In Contention

Tag: The Dark Knight Returns

  • What’s “unfilmable” now?

    Cover of William Gibson's NeuromancerIn the wake of “Watchmen,” adapted from a notoriously dense piece of popular culture and a nut some think Zack Snyder and company finally cracked this year, Scott Thill at WIRED Magazine is asking what else is out there that’s also “unfilmable.”  I personally think the idea of something being “unfilmable” is bullshit.  Perhaps as far as faithful adaptation goes, maybe, but cinema is a medium with nearly limitless possibilities, so if you can’t dive in and creatively bridge the gap, you have no business trying to do so in the first place.  That’s my view, anyway.

    The WIRED list includes a number of the usual suspects, two of them being graphic novels that I would hesitate to consider all that difficult when it comes to adapting this stuff (Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman”).  Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” tops the user generated rankings, perplexingly.  It’s a sci-fi heavy collective, though, so maybe fanboys are just protecting their own.

    One of the choices, which gets some dedicated copy, is a challenge I’d love to see some intrepid filmmaker take on — William Gibson’s cyberpunk-birthing “Neuromancer.”

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  • Gaiman: Cast David Bowie as the Joker in ‘The Dark Knight Returns’

    I forgot to mention this in the item below regarding that Wired piece featuring Neil Gaiman and the current goings-on in the comic world.  The subject of “unfilmable” comics came up, with “Watchmen” having landed in March and Gaiman’s own “Sandman” at the top of such a list for some fans.

    Regarding Frank Miller’s “The Dark Knight Returns” — which has, as always, been bandied about as a potential film project in the wake of “The Dark Knight,” some have speculated for “Watchmen” helmer Sack Snyder — Gaiman notes, in passing, a fascinating casting proposition that would frankly be kind of awesome:

    I was reading photostats of Watchmen that Alan would hand me months before they hit the stands, and I would puzzle over everything, putting it all together in my head. That’s a different thing than Dark Knight Returns, where the details of the story are more malleable and simple. Batman comes out of retirement. Cute Robin arrives on the scene. Joker kills himself. Is Batman dead or not? He’s not. There’s not much to unpack. If someone cast David Bowie, as he is now, as the Joker, I think The Dark Knight Returns is doable.

    Alright, someone, somewhere.  Let’s make this happen.  (Although Tim Curry would probably be better.)

    (from left) David Bowie and the Joker from The Dark Knight Returns

  • Comic-Con round-up

    San Diego Comic-Con InternationalI’m heading out the door to hit the Wrath of the Con party tonight, but before I go, I thought I’d link out to the news items worth reading from Comic-Con this weekend.

    At Cinematical, Elisabeth Rappe writes up the “Wolf Man” panel, which included the revelation of the film’s first trailer.  She also calls Marvel’s new animated film “Wolverine vs. Hulk” a “blast.”

    At The Movie Blog, John Campea kicks back with the ladies of “Bitch Slap” (who’ve certainly made the rounds) for an interview at the Marriott.  There’s also some nice video of Entertainment Weekly’s Visionaries panel including Frank Miller, Kevin Smith, Zack Snyder and Judd Apatow.  Strange collective.

    At io9, Charlie Anders writes up the footage-less “Lost” panel with some video tossed in for good measure.

    At Screen Rant, Vic Holtreman live blogs the “Terminator Salvation” panel.

    At /Film, Peter Sciretta passes on Zack Snyder’s revelation during the “Watchmen” panel that the director would be interested in a “Dark Knight Returns” movie.  Who wouldn’t?  There is also the exciting news that Jonathan Nolan was confirmed as the lead writer on “Terminator Salvation” by McG himself.

    That should be plenty to chew on.  I’m outta here.