irishda said:
Kpt._Rob said:
I'm going to go with none of them. The only one I actually like is Johnny Quest, but I feel like an attempt to update it for the modern era and bring it into live action would cause it to lose its charm. I wouldn't want to see a Johnny Quest movie because it'd be like that episode of South Park with Indiana Jones. I'd just have to sit in the theatre and watch something that I loved as a child get brutally violated.
EDIT: Also, and I'm serious here, how cynical and jaded are you that you are going to try and violate these beloved properties just because you think it'll help you get a shot? What the hell happened to artistic integrity?
Sorry to disappoint, mate. But it's not really a question of jaded, its a question of opportunity. I absolutely would build off an existing property just to help me break into the mainstream movie industry. I'm not a studio owner, nor do I have access to millions of dollars, and artistic integrity isn't free. The only comforts I can offer is A: I did mention I had my own original ideas, and B: unlike Michael Bay, I'd like to think I have a strong grasp of dialogue, plot structure, and keeping a story grounded.
Building off existing properties is one thing. I don't mind it, sometimes I even love it. Hell, a director who's dedicated to the property they're working with can make something truly magical, even if they make substantial changes. It's about understanding the core of the material, so that even if you deviate from plot elements, you're still faithful to it (that's why things like the changes in the Watchmen film didn't deter me from declaring it still one of the best films ever).
But it's all too obvious that you don't give a shit about the core ideas of the material you're working with. They're all properties whose core audience was children, and you're going to turn them into PG-13/R rated flicks? WHY? This is the kind of shit that I'm so god damned sick of seeing at the theatre. Take for instance your White Fang idea. That's
not White Fang. That's just taking the title of an established property and trying to wring a couple more bucks out of it.
Or, considering the property I care about, why the hell does Johnny Quest have to be PG-13 or R rated? Don't get me wrong here, I'm not in the least bit offended by the idea of a mature film. But I am offended by the idea that Johnny Quest has to be a mature film. Johnny Quest wasn't about gritty hardcore action, or violence, or the love interest which would, as inevitably as the fucking tides, get added into this movie. None of those are the things that made Johnny Quest magical, what made Johnny Quest magical was that me and my brother and my Dad could sit around and watch the crazy adventures of this kid whose dad is a scientist, and all his friends. Dr. Quest and Race Bannon aren't
supposed to be complex adult characters, they're just supposed to be good guys.
But that's now how it ever happens in these movies. Johnny probably ends up as a high schooler or college age student, probably with a snarky sense of humor. He's at this rebellious age where he doesn't grasp the importance of his fathers work, and gets sucked away from his life because he has to travel with his dad to some remote place where he doesn't want to be. But then he meets some girl there, the daughter of a scientist, or a native girl from a tribe they're living with, some shit like that. And slowly but surely he becomes emotionally invested in stopping whatever it is that his dad is working to stop. Even if you go in with the intention to do it more justice than that, the studio system just loves to take stuff like this and bend it over so that all we get from it is the same shitty movie we've seen 300 million times. Only this time it's got the name of something we cared about on it, so we go in with the vaguest hope, only to watch some horrendously mutated excuse for a film shit all over us.
Here's my question. It seems pretty obvious that you'd like to make a film for an older audience, so
why the hell have you picked these properties? There are so many things which would make awesome movies (and could probably be licensed a lot easier) which you could faithfully make a mature film out of, but you haven't picked them. If you want to make a Johnny Quest movie, make something the whole family can enjoy, because that's what Johnny Quest is supposed to be. If you want to make a movie for adults or young adults, then pick something a little better suited for their age group. If I seem angry here (and I'll admit, I kind of am) this is why. It's because out of all the many things you could've chosen to make a movie out of, you've chosen these properties which seem so ill suited to the sort of story it seems like you want to tell. By the time you've turned any of these into PG-13 or R rated movies they'll have lost the things which made them what they are. All that'll be left is a name with an emotional attachment, in other words, bait to real in the masses for a cash grab.
