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Printheads: The Authority: The Movie, or Here's Looking at You Old Man
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I agree with @iaviv:
The Authority is way too far out there for mainstream audiences.
but moreso with @TypewriterJason:Authority was meant to be a comic. It was meant to do things that only comics can do, or that comics can do exceedingly well. It doesn't need to be a movie.
Comics are comics. Usually, that's how they work best. Come to think of it, I'd generally say that better they are, the less well they work in another form.
Also, @rdouekLook at what it's taken for Marvel to do the Avengers as a film. They had to do what, 5 or 6 movies to establish the main characters individually, because if they had to do that in one film, there wouldn't have been time for an actual plot.
I keep hearing this but, you know, it's not actually true. They didn't have to do it that way - they chose to do it that way. Presumably for the usual, understandable reasons of cold hard cash.
You know what is also a film about a disparate group, each with unusual abilities, brought together for a seemingly impossible task?
The Italian Job. -
@256
Also, @rdouek
Look at what it's taken for Marvel to do the Avengers as a film. They had to do what, 5 or 6 movies to establish the main characters individually, because if they had to do that in one film, there wouldn't have been time for an actual plot.
I keep hearing this but, you know, it's not actually true. They didn't have to do it that way - they chose to do it that way. Presumably for the usual, understandable reasons of cold hard cash.
No, it's true. In their presentations to Wall Street to attract potential investors, in 2005 (maybe 2006), Marvel specifically said they were developing the slate of individual films to familiarize the general public with the characters, and build excitement for them.
I don't doubt that the desire to make money was #1 in their minds, but if you go back and look at what they were telling the press, they apparently felt that they wouldn't make as much money if they just did an Avengers film right out of the gate.
Why? Who knows? Maybe because the Avengers are kind of a weird team. I mean, they have a god. An actual norse god, who says "forsooth" much more often than you would expect from the modern "edgy" take on superheroes that Hollywood tends to put out.
And yes, the Italian Job is a similar situation, an all-star group of specialists brought together for a task - but its also part of a long tradition of heist movies, like Asphalt Jungle and Kubrick's The Killing, and even further back into the silent film era. Regardless, even if it was the first heist film ever made, people know what a safecracker is - what a driver does. They don't need it explained to them how the demolitions expert was a weakling until he got shot up with a supersoldier serum, and got himself frozen in ice for 40 years to understand what the hell is going on with the character.
Hell, look at X-men, another marvel team that was made into a movie. They introduced the team all at once- only did rogue's origin really, and just touched on Wolverine's (talking the first film only here) - but, that's because the movie, if you really look at it, isn't so much about the X-men as it is about Wolverine's journey from outcast to team member, through the vehicle of caring about what happens to Rogue. The rest of the X-men, the Professor included, don't get delved into that deep, because in that movie, they're essentially set pieces, plot devices or foils for Wolverine. That's a perfectly valid approach too - but it works in part because regardless of which individual X-man you're talking about, they all have certain touchpoints in common - being a mutant, being hated and hunted - you explain that for one of them, and you get that its common to everyone on the team. The Avengers don't have that touchpoint - about the only thing they have in common is that they're all extremely capable at stopping the bad guys.
Above all, I agree with this:@TypewriterJason:
Authority was meant to be a comic. It was meant to do things that only comics can do, or that comics can do exceedingly well. It doesn't need to be a movie.
Comics are comics. Usually, that's how they work best. Come to think of it, I'd generally say that better they are, the less well they work in another form.
All I was really trying to say was that, if it were ever to be done, I would like to see it done right, and as that's practically impossible, I'd rather not see it done. -
I was just thinking it could be animated. Largely because I keep overdosing on anime and there's plenty on Adult Swim that would shock Tipper Gore into a stupor.
*shrug* As with any good, solid project you'd have to find a producer with balls and who then knows people with nerve aplenty to do Ellis right.
I wasn't sure about this one, but the more I think of it, the animated movies that've been coming out have been remarkably faithful to the material. Planet Hulk, The Ultimates, others from Marvel, and on the DC side, they pretty much did a faithful (almost down to shots) recreation of All-Star Superman. (Particularly that complex, had to re-read it to get it time-delay where Lex Luthor is controlling that alien bomb and there's a time delay between his dialogue from Earth and when the monster speaks it.) Now, if only we can get an All Star Batman where Kevin Conroy utters, "R U a tard? I'm teh G.D. Batman!" I can die a happy man. Animated movies are much cheaper to make, so really the only problem would be how much do they keep in.(I don't see Hawksmoor being able to say he's been waiting to punch someone all goddamn day in it, but then again there were quite a few swears in Planet Hulk if I remember correctly, also a kid got firebombed to ashes, and they even kept the "Jimmy cross-dressing" gag in in Superman.)
And you guys are focusing on the "God" thing too much. They could just call it an alien being from space and call it a day. The hardcore Authority fans know what they mean. Just like how they cut the alien squid monster from Watchmen. Sucks, yeah, but in context of the film you kinda get why they did it. It would've taken a whole other film to even get around to explaining all the setup required for that. (which I think they should've done, expanded it to 2 films, Kill Bill style and given the plot more room to breathe. But that's a whole other story.) Not to mention that we wouldn't be getting to that particular storyline until at least a third movie. (Provided that Kaizen Gamorra is first, Regis next, then Lovekraft beast, roughly following Ellis' original.)
Yes I realize Hollywood is brainfart central for turning good ideas to crap, but when they do get high concept movies right (Matrix, Inception, District 8, others) it's a thing to behold. Plain and simple a good script with good execution of the basic premise is an almost guaranteed success. The problem with Hollywood now is the problem's there's always been. Someone does something great by putting a lot of effort into it and it's successful, some hack comes along thinking if I imitate everything first person did, completely disregarding total effort it took to do said thing, I can have success too. They're just churning out crap now, like they always do, and they're always surprised when people stop eating it. And instead of thinking, "Hey, maybe we should stop putting out so much crap." the natural conclusion is, "Superheroes aren't selling anymore, back to Werewolf pictures."
Rdouek makes a great point with X-Men. That was a movie with a lot of different characters, most of whom your average movie-goer is only vaguely familiar with their backstory, if that. It didn't weigh you down with every character's life. In fact I highly discourage probing too much into the Authority character's backgrounds. I don't know who the genius was who decided to take Ellis' "drunken aliens having a laugh" explanation for Jack and make it that completely jacked up "no, they were really humans from the future" thing, but no... just no. The Authority was written just like a blockbuster movie, that's it's whole structure. Ellis took his cue for Widescreen comics from film. It's in the name for goodness sake. Introduce crazy stuff just for it's own sake, and use it to keep the plot going full throttle. It's already a movie, you just have to put a camera on it. The whole thing reads so much like a film I thought it'd be a no brainer someone would snap it up. -
Okay, am I going completely fucking mental here, or do I recall something about an Authority film directed by Tsui Hark with a score by Ennio Morricone being mooted at some point?
-
@Oddcult
I'm not sure what you're talking about but there was once this thing...
http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/106125-the-authority-film-in-the-works
And then this...
http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2010/08/24/remember-that-authority-movie-rumor-well-never-mind/
The end. I guess.