I'm piling on.
Sanitizing the violence and avoiding 9/11 references is not just wrong, it's _dumb_. Far better to make use of the similarities. Play them up. Give the audience the chance to make the connection. Ozymandias commits a massive act of violence to change the world -- sound familiar? Downplaying it makes me wonder if the moviemakers really do think he's the hero of the story.
Arrgh.
VOGLIO IL MIO CALAMARO GIGANTE!
I'd do Buck Rogers using the original origin story -- a man from 1927 frozen for 500 years. Use it to contrast his 1920s attitudes with the future world, and show how ephemeral our own ideas and attitudes are likely to be.
@EarthSmiles: "King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella should concentrate on doing things that will benefit Spain, not wasting money sending ships to explore the ocean!"
Funny superheroes are a dead horse. The old Batman TV show did it, and did it well, and pretty much did the job so completely it doesn't need doing again. How can this be anything other than someone doing a bad Adam West impression in a green mask?
@Seeräuberjenny: ...and yet he's not the one who murders hundreds of thousands of people for "noble" goals. Watchmen is a story about heroes which doesn't actually have any heroes in it. Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Juspeczyk come closest, if only because they go on to live normal lives -- but on the other hand they're accessories to said mass murder.
I can't escape from the conclusion that the film will have its characters more pigeonholed, telling us that Rorschasch is crazy and bad while Ozymandias is a good guy after all.
@Omaxem: Yes, pretty much.
That's also where Gerard K. O'Niell wanted to put large space colonies.
@Moff: I recall reading some promotional tie-in book which pretty much reprinted the script before opening day, and I thought to myself "I've got a bad feeling about this."
Although thinking back I recall a distinct sting of disappointment during the opening credits crawl of Return of the Jedi: when it mentioned "a new and more powerful Death Star" something inside me died.
@Andrew Derksen: Hear, hear. I literally did not enjoy going to movies at all for several years after Phantom Menace came out, simply because there was the constant fear of being disappointed.
It seems lately all movie promotion is like a roller-coaster ride: peaks of anticipation that it will be the "BEST MOVIE EVER!" followed by dark depths of despair that "IT WILL SUCK!"
The only real answer is this one: We. Shall. See.
That is a relief. The brothers W. are innovative moviemakers and certainly know their way around a frenetic action scene -- but that's not the sensibility a Superman picture calls for.
Hey, kids! Here's a cool movie about how YOU and YOUR FAMILY are all genocidal, world-destroying evil bastards! Don't forget to buy the toys!
@The_Sporean_Bob: Yes, yes you were. Terribly, terribly wrong.
Well, I think one can safely say there's no way this picture is just going to be mediocre. It's going to be nailed to the edge of the scale, either the BEST SUPERHERO MOVIE EVAR or a new frontier in train wreckage. And I honestly don't know which is more likely. Mr. Branagh is the genius who directed Henry V -- and the fool who made Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It's going to be interesting, that much is for sure.
This is going to suck like a giant squid drinking a bottle of Slusho.
I ran into the same problem creating a "Mars Blimp" for a roleplaying game book -- the damned thing had a crew of four and was as big as the Hindenburg. Until Mars gets more atmosphere, I don't think anybody will be flying there.
@corpore-metal: Hear, hear! I've said many times a good Superman slugfest would be much better -- and SELL MORE TICKETS -- than Yet Another Stupid Luthor Plot, however much Christ imagery you slap onto it to show how serious and lit'ry you are.
Lobo and Darkseid both have too much character baggage -- Jesus, Darkseid would require a goddam mini-documentary to bring the audience up to speed. Mongul is a good choice, or the Parasite.
@AmishJohn: Hell, they arrive pre-peeled!
Yes, cautious optimism. They're letting Bendis do it, so that if it's going to be screwed up, it'll be screwed up by the creator himself, which is certainly better than letting someone else screw it up.
Captain Nemo: Irrfan Khan (guy who played the police inspector in Slumdog Millionaire). Good actor, has a very good world-weary look, but a little of that Gary Sinise buried intensity.
Will Smith just isn't OLD enough yet.
I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't take seriously any advice for coping with zombies which ignores the one, true, ultimate zombie-fightin' tool:
THE CHAINSAW.
Chainsaws and zombies go together like serial killers and carving knives.
