SOURCE:Mark Millar Has “Big Name Action Director” For a Superman Returns Revamp?
I hate to burst your bubbles, Millar-fans, but...
1) Mark's been trying to get this gig for a while now, with no success.
2) Mark's trying to take the momentum from Wanted's sucess and use it to snowball his way into this gig. The big problem is that - relatively speaking - Wanted didn't do all that well. The nicest thing anyone has said about the box-office is that it didn't get crushed going up against Wall-E. That's not shocking. That just means that all the teenagers who wanted to go see a movie and get out of the house this weekend chose to see the only other new movie instead of the kids picture.
3) I'd think if you were trying to get a job writing a character who is synonymous with "Truth, Justice and the American Way", the LAST thing you would want to do is tie yourself to the mast of a comic that is most famous for ending with the main-character insulting the reader and then showing the face he uses as he anally-rapes people. (BONUS QUESTION: Is this a metaphor for how Millar views his fans or an actual declaration of his desire to perform violent acts of sodomy on complete strangers? Discuss.)
4) Even if he is in talks regarding a script, there's no guarantee he'll be asked to write the script or that they will ever use his script. Just ask Kevin Smith about how well received HIS Superman script was, back when he had just made a moderately successful movie, had a ton of comic geek street-cred and everyone was cheering about how there was no way the script could be rejected with an honest-to-goodness comic-book writer working on the script.
5) As much as Mark likes to brag about his Hollywood connections and how in-the-know he is - especially with regards to Warner Brothers - he's been called on his B.S. before and lost.
6) For that matter, he's lied in the past about "sure things" regarding movies based on his work. (i.e. Eminem is DYING to play the lead in an adaption of 'Wanted' .
7) Assuming that Millar is telling the truth about being black-listed at DC Comics (and I think - given everything else we know about Millar's truthiness so far - that's a pretty big assumption), I can't imagine that they would be too thrilled about someone who is signed to an exclusive contract with their main competitor trying to weasel his way into a job.
8) I also can't imagine that his current employers are thrilled about how one of their major name, exclusive contract writers is putting so much effort into pimping for a job with their "Distinguished Competition".
9) Writers in Hollywood have no power. That's why Frank Miller got into producing/directing. So even if Millar does beat the odds, there's virtually no chance of his work going untouched or being recognizable by the time the focus groups are done with it.
10) Warner Brothers' can't be persuaded to make a Wonder Woman or Justice League movie right now - I REALLY don't think they're going to take a chance on another Superman movie bombing.
0. He's Mark Millar. Now I've read a Superman story he wrote that was actually pretty nice, & tried to reinforce social decency & conventional morality: He scripted the "Superman for the Animals" special. But overall, his thematic approach bleeds into Garth Ennis and Brian Michael Bendis stuff in my mind.
ReplyDeleteHe's a proudly post-modern, post-Christian, counterculture Scot, & has done some arguably anti-American work as well as stuff that thrives on shock value. He's hugely irreverant to "establishment" figures, though he has tried to back off from that with his treatment of Captain America.
He is, in other words, another literary spawn of Alan Moore, & Warner Bros. isn't likely to pick somebody like that & stick with him. Because if they're invested in doing it right, he's going to give them pause. And if they're not, they're not going to long stick with anybody from outside Hollywood.
0. He's Mark Millar.
ReplyDeleteOoooh. What a burn. Even I wouldn't say that. :)
Now I've read a Superman story he wrote that was actually pretty nice, & tried to reinforce social decency & conventional morality: He scripted the "Superman for the Animals" special. But overall, his thematic approach bleeds into Garth Ennis and Brian Michael Bendis stuff in my mind.
Actually, Garth Ennis wrote a very good Superman story in Hitman #34 but I know what you mean. They're all "gasoline on a fire" writers who will do something outrageous just for the pure sake of doing something outrageous.
And granting that Millar DID write the Superman: The Animated Series comic, he's also gone on record of saying that even his own kids didn't want to read those comics.
He's a proudly post-modern, post-Christian, counterculture Scot, & has done some arguably anti-American work as well as stuff that thrives on shock value. He's hugely irreverant to "establishment" figures, though he has tried to back off from that with his treatment of Captain America.
Yeah. His Captain America (and indeed most of Ultimates) was a mis-step. But in fairness, who knew the senior citizens who read comics would take offense at the idea that they were all racist idiots back in the 40s?
He is, in other words, another literary spawn of Alan Moore, & Warner Bros. isn't likely to pick somebody like that & stick with him. Because if they're invested in doing it right, he's going to give them pause. And if they're not, they're not going to long stick with anybody from outside Hollywood.
Yeah. I mean, if picking someone who knew the comics was important, they would have trusted Kevin Smith over Jon Peters.