Here’s 5 comics movie ready.
How are you? We’re going to try something a little different.
Imagine you’re a big Hollywood exec. If you are one already, then you’re going to find the exercise more straightforward than others.
You’re tired, all you keep getting is variants of the same old nonsense. What you want is a big hit. Your career is riding on this. You get into a lift or to keep it proper American, elevator, even though you’re going down. You’re neither being elevated or lifted. Anyway, you want that new runaway hit. Marvel and Kevin Feige are doing their own thing. Let’s imagine that rights aren’t the problem, but you want to keep it modestly budgeted. You don’t want to break the bank funding the film.
Anyway, you’re in the lift, and I walk in too. I’m low level, you don’t know my name. You’re big and powerful, you haven’t pressed the button.
“Ground?”, I ask you grunt. I notice you’ve clipped a cigar. The end falls to the pristine tiled floor, you’re holding an open flame to the stogie. My mouth opens to remind you of the studio’s no smoking policy. Before I do, I tell myself I like my employment intact and my knees unshattered.
Have I painted enough of a picture for you?
The lift goes down then there’s an almighty crunch. The elevator carriage bounces in the shaft, and the lights flicker briefly. I press the button several times before laughing awkwardly. I turn to face you. Almost like you’ve done this before you look me in the eye and ask:
“Whatta you got?”
I have a few films ideas for you, all based on existing properties. Here they are for your appraisal.
5 Comics movie ready
Oh one final thing, I’ve included Amazon affiliate links. If you are considering purchasing any of the mentioned books would you mind clicking through them because it helps me out so much? Thank you and hope you enjoy.
5: Judge Dredd: America
Quick Pitch: Les Mis meets 1984
What worked best about the 2012 Dredd is that Dredd was not the main character. Dredd carries the bulk of the film, but the journey belongs to Judge Anderson. She changes the most. Dredd slightly changes too when he gives her a passing grade.
The 1995 Sylvester Stallone Judge Dredd failed because he was the focus of the story. Dredd does not work as the main character because he is autistic, everything is a binary. You’re either a criminal or one in waiting. What makes Dredd likeable is that he is incorruptible. He’s a fair cop. Makes for good satire but having a hero who blasts old ladies for J-walking doesn’t get audiences on your side.
Judge Dredd America would work because Dredd is a presence in the story. He’s an eye of Sauron rather than an active participant. The story concerns America Jara, a campaigner for democracy in Mega-City One. Told from the perspective of her childhood sweetheart who’s a lounge singer. There’ a neo-noir slant on this story too. We’ll need to change her name. Even for us calling the character, America is a little on the nose.
You can purchase the comic here
4: Sleepwalk
Quick Pitch: Magnolia for millenials
This is an indie darling right here. Whatever happened to the ensemble drama? When was the last one? Was it Crash?
Sleepwalk is a series of short vignettes of modern life. Dealing with feelings of regret, isolation, loneliness and memory. I read it in one sitting and was left with a sense of melancholy afterwards.
While none of the tales are directly connected, it wouldn’t take much to have some of them overlap. It could even be done as a portmanteau. Have different writers and directors come in and do their own take on the source material.
The stories may not have happened to you, but you recognise some of them. A girl in a long-distance relationship who gets sent a script by her boyfriend who wants phone sex. Another story is about a single woman stalked by someone in a lonely hearts column.
There’s also a sweet, sad story about a little old lady who eats her PB&J in an old car.
The film would be like Magnolia, Nashville and Short Cuts. The budget could be kept low. This would be an excellent project for a team with a limited budget who wants to focus on life in the big city. It’s set in New York, but we could film in Ontario again, right?
You can purchase here.
3: Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood
Quick Pitch: Vampires meets Die Hard in an underwater prison
This book has so much going for it, how has it not been ripped off before now?
In essence: It’s Sci-Fi, it has inbuilt tension. It conforms to the Aristotelean Unities of Time, Space and Action. A pressure cooker of a premise.
The icing on the cake is our eponymous hero. The fantastically flamboyant Vatican Vampire Hunter, Devlin Waugh.
The book has it’s problems. The question “Why now?” Isn’t answered satisfactorily. All of a sudden one of the inmates in the sub-nautical prison, Aquatraz, is a vampire. Our hero arrives immediately. I enjoy a story that gets to the point, but there would need to be a bit more pretext in this case. Imagine this with a build-up like Aliens. You don’t fully realise the vampire infestation until the half-way point.
The ending needs work too. I can’t remember what happens. My rule of thumb is if you can’t remember how something ends, rewrites are required.
You can purchase here
2: Marvels
Quick Pitch: Forest Gump in Comic book land.
How could anyone resist? The story concerns a Daily Bugle photojournalist (not Peter Parker). He documents the arrival of superheroes. It follows him over several decades, and we sess how life in America changes over the decades.
The book feels like a meta-commentary on our own relationship with the genre. How these comic battles are metaphors for events in 20th century American history.
The book covers the arrival of superheroes. Then goes onto X-Men and mutant panic, Galactus and ends with the death of Gwen Stacy.
Here’s the thing, overall, this is a better idea than it is in execution. The book is oddly structured. The last section deals with Spiderman and the death of Gwen Stacy. Introducing a new character and expecting us to form an emotional attachment is a bit much. You either add Gwen Stacy earlier or drop her altogether.
Adapting it, you would have it end with the Fantastic Four taking on Galactus. It ends with the hero giving up on the story and choosing to spend what he thinks are his final moments with his family.
Another problem that needs to be addressed, the hero is passive. Much of the time he’s an observer. You know what we can work on it, there are enough incidents that all they need is a little tweaking. Is that our theme? Is that the moral of the story? Sometimes you got to get involved. We can work on that.
This film could act as a tease and help reintroduce us to X-Men and Fantastic Four.
You can purchase here.
1: You are Here
Quick Pitch: The Out of Towners meets True Romance
This book is beautiful. It uses these beautiful hand-drawn illustrations. Reminds you of golden age Don Bluth cartoon.
Cinematically perspective, it feels like a couple of films that you’ve seen before. It’s the same but different.
Set up is simple. An ex-criminal returns to New York City to tie up loose ends. Bumps into old friends. Realises he’s being hunted by a psychopathic killer. His pregnant girlfriend surprises him. She has no idea about his past, and the two worlds clash in humorous ways.
He’s a cynic not really used to country living. She’s shockingly innocent, and the two of them go on an odyssey through Manhatten. The best way to describe this is a romantic comedy with an orgy and some over the top violence. The climax on the Staten Island Ferry will bring the house down. Does he get the girl in the end? We can test it with audiences.
If this were adapted into a film, it would have the added bonus of raising the profile of author Kyle Baker. An underrated talent who has been putting out eclectic work for years. Check him out. Let’s get his people in talks with our people.
You can purchase here.
Conclusion
The lift jerks and comes back to life. The rest of the journey is spent in silence. The lifts open on the ground floor. Your assistant is standing red in the face. Don’t take it out on them, these things happen.
If you do decide to go ahead how about an associate producer credit?
If you are considering purchasing any of the previously mentioned comics would you mind going through the links provided because it helps me out so much.
Thank you for reading and have a great day.
5 Comics movie ready 5 Comics movie ready
