CBR: Is an Unproduced Screenplay the Next Great Comic Book?

[CBR News]

After the success of "Kevin Smith's Green Hornet" and "Frank Miller's Robocop," are there more hit comics in Hollywood's recycle bin? CBR News investigates the most likely candidates.


Full article here.

[Michael P]

Most unproduced screenplays are even more god-awful than the shit that actually gets made, so I'm gonna say "No."

[Angilas-Man]

Paul Chadwick's Concrete: Strange Armor is basically the aborted script for a Concrete movie adaptation that fell through.

I don't like it.

The story's been Hollywood-ized too much, losing the Concrete-spirit. There's a clear-cut bad guy for one thing (very uncharacteristic for the series), and our normally peaceful heroes indulge in a big action sequence showdown with him at the end. These wouldn't be bad in some other movie, but it's so far removed from what the comic is about that it sticks out like a sore thumb amongst all the other Concrete comics. I'm glad that this story as a movie wasn't the introduction to the character for a bunch of people.

... and what really gets in my craw is that Chadwick says this story is now the official origin for Concrete, replacing the first 3 or so issues in continuity! This opens up a whole other mess of continuity problems I won't bring up.

In short: love Concrete, love Paul Chadwick, but this is the one big misstep for both.

[keilthetarheel]

I hesitate to offer any suggestions because Hollywood is too adept at taking good stories and making shit out of them

[JimmyDee]

I hesitate to offer any suggestions because Hollywood is too adept at taking good stories and making shit out of them

You show an INCREDIBLE lack of understanding with statements like this. That's ridiculous. Sure, Hollywood can take a good story and adapt it poorly. It's happened numerous times for certain. They've also adapted numerous good stories and done a fantastic job with them! Cmon, man -- think before you post. Have something substantive to add other than the usual negativity.

[keilthetarheel]

You show an INCREDIBLE lack of understanding with statements like this. That's ridiculous. Sure, Hollywood can take a good story and adapt it poorly. It's happened numerous times for certain. They've also adapted numerous good stories and done a fantastic job with them! Cmon, man -- think before you post. Have something substantive to add other than the usual negativity.

Riiiight. There's a reason why there's a saying that Hollywood is where good ideas go to die

Make your long list of great adaptations, and there will be an equally long or longer one of shite movies

The only recent good adaptations that I can think of are Les Mis with Liam Neesom and Graystoke with the guy from Highlander

I take it you're a fan of GI Joe the movie, the Transformers movies, or the latest Sherlock Holmes abortion of a movie

[Gryphon]

Riiiight. There's a reason why there's a saying that Hollywood is where good ideas go to die

Make your long list of great adaptations, and there will be an equally long or longer one of shite movies

The only recent good adaptations that I can think of are Les Mis with Liam Neesom and Graystoke with the guy from Highlander

I take it you're a fan of GI Joe the movie, the Transformers movies, or the latest Sherlock Holmes abortion of a movie

That Sherlock Holmes movie was actually very good and more true to the Holmes canon than most films.

[kalorama]

I hesitate to offer any suggestions because Hollywood is too adept at taking good stories and making shit out of them

Riiiight. There's a reason why there's a saying that Hollywood is where good ideas go to die

Make your long list of great adaptations, and there will be an equally long or longer one of shite movies

The only recent good adaptations that I can think of are Les Mis with Liam Neesom and Graystoke with the guy from Highlander

I take it you're a fan of GI Joe the movie, the Transformers movies, or the latest Sherlock Holmes abortion of a movie

Hollywood makes its fair share of good and bad movies, but that's really beside the point. What "good stories" did they screw up with G.I. Joe and Transformers? Are you actually arguing that Hollywood is crap at their jobs because they couldn't create undying masterpieces out of a couple of movies based on decades old children's toys?

[Neal R]

I think in the end as long as the story is good the medium will take care of itself. Any writer/artist simply wants an audience and it's nice (and increasingly rare) when anything gets a resurrection like this. And if the idea is good enough it'll stand up in the end.

For example, if the story's true I believe Steve Niles' 30 Days of Night started as a rejected film pitch. The comic was created and full circle became a nice little phenomenon. Sometimes you have to create the audience to justify the interest.