Warren Ellis - Lack of TV/Movie Adaptations

[Deep_Sleeper]

I'm puzzled by the lack of TV or movie adaptations of Warren Ellis material. Here's a guy who (IMO) has the strongest sense when it comes to "cinematic"/"filmable" projects.

The Authority is just begging to be filmed by Michael Bay. JJ Abrams really needs to produce the Planetary TV show. Yeah, Red made it into film, but it wasn't that well done. It was decent and had a great cast, but the movie itself was put together pretty poorly. And for a 3 issue limited series, it did a pretty poor job of turning it into a movie. It had a pretty simple comic book premise that got turned into a very weird movie.

I suppose with Iron Man 3, he can count his Extremis story adapted, but I have yet to see it so I don't know how much they took from the comic.

With Hollywood so in love with comic book properties, you'd think they would come begging Ellis to produce stuff for them the way Millar is enjoying so much success.

[AdA]

I'm puzzled by the lack of TV or movie adaptations of Warren Ellis material. Here's a guy who (IMO) has the strongest sense when it comes to "cinematic"/"filmable" projects.

The Authority is just begging to be filmed by Michael Bay. JJ Abrams really needs to produce the Planetary TV show. Yeah, Red made it into film, but it wasn't that well done. It was decent and had a great cast, but the movie itself was put together pretty poorly. And for a 3 issue limited series, it did a pretty poor job of turning it into a movie. It had a pretty simple comic book premise that got turned into a very weird movie.

I suppose with Iron Man 3, he can count his Extremis story adapted, but I have yet to see it so I don't know how much they took from the comic.

With Hollywood so in love with comic book properties, you'd think they would come begging Ellis to produce stuff for them the way Millar is enjoying so much success.

I'm a big Warren Ellis fan, but his material has two problems for TV/Movie, its very dark and would require big budgets to fully adapt.
That said, a movie version of "Ministry of Space" would be awesome.
I actually liked RED. The cast was great, it had good jokes, and they had the balls to take it to the "let's kill the VP premise"
Is stories also are of the kind that can be fully told in one season, and current TV seeks multi season profits.
That said, Ignition City would make an extraordinary film, and Freakangels could be an excelent TV show.
Is there a "what if" cast list for the Authority film? Who's gonna play Jenny Sparks?
Same for Planetary.

[marshal99]

Well , old news but as and when Joss Whedon is actually free , he'll be doing a web series with Warren Ellis "Wastelanders".
http://cultspark.com/2012/04/26/what...-wastelanders/

[Deep_Sleeper]

I'd like to see Orbiter made into a movie, as well. I dunno...he just seems like the kind of guy who gets the movie/TV beats. You read about how certain properties are very difficult to adapt, because of so much material that you have to cut out (Watchmen springs to mind immediately), but then you have Ellis properties that I think could very easily be adapted to movies/TV shows.

[T Hedge Coke]

Things have been optioned, and each time he's been paid. They just didn't make it through production in some cases, or onto the air in others. But, there is Red and the upcoming Iron Man 3 borrows directly from his Extremis story to unconfirmed degrees, but at least some characters and probably the Extremis itself.

Why hasn't more been adapted more accurately, or adapted all the way through to release?

Most things that get optioned don't fully come to form and get released. And one thing I can say for Warren Ellis, is that many of his comics are designed to work as comics; they're not novels with pictures, they're not movies in stills, they are comics.

[Panic]

I always thought Fell felt like it was designed to be a cable cop-show. I'm kind of surprised it didn't happen.

[Alex]

When i think abotu a Planetary tv show i get the image of a failed 1 season show on scfy. And it would look really really cheap.

[Greg Anderson]

You really want Bay to touch Authority or any Ellis product? Really?

[T Hedge Coke]

Frank Ironwine was very TV-friendly, but not current-market-sexy, I suppose.

Goddamn, but that'd be good TV though, if done true.

[Alex]

You really want Bay to touch Authority or any Ellis product? Really?

Let's not sugarcoat any issues of Authority and pretend there was more going on in them.
Edit: Fixed for me accidently suggesting the second run on Authority was better than the Ellis stuff.

[DonC]

No mention of the Global Frequency pilot that was filmed? It was fantastic; don't know why it wasn't picked up. I think it's on YouTube.

[Legato]

I'm among the minority thats glad his stuff didn't get adapted and butchered by some hollywood/tv execs.

[Captain Midnight]

When i think abotu a Planetary tv show i get the image of a failed 1 season show on scfy. And it would look really really cheap.

God don't even say that but that's probably why Ellis isn't doing a Planetary series.

[Vibranium]

God don't even say that but that's probably why Ellis isn't doing a Planetary series.

didn't Planetary end quite some time ago?

[Deep_Sleeper]

Things have been optioned, and each time he's been paid. They just didn't make it through production in some cases, or onto the air in others. But, there is Red and the upcoming Iron Man 3 borrows directly from his Extremis story to unconfirmed degrees, but at least some characters and probably the Extremis itself.

Why hasn't more been adapted more accurately, or adapted all the way through to release?

Most things that get optioned don't fully come to form and get released. And one thing I can say for Warren Ellis, is that many of his comics are designed to work as comics; they're not novels with pictures, they're not movies in stills, they are comics.

There's something to be said about the way some of his comics are actually laid out. He may not have meant to have his properties turn into movies/TV shows, but there is no doubting the sheer amount of cinematic references that Ellis (which shows in works like Planetary and Authority). There are specific panels in issue 3 of Planetary you just read and realize "This is meant to be a movie moment". Everything about it from that issue's influence to the way it was laid out says "film". Just because it's a great comic doesn't mean it cannot be a great movie/TV show. Saying his comics are designed to work as comics doesn't mean he didn't envision it cinematically.

When i think abotu a Planetary tv show i get the image of a failed 1 season show on scfy. And it would look really really cheap.

There are ways around it. Animation. It could have the budget of a bigger production with the economy of a lower production budget.

You really want Bay to touch Authority or any Ellis product? Really?

While the Authority had a lot of great subtext about how superheroes work and the intelligence with which it was played out, I can never take away from Bay's aesthetic. The man knows how to make love to his visuals. You watch something like Transformers or Armageddon...the man knows scope! I'd go with James Cameron, but he's too invested in his own stuff.

No mention of the Global Frequency pilot that was filmed? It was fantastic; don't know why it wasn't picked up. I think it's on YouTube.

I mainly went with books that I've read. I heard about Global Frequency, but I have not read it...so I cannot comment.

I'm among the minority thats glad his stuff didn't get adapted and butchered by some hollywood/tv execs.

Like anything, it can turn out good or bad. While Red was a decent movie, there is no doubt that it is very little like the comic. On the one hand, I'm glad that sometimes movie adaptations turn out differently than the medium it came from (Wanted). On the other, sometimes you want the adaptation to be very faithful to the medium. I know I would love for something like the Authority to be very faithful to the book without being a direct translation, I cannot deny that sometimes...Hollywood does get it right (Lord of the Rings).