There is a Thundercats movie trailer floating around the websphere for a live action adaptation of the cartoon.
It’s pretty wild. Just watch it and don’t let anyone tell you it’s fake. Taken from a composite of films, actors Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman and Vin Diesel are transformed into Lion-O, Tygra, and Panthro respectively (the best visual gag: Garfield as Snarf). Any fantasy buff will recognize the scenes from the original movies (you might even go so far as to scratch your head with a little deja vu. Isn’t Jackman’s Tygra just a little too similar to Wolverine?)
Whatever, it was kind of awesome to watch, though I kind of think a live action adaptations of cartoons are sucker bets. Even with cutting edge digital technology ruling special effects these days, something about humans playing the cartoons is lost in translation.
Thundercats is one of those iconic characters in my childhood memories. It was G.I. Joe, Thundercats, He-Man and M.A.S.K. in that order. G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra has an August 9 release date. Its stars include (sigh) Dennis Quaid and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (Okay, so he wears a mask but Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander? Really?)
Really?
The movie itself looks slick so we won’t condemn it out of hand for questionable casting.
Thundercats is supposedly in development for a 2010 release as a animated feature film. But since there is literally not a single rumor about the film, maybe it’s caught in development hell.
He-Man, well Masters of the Universe wasn’t just terrible, it was 80′s kitsch terrible (Dolph Lundgren again? Really?)
Really?
Then there’s a 2011 He-Man film given the Sin City treatment. The idea is kind of intriguing, no?
(Shaking head) No.
Fortunately, even searching far and wide, I could not find even rumors of a M.A.S.K. live action film, or any film adaptation at all.
Adaptations of any type are dicey propositions. You have to capture a new fanbase without alienating fans of the original. In a way, a movie like Transformers benefits from having a continuous series of cartoons since the original that mutilated and demolished any myths from the original. Kids of the newer versions of Transformers probably didn’t notice anything amiss. And the visual elements were such a departure from the cartoon versions you had a hard time making that emotional connection to your childhood anyway.
But they can be done well, at least comic book adaptations can be. There’s really no evidence that a live action movie based on animation ever really was pulled off successfully (maybe Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or is that just me? Just me? Okay then). It’s just too jarring to see, say, Brad Pitt playing out Lion-O. The voice is wrong, the look is off. It just looks like Brad Pitt going to a Halloween party. (Though cool costume!)
You know, come to think of it, the Scooby Doo films did manage to approximate the cartoon in a live action film. Though perhaps they inadvertently found success by making the story way more adult than the cartoon. (I actually thought the first installment was really entertaining or is that just me? Anyone? Just me?)
Let’s face it, Hulk never translated on to the big screen (call it the Lou Ferrigno ® curse) and the Uncanny X-Men films were brilliant in the hands of Bryan Singer but lackluster in the hands of director Brett Ratner, despite cranking up the action quotient in the third installment. (It’s funny because among Ratner’s other directorial credits is Rush Hour and Madonna’s music video for Beautiful Stranger. Or is that just funny to me?) The Punisher? You couldn’t even decide which version was worse, Dolph Lundgren’s or Thomas Jane’s (who by the way, I love but even he couldn’t rise above this one.)
But for all the Marvel adaptations that have flopped (Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Elektra) or just been [shrug] (either Fantastic Four, Spider-Man 3, Howard the Duck) there have been some shining moments. Among them Spider-Man, X-Men and, of course, the most recent blockbuster Iron Man.
Iron Man is the news these days, along with the now-confirmed first Marvel team-up of Avengers headed for theaters in 2011. The first hero movie of any franchise is a bit of a hit or miss affair. For people not familiar with comic books, the director and screenwriters have to infuse enough of the legend for people to understand the characters without completely alienating the fanbase that have obsessed about them since elementary school. Singer managed to walk the fine line (though notably at the expense of the action sequences, as I mentioned and with judicious use of Professor Xavier voiceovers.) Iron Man, directed by Jon Favreau, did it too, and better.
So it’s understandable now that the Iron Man mythology is firmly established in the Hollywood milieu (and by that, I mean that it is profitable,) the buzz is building around the sequel and Iron Man’s eventual starring role in The Avengers.
It’s easy to conclude that a good film really lies in the hands of the director (I’ve already skewered Ghost Rider for such things if you care to revisit that travesty.) So for whichever installment Favreau signs on for, there is a good chance the film is going to be worthwhile. (He is currently slated to direct Iron Man II and executive produce The Avengers.) And given the studio’s track record of releasing three hero films a year (except for 2006 but that was obviously a glaring mistake in scheduling) whether the films are good or bad doesn’t make much of a dent in the future of Marvel hero films.
Coming Attractions
Punisher
First up is the Punisher reboot Punisher: War Zone. A reboot just means the first origin film flopped, so they are telling the origin story again with a different creative team. Marvel already tried this with The Incredible Hulk which flopped but established Edward Norton to play Bruce Banner/Hulk in The Avengers film (including a brief appearance by Iron Man’s alter ego Tony Stark hinting at an Avengers team.)
The Punisher has been done before, and not well. Lundgren’s Punisher was a product of decade it was made in (the film was released in 1989) but Jane’s Punisher was just painful to sit through from start to finish. The fact that movie sucked had little to do with Jane himself, but that’s not really a consolation for anyone who made the mistake of watching it.
Punisher: War Zone, as a comic book, was grittier storytelling than the mainstream Punisher comic, and we should expect about the same between The Punisher film and the upcoming War Zone. Sadly, the story is going to sound remarkably familiar to anyone who has ever seen a hero movie: Mob boss is disfigured by superhero vigilante, adopts a supervillain persona and seeks revenge against said superhero. There is little to no buzz about the film despite a December 5 release date (though the film was pushed back from its original release date on September 12.) But here’s the question? The plot sounds wholly unoriginal, what is going to distinguish this from the past Punisher flops or any other retread hero flick? My guess: not a damn thing.
Wolverine
The X-Men franchise was handed over to Wolverine, care of Hugh Jackman, which is a good thing if you ask me. Jackman personified Wolverine in a way that still sends chills down my spine. Oh, but this is an origin story and features a veritable who’s who in the Wolverine universe. So many characters that you might be tempted to ask, who is going to direct the menagerie to make it work? That would be Gavin Hood (who?) Yeah, he is virtually unknown, whose directorial credits barely warrant him an inclusion in the imdb database.
Jackman himself had a hand in the script and supposedly pushed to emphasize a character-driven storyline. My guess: Jackman pulls it off.
Thor/Captain America
So in order to launch an Avengers franchise (with Robert Downey Jr. and Edward Norton already on board) Marvel Studios is bouncing around ideas for films that establish Thor and Captain America in Hollywood. The Cap film was delayed because of the writer’s strike but has been tentatively slated for a May 2011 release, sans any real details (though it is supposedly set during World War II.)
There is no real information about the possibility of a Thor film except that it has been in pre-production for several years. My guess: It will be interesting, assuming both films are released, to see if setting up the characters in their own films helps or hurts The Avengers. I would love to see The Avengers spawn infinite sequels -- it was always one of my favorite comics -- but I’m not sure how long Marvel can keep cranking out films and keep people engaged (particularly when their success rate is generously 50%.)
Future Film Adaptations
Sequels for Iron Man and Spider-Man are confirmed. Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Daredevil, Black Panther and…Ant Man? Confirmed in development at least. (There were reports a while back that Ghost Rider’s creator Gary Friedrich was appalled by the misuse of his creation -- though from the lawsuits that followed it may have been motivated more by money than anything else.) And there has been some spin around films for Nick Fury (inconceivably played by Samuel L. Jackson in the Iron Man flick) and Dr. Strange, in addition to spin-offs for Silver Surfer, Venom and Magneto. My guess: Good or bad, Marvel will keep the pace going for the foreseeable future. There is no way to run out of characters when you can always make a sequel or a reboot out of established film heroes or dig up some obscure character and try to make a bonafide box office hero out of him.
Thank You is Implied
The Annotated Smart ReMarx
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