As part of the backlash (bat-lash) against the trend of Batman movies were everything glows in the dark and nothing makes sense, David "Blade" Goyer has been signed to make the next Batman movie, which starts the story over at the beginning to make a clean break from the increasingly campier-than-thou series from the 90s.
Here's a review of the first half of the script, which apparently focuses on Bruce Wayne as a young man, traveling the world and honing his skills:
http://www.latinoreview.com/scriptreviews/batman/ script-review.html
ID:188710
 Jan 30 2004, 11:09 am
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Jan 30 2004, 6:11 pm
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XxXSonGokouXxX
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Eh, well who knows if it'll actually release. They were hyping a lot of new Batman releases. Like, Batman: Year One. And Batman Vs(Or and?..forgot) Superman. Yeah...I hope they phase out all the movies after Batman Returns...
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I wouldn't be posting this if it wasn't going to be released... trust me on this one, I'm a geek oracle. Not only is this movie mostly already written and cast, but photography has begun in London (Gotham City) and Iceland.
Batman vs. Superman was derailed because of multiple competing Superman pictures... as for Year One, that one wasn't scrapped, it was incorporated into the story for this one. As for wiping out the previous Batman movies... they're not being disavowed, any more than the movies themselves disavow the comics... but none of the existing movies, even the Tim Burton ones, will fit into this one as far as continuity goes. It's a total reboot, one that will hopefully result in an ongoing franchise of high-quality movies. [EDIT] And a Batman vs. Superman movie would be problematic, because the casual readers and the vast movie-going public would expect Superman to win hands down, whereas serious comic book fans know that when they tangle, it usually goes the other way. | |
Supposedly, movies rarely get shutdown so Batman will come out if it has been started. (...He says while attacking a windmill dragon.) I'm wondering how much the movie will be like the script though.
Of course, this post is really just an excuse to say I liked the Alien:Ressurection script I read better than the final movie. For instance, the crash towards the end had been due to gallons of alien blood eating through the ship. I think the alien blood connected to the series more than some synthoid jacking in. That just seemed too trendy. (The script was more like an attitude movie, which, while maybe not fitting in with other movies of the series, lended itself to nice moments in the script. The pair of guns the one guy had were disposables. He carried the dead body of the wheelchair guy, not vice versa. Later, the guy had to fight off a swarm of aliens alone. Tension would keep being added when he ran out of ammo and more aliens came in, but he would keep whipping out another pair of guns. Of course, the ship crash was all his fault because of the blood concentration, but... er... It seemed like it would look cool.) | |
Some elements will be filmed and then left on the cutting room floor, I'm sure, but a major re-write isn't that likely, unless the studio decides to fire Goyer... which I don't think is likely, since everyone's about to learn a valuable lesson about how not to make money from the next Exorcist movie... they already had the film in the can when the studio heads decided to send the director, the script, most of the actors and much of the footage to keep it company. Instead of going with the current trend of shooting two movies at once to save money, they're paying for two movies filmed separately and only releasing one. Brilliant!
Even if only half of what's in the script review is kept, I'm still pretty jazzed. Although they've tweaked the mythology, they've included a lot of things that only a serious Bat-fan would look for and recognize. It really makes up for the insultingly bad Birds of Prey TV show and the awful Catwoman movie that's being filmed. The best female characters in comics are both bat-disciples, but they don't get decent adaptations. [EDIT] And to add to the list of things a decent Batmovie would atone for: the proposed "teen Flash" television show which will thankfully never get off the ground and the tentative decision to cast Beyonce Knowles as Lois Lane in the upcoming Superman movie. Don't get me wrong... I have no problem with using an African-American actress to portray Lois Lane. In fact, I hope they hire one and forget all about Beyonce. | |
Hedgemistress wrote:
the tentative decision to cast Beyonce Knowles as Lois Lane in the upcoming Superman movie. Don't get me wrong... I have no problem with using an African-American actress to portray Lois Lane. In fact, I hope they hire one and forget all about Beyonce. Please let this be one of your jokes that go way over my head. I hate Beyonce. She can't act. She sucks the life out of any role she is given. Not to mention that the whole thing screams "we need a gimmick". | |
Nope. Hiring McG to make a Superman movie and allowing him to cast a singer-turned-singer-trying-to-act as one of the most important characters might be a joke, but it's not one of mine.
Luckily, Superman movies get derailed even easier than Batman ones... here's hoping the race issue doesn't discourage other fans from speaking against the disastrous casting choice. I've already been called a racist in five different chatrooms since I started spreading the word. :P | |
It's not really, "racist" in my opinion. It's just staying true to the epic and beloved series (I'm a SuperMan fanatic).
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I think we'd have a difference of opinion here... I think you could have Lois be of any ethnicity and still be, well, Lois. Her race doesn't define her. To some extent, you like to have people who look like what you're used to seeing in the comics... but Lois has been drawn by so many different people in so many different styles, trying to please everyone that way is a bit of a lost cause.
Also, skin color is just one facet of a person's appearance... did you see Michael Clarke Duncan in Daredevil as the Kingpin? Can you name another actor, of any skin color, who could have pulled that character off as close to the comic book persona? It's hard to find a man of that bulk who comes off dignified instead of sloppy. They could have got a white actor, but they'd probably have ended up with someone who just looks ridiculous and fat. At the same time, if Beyonce Knowles was white, if Beyonce physically like everyone's ideal vision of Lois, I'd still be protesting her. MCD was awesome as Kingpin because he's a great actor. I don't believe Beyonce knows how to portray anyone other than Beyonce, and she's not very good at that, either. [EDIT] And if you're a fanatic, you ought to know it's one word: "Superman". | |
Hedgemistress wrote:
[EDIT] I hope nobody starts yelling at me, when I say that Frank Miller's, "Dark Knight Returns" is probably, the best Batman graphic novel. He changes up the story, I like that. It makes sense that Robin is a girl. And, making Superman lose his powers because of the sun disappearing, and he gets his butt handed to him. If Fox or whoever is behind this was giving a poll of what they should be basing the movie off of. I would definatly go with the "Dark Knight Returns" series. I think, it's a lot better than Batman: Year One, and some others. Also, a lot of people dislike Frank Miller's art in the Dark Knight Returns. But, it's a change and it looks crazy. Frank Miller has to be the best freelance in the comic book industry. If you never read the series, I found a nice summary of every book, chronoligical order... http://www.darkknight.ca/storylines/tdkr.html | |
He doesn't really "change up" the story by doing things like making Robin a girl... it's a future timeline, Carrie is just the next person to become Robin (and she later changes costumes and names to become Catgirl, if you read the Dark Knight Strikes Again.)
As for being better than Year One, yeah... it is superior in every way to Frank Miller's original Batman Year One story... however, the stories which have been built up from that (mostly Jeph Loeb's stuff, like The Long Halloween and Dark Victory) are far better than both. When all is said and done, TDKR is a gimmick... it's a good gimmick, but it's a gimmick. It also wouldn't work as a movie...for a comic book movie to succeed, it needs to bring in more moviegoers than you'll get with just the comic book fans. Many of the things the average moviegoer "knows" about Batman or Superman may no longer be true in current continuity, but you get too far from what they're comfortable with and they won't buy it. | |
Hedgemistress wrote:
Her race doesn't define her. My guess is that in this movie it will. If Beyonce Knowles plays her it definantly will. Like you said, she can only do one character, and that character is defined by the fact she is African American. I think Lois was defined by her "girly" but tough personality, and I think they will destroy that by making her too ghetto tough and then just try to slip some romance in to show that she is sensitive. | |
and the tentative decision to cast Beyonce Knowles as Lois Lane in the upcoming Superman movie. Don't get me wrong... I have no problem with using an African-American actress to portray Lois Lane. In fact, I hope they hire one and forget all about Beyonce. Hmph! Having read nearly 2.3 Superman comics during my life, I can state authoritatively that it's impossible for anyone but Margot Kidder to effectively portray Lois Lane. | |
