Comics Ready For Their Big Screen Adaptations
ALTERNATE REALITIES
Comics Ready For Their Big Screen Debuts
IT TOOK ALL OF FOUR YEARS FOR THE OBSCURE, LIMITED-EDITION comic The Surrogates to make it to the big screen. The futuristic crime drama starring Bruce Willis, based on the 2005 comic by Robert Venditti, explores the fictional future when humans use remote-controlled surrogates to avoid interacting with each other.
While Venditti has received critical acclaim, I can think of at least three other comics that deserve to make it to theaters. Here's my list in case anybody in Hollywood is reading:
•Fables by Bill Willingham is one of the most imaginative fantasy worlds I've ever read. Forced to livein exile in New York because their own worlds have been overtaken by an evil empire, the characters in Fables are forced to eternally hide their true identities.
The series follows some of the biggest names in fairy tales as they adapt to their new lives in Fabletown; The Big Bad Wolf becomes Bigby Wolf, sardonic private detective; Snow White works as the mayor's go-to administrative aide; the Count of Monte Cristo owns a fencing academy, and yada yada.
I can see the motion picture now: Guillermo del Toro directs, delivering the same creepiness and character design he gave to Pan's Labryinth. Jennifer Connelly plays the fierce "Ice Queen" opposite to Liev Schriber's Bigby Wolf. Rachel McAdams is the Beauty to WWE's Beast Triple H, Kristen Stewart is rebellious Rose Red, Bradley Cooper is the womanizing Prince Charming, and maybe Paul Rudd sits in a corner playing Jack Horner. It would be a record-breaker at the box office!
•Top Ten by Alan Moore takes place in a futuristic world where everyone has at least one super power and it's up to the Top Ten police force to keep crime down. This comic would make a great futuristic buddy-cop flick. Get the writers of other great crime movies like Heat, add in some comic stylings of Beverly Hills Cop and have it all overseen by Moore himself.
Imagine the talent you could get for the movie -- Sam Elliot as Duane Bodine, the techno-cowboy, Michel Clark Duncan as King Peacock, Ron Pearlman as Smax. Throw Blake Lively in as rookie Robyn Slinger (also as some eye candy), and top it off with Dick Van Dyke as Captain Traynor. Film it all on a green screen in the style of 300 and Watchmen. Hell, if he can keep the slow motion to a minimum, Zak Snyder can direct it.
Runaways: Imagine you're a normal kid living in Los Angeles. Your parents invite a group of other families over for a yearly get together. While you're all hanging, you discover that your parents and their friends are super villains. That's the plot of Marvel Comics’ Runaways, in which the kids ultimately rebel against their moms and dads and discover their own super abilities.
With Disney's recent acquisition of Marvel, there's plenty of star options to play the groups' young cast: Ashley Tisdale as the solar-powered alien Karolina, Brenda Song as the gothic witch Nico, Allisyn Ashley Arm as the 11-year-old mutant Molly, and Jason Molley as Chase -- the only nonpowered member of the team. Of course, you'd have to remove all the series' dark overtones: the lesbianism, the character deaths, the children living in abandoned building forced to steal to eat. Other than that, it could make a great kids movie!
Hollywood, what are you waiting for?
Marc Sakol understands the kindness in strangers, which is why he abandons hope of actually getting to know people. He spends his time falling head first into video games, watching every movie ever made and writing for his blog Sarcasm Not Included.
Tags: Film
