After last weeks article in genre hacks by Mark Hughes, Ten Comic Books That Need Film Adaptations, a number of readers asked the question, "do we really need MORE comic book adaptations?"
You can read Mark Hughes passionate answer in his Forbes Magazine blog:
Why We Need More, Not Less, Comic Book Film Adaptations
Monday, June 13, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Ten Comic Books That Need Film Adaptations
Before being screenwriters and filmmakers, "genre hacks" were fanboys. Our chosen profession only allows us to enjoy or beloved films and books more deeply, and as a result, we tend to be fiercely opinionated, blindly optimistic, and wildly enthusiastic about potential projects and adaptations. My friend Mark Hughes, a screenwriter and entertainment blogger, and lifelong film and comic book fan, graciously agreed to do an article for Genre Hacks to on the subject of...
Ten Comic Books That Need Film Adaptations
By Mark Hughes
While some folks probably think there are already too many comic book film adaptations, some of us think there aren't nearly enough. The truth is that for all of cinema's history, adaptations of other works -- novels and plays, for example -- have been crucial to supplying material for our movies. Comic books, as the modern incarnations of mythology and a blend of traditional pictorial storytelling with the written word, are just as valid and rich as any other.
So here are my picks for the ten comics most in need of adaptations to the big screen.
The Sandman -- One of the greatest, most acclaimed comic book series in modern history, Neil Gaiman's supernatural horror-fantasy tale about the master of dreams embodied in human form. Get someone like David Lynch or David Cronenberg to direct, or perhaps go a different direction with Peter Jackson. It's shocking that a book this rich in story and imagery has yet to be adapted to film. But this much surrealism and weirdness, written this well and with such grand ideas, can't be kept from film for much longer or fans are going to burst into flames spontaneously around the world. So really, getting this adaptation made is in everyone's best interests, right?
Green Arrow -- Somewhere out there, lost in Hollywood it seems, is a screenplay about the superhero archer Green Arrow who begins his career as a vigilante but soon finds himself arrested and locked up in a supermax prison designed to hold costumed heroes and their arch enemies. A prison break sets the main plot rolling, and there you have one of the most innovative takes on a superhero film that I've ever heard of. Green Arrow is cool beyond words, and there's always the unexpected route of developing a film in which he's already a grizzled veteran crime fighter who has gone "underground" and finally returns to help defeat some major threat, and of course the only man to consider casting in that kind of Green Arrow film is Sam Elliot (complete with goatee and long hair).
Moon Knight -- Marvel seriously needs to get a Moon Knight film up and running. Sometimes dismissed by non-fans as too similar to Batman, this is in fact a character with a great origin story and one of the coolest costumes in comics. Yes, there are similarities to Batman, but Moon Knight is a unique character with great stories to tell, and he is the perfect vehicle for Marvel to explore a darker solo franchise apart from their on-screen linked universe. A former mercenary who believes he died and was revived in order to serve as the human manifestation of vengeance, Moon Knight is openly and unapologetically crazy, and has serious identity issues as well. He also has an awesome arch nemesis in the form of Bushman, an equally insane former soldier with teeth chiseled into fangs and a death mask tattooed on his face. Because that's what it takes to be Moon Knight's archenemy, because Moon Knight is that cool.
Wonder Woman -- No excuses here, folks. With so many comic book characters getting their shot at fame and fortune on the big screen, it's a shame that no female characters have really had the chance to fly solo, and an even bigger shame that someone as iconic as Wonder Woman still hasn't had a chance. It's particularly jarring in light of how many great ways this character could be portrayed on film, due to a plethora of strong storylines and different ways to re-imagine her for film. With so much potential and so many great writers eager to develop her to the screen, it's inexcusable that Wonder Woman has languished in development hell. Recently, she got a shot at the small screen with a pilot episode for TV, but it went nowhere and appears DOA. Which, hopefully, will revive her odds of a film adaptation -- but I see one obstacle standing in the way, and that's the perception of "target audiences." So long as young male fans are considered unlikely to show up in sufficient numbers to films featuring female lead action heroes, studios tend to be reluctant to produce those kinds of films, since they think female audiences won't show up for that kind of film. But they are wrong, on both counts actually. Movies like "Salt" show that it's possible to get your audience if the product is high quality and your concept has a strong hook. Female audiences in particular are ready and waiting for material that speaks to them and gives them heroes and adventure, and who better to deliver it to them than Wonder Woman?
Suicide Squad -- Come on, it's "Dirty Dozen" with super-villains as the anti-heroes. If that concept doesn't say everything you need to make you want to see this film right now, today, then I don't even understand you at all. It's a team of super-villains, incarcerated and given a reprieve if they accept suicide missions (missions with high likelihood of not coming back alive, that is). Right now as I'm typing this, I just thought of 18 million stories you could tell with that premise. Wait, now it's 19 million. That's how incredible this concept is, and why it needs to be turned into a film franchise as fast as possible.
Dr. Fate -- I have so much to say about why Dr. Fate needs a movie, it's hard not to just write an entire article simply about that topic. Consider that this is a chance to adapt H.P. Lovecraft stories as a foundation around which the rest of the film revolves, a macabre mixture of fantasy and horror into which this extraordinary sorcerer-superhero delves to save all that exists from a terrible predestined fate. But can Dr. Fate truly stop destiny? That's the way my friend, writer Robert Reineke, envisions a Dr. Fate film, and his ideas blew my mind. If you liked what Guillermo del Toro did with the "Hellboy" films, you'd love what he could probably do with these Dr. Fate concepts Robert came up with. The point is, Dr. Fate has an incredible mythos that are aching to be properly adapted into something transcending the superhero film genre, and I hope it happens someday.
Aquaman -- Stop it, I'm serious here. Yes, Aquaman, because he has so much great potential that is simply not appreciated. The jokes in mainstream pop culture about him merely "talking to fish" are humorous, sure, but they are dead wrong. What if he can control water, too? What if his Empire of Atlantis has water-based technologies like those undersea aliens from "The Abyss," too? Think of something like "Avatar" underwater, with a touch of wild seafaring adventure like a modern-day "Pirates of the Caribbean" thrown in on the surface of the seas. Re-imagine Aquaman on screen so that he perhaps has some slight physical traits that distinguish him as an Atlantian (slightly webbed fingers and toes, a bluish tint to his skin in some places, bright yellow irises), give him long hair woven into long, slim braids all over his head, and I think you've got a heckuva start for a great series. Aquaman lives at sea, and few other comics or superhero films will have a similar setting, so take advantage of how unique he is and how cool and big his world can be. And stop those damn jokes about talking to fish!
Ronin -- Before there was "The Matrix," and before there was even "Ghost in the Shell," there was Frank Miller's stunning vision of a future in which a sort of intelligent nanotechnology tries to spread and take over Earth, using a young boy with psychic powers and turning his samurai daydreams into "reality" in order to control the boy's powers and use them to help engulf humanity in fantasy and nanotechnology. The boy, a quadriplegic, believes himself to be possessed by the spirit of a powerful ronin (masterless samurai, as if anyone reading this doesn't already know that) who is tasked with saving the world from an ancient demon unleashed in the dystopian future setting. The story is told through use of parallel settings -- sometimes in the machine-dominated futuristic wasteland, other times in feudal Japan. It's incredible and marked Miller's turn toward heavy influence of Japanese manga in his own artwork, this graphic novel resembling the artistic style of the brilliant series "Lone Wolf & Cub" (which, in its U.S. printing, featured great cover art by Miller). Imagine if "13 Assassins" got mixed into "The Matrix" and you have the beginnings of an idea of what this film could be like. Oh, did I mention that the ronin, since he inhabits the body of a boy who has no arms or legs, is a CYBORG samurai? Yeah. Your brain just exploded from awesomeness overload.
Y the Last Man -- If guys think that being the only male left alive on a planet full of women would be some kind of dream come true, think again. Society starts to collapse, and every government and organization wants to capture you to try cloning you and turning your body into a sperm production plant for fertilizing women. This is one of the coolest dystopian future concepts I've read, similar in very vague conceptual ways to "Children of Men" but also entirely different. It could make either a terrific film franchise (with a lot more than just a trilogy) or a television series (which was the most recent rumor about the project), but it's been in limbo for several years now. Please, please get this one into production before some cheesy porn producer decides to try and make "XXX the Last Man" (not to be confused with some perverse sequel to the "xXx" film franchise).
Those are the top comics that I think are most deserving of a film adaptation. So get to work, Hollywood!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
A Filmmaker's Life: Our Kickstarter Campaign - Support Your Passion!
Filmmakers Alliance is an Los Angeles based non-profit organization. Without them, I could have never made the films that are dearest to me and (perhaps as a result) most difficult to make. Please check out their kickstarter campaign!
The filmmaker you save may be yourself!
Friday, May 13, 2011
A Filmmaker's Life: A Call For Creative Invention
As usual, Jacques Thelemaque writes passionately and insightfully about "creative invention" in filmmaking. Click the link below:
Untangling Writing Credits
In movie credits, when there is more than one writer, how can I tell which writer did what?
To answer the question, let's look at a specific example. On the movie Thor (2011), the writing credits read:
To untangle these credits, there are a number of points to you need to understand:
In the case of Thor in particular, I know that Mark Protosevich was hired by Marvel Studios to write the script in 2006, and he did another draft in 2008. However, when Kenneth Branagh was hired to direct it, other writers were hired to do rewrites. Also Thor had been "in development" since 1990, so its possible that some of the writers who worked on scripts before Protosevich were eligible for credit. Since Protosevich did not get "screenplay by" credit it seems that only some general elements of "story" remained in the final shooting scripts after many rounds of rewrites.
But who is really responsible for what? Having been through several WGA credit arbitrations (including one for Conan The Barbarian 3D) I can say that each writer may have very, very different ideas about who deserved credit for what, and who "really" wrote the script. Check out this New Yorker article on credit battles.
Also, check out this story: George Clooney was furious when the WGA decided not to award him credit on Leatherheads, a script that he claims he completely rewrote: WGA, Clooney at odds over credit
To answer the question, let's look at a specific example. On the movie Thor (2011), the writing credits read:
screenplay by
Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz and Don Payne
story by
J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosevich
To untangle these credits, there are a number of points to you need to understand:
- When two names are separated by an ampersand (&), it designates a writing team. So Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz are two writers who work as a team.
- When two names are separated by "and" that means that the writers did not collaborate as a team, but rather contributed to the script at different times during development. Perhaps one rewrote an earlier draft by the other.
- The order of names indicates the weight of the writer's contribution to the final shooting script. The name that comes first contributed more.
- Sometimes credit is split into "story by" and "screenplay by." The WGA defines "story" as a contribution "distinct from screenplay and consisting of basic narrative, idea, theme or outline indicating character development and action."
- On a script (like Thor) that has been in development for many years or even decades, dozens of different WGA writers may be hired to work on the script at different times, but only two writers (or writing teams) can get credit. In the case of Thor, a writing team and a single writer split screenplay credit, and two writers split story credit.
- When a screenplay is non-original (based on underlying material, as Thor was based on a comic book), a credited writer must have contributed 33% or more to the final shooting script. For "screenplay by" credit the writer must contribute 33% in the areas of character, structure, dialogue, and "new and original scenes."
- When a screenplay is original, the first writer gets sole credit, unless a subsequent writer has contributed 50% or more to the final shooting script.
- When a credit reads "written by," it means that the writer(s) is responsible for both story and screenplay. For example, on Conan The Barbarian 3D, the credits read: written by Thomas Dean Donnelly & Joshua Oppenheimer and Sean Hood. So, the writing team Donnelly & Oppenheimer share both story and screenplay credit with Sean Hood (me.)
- Often final credits are determined by the WGA in a grueling and complex arbitration process. (See Screenwriting Credit System)
In the case of Thor in particular, I know that Mark Protosevich was hired by Marvel Studios to write the script in 2006, and he did another draft in 2008. However, when Kenneth Branagh was hired to direct it, other writers were hired to do rewrites. Also Thor had been "in development" since 1990, so its possible that some of the writers who worked on scripts before Protosevich were eligible for credit. Since Protosevich did not get "screenplay by" credit it seems that only some general elements of "story" remained in the final shooting scripts after many rounds of rewrites.
But who is really responsible for what? Having been through several WGA credit arbitrations (including one for Conan The Barbarian 3D) I can say that each writer may have very, very different ideas about who deserved credit for what, and who "really" wrote the script. Check out this New Yorker article on credit battles.
Also, check out this story: George Clooney was furious when the WGA decided not to award him credit on Leatherheads, a script that he claims he completely rewrote: WGA, Clooney at odds over credit
Monday, May 9, 2011
Melancholy Baby Redux
For those of you who only think of me as a guy who writes about muscle men with swords, teenaged girls possessed by demons, and shy entomologists who transform into grotesque bugs, I offer you a completely different side of my filmmaking. Click HERE to watch my 14 minute short film Melancholy Baby:
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Sunday, May 1, 2011
Which screenplays should aspiring screenwriters read?
Screenwriters are filmmakers. So, in the same way that aspiring architects study buildings, aspiring screenwriters should study, first and foremost, the films themselves. A book like Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach, by Paul Gulino, has beat by beat analysis of well known movies that illustrate story structure, sequencing, plant and payoff and other techniques.
That said, there are a number of scripts that beautifully illustrate how screenwriters use the written word to indicate visuals, tone, style, pacing, structure, character, tension and action: words that define the finished movie like the lines of an architect's blueprint.
It is also very instructive to look at early drafts of screenplays to discover how the film was changed and revised during production. Sometimes brilliant scripts were made into mediocre movies. Sometimes problematic scripts were solved in the process of shooting and editing.
Here is a list of feature scripts that agents, executives, film school professors, and screenwriters themselves often cite as influential and instructive to aspiring screenwriters.
Five mainstream Hollywood scripts often cited as perfect in style, structure, content, and execution are:
Paul Shrader
William Goldman
Charlie Kaufman
Shane Black
The Coen Brothers
Female scribes are often neglected in these lists, but men and women alike can learn from the unique voices of:
Norah Ephron
Sophia Copola
Callie Khouri
Allison Anders
Diablo Cody
Here is the WGA’s list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays with links to read them:
(However, you’ll need tomake friends with an agent, manager or film executive to get your hands on copies of the above.)
Every year “The Blacklist” is compiled by hundreds of film executives, each of whom contribute the names of up to ten of their favorite unproduced scripts of the year. 2010’s list can be found HERE:
In general, in order to getcopies of screenplays on the net, go to:
My pdf scripts
Simply Scripts
The Internet Script Database
(Also see answers to the related question: Screenwriting: Where can I download screenplays of films to read / study?)
The key is to look for EARLY DRAFTS OF THE SCREENPLAY, not just the official “shooting script” which is often a simple transcription of the finished film.
Even maverick writer-directors working outside the Hollywood system and writers who want to challenge mainstream formulas of three-act-structure, conflict-centered storytelling, and concept-driven subject matter would do well to study these scripts. A screenplay is ultimately a communication tool, like a blueprint, to be given to actors, cinematographers, production designers and editors. Even if you aspire to make movies like Tarkovsky and HATED Lethal Weapon, you can still learn from the way successful screenwriters clearly and competently convey style and cinematic action to their collaborators.
As a final note, perhaps the best place to start is to read the screenplays for a couple of your favorite films. Reading them will feel like play rather than work. And there is no faster way to learn the format and tools of the screenwriter's craft.
That said, there are a number of scripts that beautifully illustrate how screenwriters use the written word to indicate visuals, tone, style, pacing, structure, character, tension and action: words that define the finished movie like the lines of an architect's blueprint.
It is also very instructive to look at early drafts of screenplays to discover how the film was changed and revised during production. Sometimes brilliant scripts were made into mediocre movies. Sometimes problematic scripts were solved in the process of shooting and editing.
Here is a list of feature scripts that agents, executives, film school professors, and screenwriters themselves often cite as influential and instructive to aspiring screenwriters.
Five mainstream Hollywood scripts often cited as perfect in style, structure, content, and execution are:
- Chinatown
- Die Hard
- Unforgiven
- Groundhog Day
- American Beauty
- Adaptation
- Cider House Rules
- Silence of The Lambs
- The Shawshank Redemption
- The English Patient
- Treasure of The Sierra Madre
- The Sweet Smell of Success
- Some Like It Hot
- Casablanca
- His Girl Friday
- Ronnie Rocket (unproduced script by David Lynch
- Memento
- Mystery Train
- Lone Star
- The Spanish Prisoner
Paul Shrader
William Goldman
Charlie Kaufman
Shane Black
The Coen Brothers
Female scribes are often neglected in these lists, but men and women alike can learn from the unique voices of:
Norah Ephron
Sophia Copola
Callie Khouri
Allison Anders
Diablo Cody
Here is the WGA’s list of the 101 Greatest Screenplays with links to read them:
(However, you’ll need tomake friends with an agent, manager or film executive to get your hands on copies of the above.)
Every year “The Blacklist” is compiled by hundreds of film executives, each of whom contribute the names of up to ten of their favorite unproduced scripts of the year. 2010’s list can be found HERE:
In general, in order to getcopies of screenplays on the net, go to:
My pdf scripts
Simply Scripts
The Internet Script Database
(Also see answers to the related question: Screenwriting: Where can I download screenplays of films to read / study?)
The key is to look for EARLY DRAFTS OF THE SCREENPLAY, not just the official “shooting script” which is often a simple transcription of the finished film.
Even maverick writer-directors working outside the Hollywood system and writers who want to challenge mainstream formulas of three-act-structure, conflict-centered storytelling, and concept-driven subject matter would do well to study these scripts. A screenplay is ultimately a communication tool, like a blueprint, to be given to actors, cinematographers, production designers and editors. Even if you aspire to make movies like Tarkovsky and HATED Lethal Weapon, you can still learn from the way successful screenwriters clearly and competently convey style and cinematic action to their collaborators.
As a final note, perhaps the best place to start is to read the screenplays for a couple of your favorite films. Reading them will feel like play rather than work. And there is no faster way to learn the format and tools of the screenwriter's craft.
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