Miscellaneous news from the movies!

[Magus]

If Atlas Shrugged does come out, at last the American public at large can ask, "Wait, on this commune of high-minded Objectivist creative minds, who is going to shovel the horse manure around the tomato plants so they can eat?"

Yay, Jackson is directing! Yay! Screw contracts for other films!

Now if they only get the same Gandalf and Elrond back we'll be set...

A black Spider-Man would probably work, I can't really think of a reason it wouldn't. Donald Glover is certainly funny enough to pull off being a weak nerd no one likes well enough. They will never do it, though, possibly because they don't see any need to change the formula.

As for the fandom, the fans do like things to stay the same as in the comics. I'm not sure how the character of Peter Parker would really change from being portrayed by a black guy, though. Like, James Bond, well he's a British secret agent, but Peter Parker's from New York, he can be portrayed by any race, it's New York.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmb...lm-adaptations
So they are making a Dilbert movie. Hmmmm....

[Viridis]

All movie adaptations are terrible, terrible ideas unless proven otherwise.

[RickZarber]

Dilbert will only have a chance of being good if it is like the animated series; that is, almost nothing like the comic strip.

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by RickZarber

Dilbert will only have a chance of being good if it is like the animated series; that is, almost nothing like the comic strip.

Maybe it's just because I'm an IT professional, but I've come to appreciate the comic strip a lot more.

[Lumenskir]

All movie adaptations are terrible, terrible ideas unless proven otherwise.

Uh, ok: There Will Be Blood, American Psycho, Dark Knight, Josie and the Pussycats, Blade Runner, No Country for Old Men, Children of Men, Total Recall, Disney Animated movies based off of old fables, Adaptation, Ghost World, American Splendor, the list goes on.

Unless...were you trying to say that all movie adaptations are bad ideas until a good film is made? Because that goes for everything.

Dilbert will only have a chance of being good if it is like the animated series; that is, almost nothing like the comic strip.

I think this is true of adaptations. If you try to directly transcribe the original work into a film, it just comes out as muddled. Better if you just take the general feel of the original work and make a movie with the same skin. I think P.T. Anderson described it as having the original work nearby to act as a giver of ideas, not as a blueprint.

[Magus]

Dilbert will only make sense if it stars Drew Carey. Then again the Drew Carey show was only really similar to Dilbert when Drew was at work...

There Will Be Blood was pretty great but it was actually a pretty poor adaption of Oil! all told, it only covered like the first 100 pages or something and then did its own thing.

I don't think book adaptations are automatically bad, especially with books that have a certain story structure and have enough plot events in them to carry the movie forward. Atlas Shrugged doesn't seem like it'll make a very exciting movie, let alone 4, but I wouldn't say all adaptations of films are bad, there have been enough good ones to show they can be done...

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Magus

A black Spider-Man would probably work, I can't really think of a reason it wouldn't. Donald Glover is certainly funny enough to pull off being a weak nerd no one likes well enough. They will never do it, though, possibly because they don't see any need to change the formula.

As for the fandom, the fans do like things to stay the same as in the comics. I'm not sure how the character of Peter Parker would really change from being portrayed by a black guy, though. Like, James Bond, well he's a British secret agent, but Peter Parker's from New York, he can be portrayed by any race, it's New York.

Don't know how I missed this.


The only difference would be cosmetic. Peter Parker wouldn't gain or lose anything by being black, because at the base, he's still Peter Parker, a geeky student who grows up into a geeky photographer. That's why it'll never happen. There's no point other than to say you did. It's not worth pissing off the fanbase, especially since they are already by remaking a series that's not even a decade old yet. There's a difference between poking the bear and poking the bear, covering yourself in honey, and saying "treat me rough, sugar."

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Best adapations: Welle's The Trial, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Alice by Svankmeyer, TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze

[Lumenskir]

There Will Be Blood was pretty great but it was actually a pretty poor adaption of Oil! all told, it only covered like the first 100 pages or something and then did its own thing.

This is pretty much the reason why it's such a great adaptation. Oil!'s 'protagonist' (which Bunny is by the thinnest of margins) is less a character than a way for Sinclair to talk directly to the audience about how awesome socialism/communism is. The movie takes the same basic message (capitalism is bad) and makes it into a character study of what all consuming greed will do to a person, rather than just drone on and on about how much communism is teh roxxors.

The only difference would be cosmetic. Peter Parker wouldn't gain or lose anything by being black, because at the base, he's still Peter Parker, a geeky student who grows up into a geeky photographer. That's why it'll never happen. There's no point other than to say you did. It's not worth pissing off the fanbase, especially since they are already by remaking a series that's not even a decade old yet. There's a difference between poking the bear and poking the bear, covering yourself in honey, and saying "treat me rough, sugar."

I don't think you're quite getting what the thrust of this particular movement is about. Like you said, the change is cosmetic...so why not let everybody try out for it? It's not about doing it for the PC-cred, it's just trying to widen the gates so that all potential Spideys are considered. There's nothing to lose by letting a charismatic and funny black(/Indian/latino/asian/etc) guy prove that he's got what it takes to be the best Peter Parker/Spider-Man.

And for Donald Glover in particular, have you seen any of his standup? It's mostly about him being a geeky black middle-class kid. You're telling me he wouldn't bring a funnier edge to the character than Tobey Mopeguire?