “mermaid” swimmer aunt. Greene, most notorious (at least to my mind) as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors (1986) looks fantastic (it has been over 20 years – someone give me this woman’s secret!) and is a perfect cast as one of the quirky loveable aunts. Really the whole cast is just flawless.
I am anxious to tune in next week and see what the creators/writers have in store for us…they did so much in just this first episode that I hope they can keep up the pace. The plot is a bit gimmicky, so hopefully they can dodge those issues and continue producing what was a really great first show.
The Bad: Nothing yet.
The Ugly: Nothing yet, or at least not in a bad way.
Pushing Daises Grade: A
I tuned into the second episode of Life and it’s still good. I like it, I’m going to add it to my DVR list and hope it doesn’t get cancelled. Life is smarter and quirkier than all those Law & Order shows (that I always find myself watching for some reason) where you can see the plot twists coming from six miles away. I like it, I hope it is able to hang in there.
I believe full epsidoes of both Pushing Daises and Life are available online if you click on the links above.
Pushing Daises cast above.
i was excited when i heard that they were doing a re-make of The Bionic Woman…i mean you would have to actually TRY REALLY REALLY HARD to make that lame and stupid…it’s the Bionic Woman for cyring out loud. yeah. right.
these people apparently tried REALLY REALLY HARD.
i cannot believe how bad this show is. the writing is terrible and cliched and the acting is just the most wooden and flat out bad acting i have seen…well maybe not ever…but certainly in a long time. also, while i blame this mostly on the writing and the acting something has to be said for the fact that there is not one interesting character in the whole show (except the ex-bionic woman played by Katee Sackhoff) and the relationships and chemistry are respectively, totally unbelieveable and totally non-existant.
a reason that i thought it would be fun to see a retelling of the Bionic Woman is obviously because our effects technology is so much better these days, but these effects sucked. i mean they were just awful…the “super fast running” being the worst of it. i admit that i’m not a fan of CGI i think it often looks fake and out of place, but some films and television shows dealing with superpowers or “enhanced humans” have found ways to use it to their advantage (X-Men and even better – X2; Heroes mostly does an excellent job, etc.) but this was just bad decision after bad decision on the CGI.
back to the wooden acting…Michelle Ryan was absolutely the worst part of this show i’m sorry to say. the writing and story certainly wasn’t doing her any favors, but she lacked the charisma and acting chops to make it better than it was. there are many actors out there that manage to turn crap into watchable stuff because they are skilled, not so here, she was unbearable to watch, and surrounded by almost as unbearable performances. the relationship between she and her boyfriend was downright laughable.
i’m sad to say that this episode was credited to a woman writer. i suspect with all the drama and rumors related to this show she got a thousand notes and changes, so perhaps it’s not her fault, but i was originally happy to see a woman writing the show, as i thought that would help the handling of some of the larger feminist issues but sometimes i guess it just doesn’t matter.
there was this moment last night while watching Bionic Woman when i stopped making sarcastic comments and sighing loudly and thought “maybe i’m totally off base. maybe i’ve become a complete pretensious snob that can’t see the forest for the trees…maybe this is actually not bad and i just can’t tell.” then i watched a little bit of the show following it, Life, which was pretty damn good, strong acting, strong writing…and as i was watching it i realized, “no. i know exactly what i’m seeing and this show Life is a perfect example of how good television can be (in a pilot even) and The Bionic Woman is a perfect example of everything being done wrong”. it’s good to realize you’re not crazy. thank you Life for cementing that fact, and i’ll be tuning in to you Life next week – Wednesday at 10pm NBC – to see if they can keep it up. interesting stuff.
one last thing about my dissappointment in Bionic Woman. this is such a minefield for cool stuff that has deeper meanings to go on. the idea of two cyborg women, one that is making herself more machine by the day so she has to be less “woman” and one who wishes she was back to being more “woman”. the feminist issues here are interesting and the idea of the badass cyborg (that is more cyborg than our lead character) sometimes getting her ass handed to her by a cyborg that’s got more “soul” left is all interesting stuff. i can tell from this first epsiode though, they won’t begin to scratch the surface of this and if they do, they’ll screw it up. and with crappy shows like this out there, the superhero bubble will burst all the more quickly, and so interest in my “hard to market” novel will wither and die.
that’s right, in the end, it’s all about me. 
charisma-less Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan, above.
cast of nbc’s Life, above.