Hi everybody!
I just reread LOST GIRLS by Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie. Now, Alan Moore is the greatest writer to ever grace the comics medium. Unfortunately, illustrator Melinda Gebbie is as anatomically-challenged in her way as WONDER WOMAN artist H.G. Peter was in his. H.G. Peter had a peculiar ability to draw a specific type of attractive woman, and all other people he generally depicted as grotesqueries, which gave the overall comic an effect comparable to your typical Tijuana Bible. This H.G. Peter artwork supported the subversive qualities in the WONDER WOMAN comic which William Moulton Marston concentrated his efforts on. With LOST GIRLS, Alan Moore looks at the dirty underpinings of Alice In Wonderland, Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz and Wendy from Peter Pan. However, instead of the effortless erotic draftsmanship of, say, Milo Manara, Alan Moore is teamed with the exaggerated delineations of Melinda Gebbie. Unlike H.G. Peter, not even Melinda Gebbie's women are particularly attractive, which is troubling for an erotic distraction like LOST GIRLS. Alan Moore explores incest, molestation, bondage, bestiality, name your sexual poison, but it largely comes across as an academic exercise instead of a passionate reverie. As boring as having your grandfather talk about sex is, the illustrations in LOST GIRLS make the story appear undernourished, as well. Alan Moore is never entirely without insights, but LOST GIRLS becomes more about bad sex than revealing truths. Similarly, after the initial burst of original ideas that fueled the original WONDER WOMAN comics, Wiliam Moulton Marston largely ignored telling credible stories and overindulged his symbolic obsessions. Let me give a movie analogy: the dirty kick of Marilyn Monroe playing to type in SOME LIKE IT HOT is lessened by the complete lack of chemistry between herself and Tony Curtis, and almost completely obliterated by director Billy Wilder's epilogue suggesting that Jack Lemmon in drag could do worse than by marrying the homely male suitor who has fallen in love with him. The only recent cinema I have seen that has allowed a young girl have big adventures without being punished for it is THE GOLDEN COMPASS.
Sorry to be so explicit and depressing this time around. However! I am beginning work on this year's Christmas card for one and all, so I'm feeling more cheerful than usual.
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
BULLETS & BRACELETS, BRICK & MORTAR!
Hi everybody!
Just to reiiterate, the WONDER WOMAN comic has never established a home city or a strong supporting cast for our hero. WONDER WOMAN has no deep relationships with other people or to a reality-based place. Her strongest connection is with mythical Paradise Island and her fellow imaginary Amazons, where she does not live except while on vacation, which would be like Superman only having a strong connection with Krypton, which is destroyed; or with Krypto, who is a dog.
The WONDER WOMAN comic has had 68 years to build an emotional and physical infrastructure for our hero and has chosen for various reasons to not do so.
Of course, the only city in our actual reality that has a real-life heroine in charge of it is Chicago IL with Oprah Winfrey. How would Oprah look in a WONDER WOMAN costume?
My point is, for all of her years in our collective imagination, WONDER WOMAN remains largely an unexplored canvas of infinite possibility.
That is why our Wonder Woman Project is very necessary!
Keeping it short, for once! :) Talk to you soon, be good!
Brad
Just to reiiterate, the WONDER WOMAN comic has never established a home city or a strong supporting cast for our hero. WONDER WOMAN has no deep relationships with other people or to a reality-based place. Her strongest connection is with mythical Paradise Island and her fellow imaginary Amazons, where she does not live except while on vacation, which would be like Superman only having a strong connection with Krypton, which is destroyed; or with Krypto, who is a dog.
The WONDER WOMAN comic has had 68 years to build an emotional and physical infrastructure for our hero and has chosen for various reasons to not do so.
Of course, the only city in our actual reality that has a real-life heroine in charge of it is Chicago IL with Oprah Winfrey. How would Oprah look in a WONDER WOMAN costume?
My point is, for all of her years in our collective imagination, WONDER WOMAN remains largely an unexplored canvas of infinite possibility.
That is why our Wonder Woman Project is very necessary!
Keeping it short, for once! :) Talk to you soon, be good!
Brad
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Polanski Towne!
Hi everybody!
Roman Polanski is the antithesis of the message we are trying to send with The Wonder Woman Project.
While people accused director Alfred Hitchcock of cinematic sadism, it is Roman Polanski who mastered that art.
REPULSION is an elegant but unrelenting study of a woman's descent into isolating madness.
ROSEMARY'S BABY is about a woman who is forced to give birth to the spawn of Satan.
CHINATOWN concerns an incest survivor who gave birth to her father's child and is killed by her father, who then raises her surviving sister/daughter. "My sister, my daughter, my sister and my daughter!"
There is a relentless pattern of illegal/immoral behavior serving as the foundation of his studio movies.
Further, under Polanski, horrific crimes routinely go unpunished. Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne famously argued over the ending of CHINATOWN, with Polanski prevailing that the offending father get away with pedophilia. Coincidence? "It's Chinatown, Jake."
Polanski; had he stayed with studio movies; would have lost his "snap" as the measured perversion that he favored fully gave way to "blockbuster" fare like JAWS, STAR WARS and ROCKY in the 1970s.
Our popular culture did not suffer much in Polanski's absence, yet he is still lionized in the creative community. This is a false regret, because Robert Evans and the rest of the crew from CHINATOWN culminated in the "COTTON CLUB" murders several years later in Hollywood. Jack Nicholson had already won an Oscar before CHINATOWN, and his star has continued relatively undimmed, but the last gasp of studio "creative edginess" heralded by BONNIE AND CLYDE effectively ended with the release of CHINATOWN.
As to Polanski having violated a 13 year old girl while staying at Jack Nicholson's house following CHINATOWN, let us recognize that on the personal level Polanski proved to be far more perverse than his movies.
We see with the publicity surrounding MacKenzie Phillips' memoir how devastating such events can be. MacKenzie's father John introduced her to heroin (old news), had a "consensual" sexual relationship with him and after he impregnated her paid for the abortion of their child (which is recent news).
Incest never goes away. Child rape never goes away.
Society failed Polanski's victim: her mother drove her to that photoshoot then did not stay with her to supervise. The "responsible" adult figure; Polanski; drugged, disrobed and debauched her. The legal system had plead Polanski's jail sentence down to time served and still he fled sentencing when released on his own recognicence.
Polanski's fugitive status is now seen as a badge of honor in Hollywood, but Polanski is a slayer of childhood and a coward of epic proportion. Polanski by taking a 13 year old girl and molding her to his extreme sexual desires like so much clay proved himself to be a completely remorseless skidmark of a man. Polanski's running away from any responsibility was contemptible: to call any of this a miscarriage of justice against himself remains ludicrous.
I used to be 44 years old, myself; as Polanski was when this crime against nature was committed; so if he had not yet learned how to control his base impulses by then, he never had any discernable self-discipline to begin with.
It is unseemly for Polanski to keep invoking his Holocaust survivor card, his Helter Skelter survivor card, his hounded by the blue noses card. Polanski is a practicing pedophile and should go to jail for the full nickel! Period. Case closed.
Security begins within the civilized heart. When we carelessly throw our precious children to the ravenous wolves like Polanski, then we reap the whirlwind. It does not matter who stops the cycle of madness against children and women as long as the cycle is stopped.
Wonder Woman is here to represent the necessary intervention to improve the general welfare of women and children!
Little girls are severely mutilated in nations like Africa, are married off to brutal strangers before they lose their baby teeth, and die of malnutrition long before they see any of their own children reach puberty.
The Wonder Woman Project will prove a tonic to such toxic fare as Polanski has left us, to such toxic behavior as Polanski has modeled for us.
Wonder Woman shows us the wonderfulness inside all of us!
It's a wonderful world and Wonder Woman is here to keep it that way!
Down with Polanski! Up with WONDER WOMAN!
Talk to you all, soon! Be good!
Brad
Roman Polanski is the antithesis of the message we are trying to send with The Wonder Woman Project.
While people accused director Alfred Hitchcock of cinematic sadism, it is Roman Polanski who mastered that art.
REPULSION is an elegant but unrelenting study of a woman's descent into isolating madness.
ROSEMARY'S BABY is about a woman who is forced to give birth to the spawn of Satan.
CHINATOWN concerns an incest survivor who gave birth to her father's child and is killed by her father, who then raises her surviving sister/daughter. "My sister, my daughter, my sister and my daughter!"
There is a relentless pattern of illegal/immoral behavior serving as the foundation of his studio movies.
Further, under Polanski, horrific crimes routinely go unpunished. Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne famously argued over the ending of CHINATOWN, with Polanski prevailing that the offending father get away with pedophilia. Coincidence? "It's Chinatown, Jake."
Polanski; had he stayed with studio movies; would have lost his "snap" as the measured perversion that he favored fully gave way to "blockbuster" fare like JAWS, STAR WARS and ROCKY in the 1970s.
Our popular culture did not suffer much in Polanski's absence, yet he is still lionized in the creative community. This is a false regret, because Robert Evans and the rest of the crew from CHINATOWN culminated in the "COTTON CLUB" murders several years later in Hollywood. Jack Nicholson had already won an Oscar before CHINATOWN, and his star has continued relatively undimmed, but the last gasp of studio "creative edginess" heralded by BONNIE AND CLYDE effectively ended with the release of CHINATOWN.
As to Polanski having violated a 13 year old girl while staying at Jack Nicholson's house following CHINATOWN, let us recognize that on the personal level Polanski proved to be far more perverse than his movies.
We see with the publicity surrounding MacKenzie Phillips' memoir how devastating such events can be. MacKenzie's father John introduced her to heroin (old news), had a "consensual" sexual relationship with him and after he impregnated her paid for the abortion of their child (which is recent news).
Incest never goes away. Child rape never goes away.
Society failed Polanski's victim: her mother drove her to that photoshoot then did not stay with her to supervise. The "responsible" adult figure; Polanski; drugged, disrobed and debauched her. The legal system had plead Polanski's jail sentence down to time served and still he fled sentencing when released on his own recognicence.
Polanski's fugitive status is now seen as a badge of honor in Hollywood, but Polanski is a slayer of childhood and a coward of epic proportion. Polanski by taking a 13 year old girl and molding her to his extreme sexual desires like so much clay proved himself to be a completely remorseless skidmark of a man. Polanski's running away from any responsibility was contemptible: to call any of this a miscarriage of justice against himself remains ludicrous.
I used to be 44 years old, myself; as Polanski was when this crime against nature was committed; so if he had not yet learned how to control his base impulses by then, he never had any discernable self-discipline to begin with.
It is unseemly for Polanski to keep invoking his Holocaust survivor card, his Helter Skelter survivor card, his hounded by the blue noses card. Polanski is a practicing pedophile and should go to jail for the full nickel! Period. Case closed.
Security begins within the civilized heart. When we carelessly throw our precious children to the ravenous wolves like Polanski, then we reap the whirlwind. It does not matter who stops the cycle of madness against children and women as long as the cycle is stopped.
Wonder Woman is here to represent the necessary intervention to improve the general welfare of women and children!
Little girls are severely mutilated in nations like Africa, are married off to brutal strangers before they lose their baby teeth, and die of malnutrition long before they see any of their own children reach puberty.
The Wonder Woman Project will prove a tonic to such toxic fare as Polanski has left us, to such toxic behavior as Polanski has modeled for us.
Wonder Woman shows us the wonderfulness inside all of us!
It's a wonderful world and Wonder Woman is here to keep it that way!
Down with Polanski! Up with WONDER WOMAN!
Talk to you all, soon! Be good!
Brad
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Diane Nelson: An Open Letter II
Hello Diane Nelson (and everybody)!
How do we market the Wonder Woman Project?
Pedal to the metal, starting with Walmart!
Our Wonder Woman Project partnership with Walmart is based upon their unequaled distribution system, their unrivaled value and their wide demographic appeal. Our products will be based on school supplies (a year-round market), various-and-sundry reading materials, and recreation items. We are committed to the everyday consumer and impulse shopper, with prices capped at $15 per item, so that each item will not cost more money than the price of a movie ticket.
We must not lose sight that our ultimate goal is to drive consumers to the movie theater!
CDs and DVDs will be exclusive to Walmart! We can reserve the right to sell items at our WB Stores, but if this exception increases the price point that Walmart is willing to offer us, then we should concede all the retail to Walmart.
With our high profile ensemble cast, we can open the movie "wide" domestically as well as internationally. As Wonder Woman is already a universally-recognized brand, the need for "shoe leather" publicity is minimal and can be left to the actors' discretion.
As we are filming this movie trilogy simultaneously, we are controlling the production costs. As our emphasis is on acting and not on Computer Generated Images, our post-production expenses will be relatively mild.
As we have already prepared the movie soundtracks, we save millions instead of assembling the music after principle photography is completed.
The Wonder Woman Picture Book: A Beginner's Guide to Being Amazing!; will be a tabloid size 64 page fully illustrated ethno-history of the Amazons. These images will be full page or double-page illustrations with minimal text; essentially "An Inconvenient Amazon" hosted by Wonder Woman for all age groups. Illustrated by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, embellished by Kevin Nowlan, lettered by Todd Klein, colored by Laura Depuy and edited by Paul Levitz (we gotta keep Levitz in the loop)! Not quite a comic book, not close to a souvenier book, the Wonder Woman Picture Book will prove a unique outreach to fanboys, to movie buffs and to children of all ages!
The 3 year Wonder Woman wall calendar is a unique collectible which will span the release dates of the 3 theatrical movies. This calendar is an excellent way to keep Wonder Woman in the hearts and minds of our enthusiastic audience.
The Wonder Woman CD soundtrack combines the simplicity of the folk singing acoustic duo from There's Something About Mary with the rock'n'roll backbeat which rules the iTunes universe. As the music video galaxy is deader than Michael Jackson, we need to reinvest in the great musical traditions which helped Jackson to become; for a moment in time; the King of Pop. Our Wonder Woman soundtrack nudges the narrative forward without drowning out the actors or stopping the movies' activities cold.
Our Wonder Woman movie catering will be done by Star Waggons, owned and operated by Lyle Waggoner (who played Steve Trevor on TVs Wonder Woman)!
These efforts will immeasurably fortify the success of our Wonder Woman trilogy!
Thank you for your kind attention, Diane Nelson! I am at your service!
And for the rest of you, my friends: be good! Talk to you, soon!
Brad
How do we market the Wonder Woman Project?
Pedal to the metal, starting with Walmart!
Our Wonder Woman Project partnership with Walmart is based upon their unequaled distribution system, their unrivaled value and their wide demographic appeal. Our products will be based on school supplies (a year-round market), various-and-sundry reading materials, and recreation items. We are committed to the everyday consumer and impulse shopper, with prices capped at $15 per item, so that each item will not cost more money than the price of a movie ticket.
We must not lose sight that our ultimate goal is to drive consumers to the movie theater!
CDs and DVDs will be exclusive to Walmart! We can reserve the right to sell items at our WB Stores, but if this exception increases the price point that Walmart is willing to offer us, then we should concede all the retail to Walmart.
With our high profile ensemble cast, we can open the movie "wide" domestically as well as internationally. As Wonder Woman is already a universally-recognized brand, the need for "shoe leather" publicity is minimal and can be left to the actors' discretion.
As we are filming this movie trilogy simultaneously, we are controlling the production costs. As our emphasis is on acting and not on Computer Generated Images, our post-production expenses will be relatively mild.
As we have already prepared the movie soundtracks, we save millions instead of assembling the music after principle photography is completed.
The Wonder Woman Picture Book: A Beginner's Guide to Being Amazing!; will be a tabloid size 64 page fully illustrated ethno-history of the Amazons. These images will be full page or double-page illustrations with minimal text; essentially "An Inconvenient Amazon" hosted by Wonder Woman for all age groups. Illustrated by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, embellished by Kevin Nowlan, lettered by Todd Klein, colored by Laura Depuy and edited by Paul Levitz (we gotta keep Levitz in the loop)! Not quite a comic book, not close to a souvenier book, the Wonder Woman Picture Book will prove a unique outreach to fanboys, to movie buffs and to children of all ages!
The 3 year Wonder Woman wall calendar is a unique collectible which will span the release dates of the 3 theatrical movies. This calendar is an excellent way to keep Wonder Woman in the hearts and minds of our enthusiastic audience.
The Wonder Woman CD soundtrack combines the simplicity of the folk singing acoustic duo from There's Something About Mary with the rock'n'roll backbeat which rules the iTunes universe. As the music video galaxy is deader than Michael Jackson, we need to reinvest in the great musical traditions which helped Jackson to become; for a moment in time; the King of Pop. Our Wonder Woman soundtrack nudges the narrative forward without drowning out the actors or stopping the movies' activities cold.
Our Wonder Woman movie catering will be done by Star Waggons, owned and operated by Lyle Waggoner (who played Steve Trevor on TVs Wonder Woman)!
These efforts will immeasurably fortify the success of our Wonder Woman trilogy!
Thank you for your kind attention, Diane Nelson! I am at your service!
And for the rest of you, my friends: be good! Talk to you, soon!
Brad
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Diane Nelson: An Open Letter
Hi Diane Nelson (and everybody)!
Congratulations on your new job as DC Entertainment President! I am excited to have you join the DC Nation to bring our favorite characters to the big screen!
I believe that the confidence which Jeff Robinov has in you is well-founded and that the many years of Development Hell for DC at the movies has at last come to a merciful end!
It is not the comics which you have read that matters, it is the passion that you bring to the table which will prove the key to your greatest successes at the newly minted DC Entertainment!
Now, me, I am passionate about Wonder Woman!
But there you are, sitting at your new desk with your In Box overflowing, overlooking the smoggy L.A. Basin, and perhaps you are wondering:
"I've got the job, now what? Maybe I should start small and inconspicuously. DC has thousands of characters to choose from! Constantine performed pretty well, for us. Maybe I should call Keanu for a sequel! Talking babies are always big box office. Maybe a movie about Sugar N' Spike? What this town really needs is a family comedy without a blackout drunk. I should greenlight Angel and the Ape!"
What would Wonder Woman do in your shoes?
"Be brave! Be bold! Pick me!"
All kidding aside, the active titles that are now under your control are easily characterized, as they fall under 7 basic genres:
HORROR - Constantine
SPACE OPERA - Green Lantern
MYSTERY - Madame Xanadu
FANTASY - Fables
ENSEMBLE DRAMA - Teen Titans
POLITICAL DRAMA - Ex Machina
SUPERHERO - Wonder Woman
Yes, there she is, again!
Diane Nelson, you have been brought in to deliver tentpoles, and that is how it should be! Your movie projects should support TV shows, DVDs, websites, videogames, toys, licensing, theme park attractions, CDs, concerts, books and merchandising like:
Toothbrushes
Sleeping Bags
T Shirts and
Charm Bracelets
As far as licensing goes, Wonder Woman is already in the pipeline! You have the great artist Jose Luis Garcia Lopez on your Licensed Merchandise payroll who has strong experience illustrating our favorite Amazon ever since the tabloid comic Superman VS Wonder Woman back in 1978! For a more recent example of his work, check out Jose Luis Garcia Lopez illustrating the terrific Metal Men feature with Dan Didio; yes, THAT Dan Didio; in DCs Wednesday Comics!
If you don't believe me, ask Paul Levitz!
Diane Nelson, you have worked at Disney, so you have a keen understanding of multi-platforming. You have overseen the Harry Potter movies from the beginning, so you have been wildly successful at converting one medium to another medium.
This is the job that you were born to do, Diane Nelson, and we are lucky to have you doing it for DC Entertainment!
Woo woo!
You might agree with me that the R-rated market for movies has been dwindling for the last decade, and that the under-performance of "Watchmen" might well have resulted from that inexorable trend.
You might find, as I do, that the gift of the PG-13 rating; given to us by Steven Spielberg with his "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" release; is the gift that DC Entertainment should take full advantage of with its' tentpoles!
You might think, like myself, that if PG-13 was good enough for "Live Free or Die Hard", then that it is more than good enough for DC Entertainment!
Like most popular entertainments, comics characters are not endlessly malleable. These characters live by certain rules and require certain characteristics to be enduringly popular. These characters are commonly:
Earnest
Grounded
Attractive
Accessible
Confident
Charismatic and
Graceful
Now, you may be thinking that,
"Batman is traumatized. Superman is orphaned. Spider-Man is guilt-ridden. Iron Man is an alcoholic. Hulk is a schizophrenic. The Fantastic Four are mutated beyond recognition. The X-Men are hounded. How do any of these successful movies reflect those values which Brad has listed above?"
Of course, the answer is: they don't!
The best comics character for the movies is waiting for her close-up!
Say it with me: Wonder Woman!
Woo woo!
Wonder Woman has the potential to be the Miley Cyrus Tentpole of comics movies!
Lest we confuse "well-adjusted" with "vanilla", let us remember that vanilla has served Miley very well, so far! Vanilla can make a good girl a lot of green, which is what a tentpole is all about!
What Wonder Woman lacks in storm and stress, she more than makes up for in sass and specificity:
1) Her creator; William Moulton Marston; melded Wonder Woman's backstory to Ancient Rome and the Greek gods. This gives Wonder Woman instant legitimacy as a warrior and as a self-supporting female archetype.
Wonder Woman is not a jewel thief (Catwoman), a rogue assassin (Elektra), or a freelance archeologist surrounded by nerds(Lara Croft: Tomb Raider).
Wonder Woman knows who she is (an Amazon princess), knows what she wants (a world at peace) and knows how to get it (stop Ares from starting another World War)!
2) When World War II broke out, Wonder Woman's comics were completely invested in that war effort. This made Wonder Woman a cultural staple equal to Rosie the Riveter and an enduring source of inspiration to iconic feminist Gloria Steinem.
How much moreso will a Wonder Woman movie inspire embattled girls around the world, today?
3) Wonder Woman uses violence only as a last resort and always tries to rehabilitate her adversaries. This completely distinguishes Wonder Woman from every other action character.
Wonder Woman has the selflessness of a hero, the high style of a supermodel, and the moves of a ninja: a killer combination if ever a one there was!
Wonder Woman: accept no substitutes!
Wonder Woman: let us Greenlight no other DC Entertainment project before her!
When Wonder Woman was created in 1941, she was so far ahead of her time that she instantly became a publishing phenonmenon: now her time has properly come to likewise rule the tentpole!
Woo woo!
Wonder Woman has the courage of Harry, the sureness of Hermione, and the empathy of Ron! Diane Nelson, you know it is true!
Woo woo!
Wonder Woman has a perfect personality, a busy schedule and the grandfather from Hell!
Wonder Woman was made from sacred clay to uncoil her magic lasso and to stop the greatest threat of all time!
Who's that wearing them fancy boots?
Wonder Woman!
What time is it?
Wonder Woman time!
When the gods cry "war!", who are you gonna call?
Wonder Woman, say it loud!
Woo woo!
Diane Nelson, you can bring your namesake; Princess Diana; to the big screen!
Wonder Woman will become the next great tentpole for DC Entertainment! I have the three excellent screenplays:
Wonder Woman: AMAZONS!
Wonder Woman: ARRIVES!
Wonder Woman: ARES!
You have the power, Diane Nelson! Hear the voice of Athena at ringside:
"Welcome to the thrillah in Thymescira! In that corner, the unstoppable god of bloodlust! In this corner, our All Star Sensation from the DC Nation! Have you got your soda? Do you have your buttered popcorn? Are you ready to rumble?"
Wonder Woman is!
Woo woo!
Let us make this happen, Diane Nelson! I am at your service!
Sincerely,
Brad S Barnes
And to everybody else, be good and I'll talk to you, soon!
Brad
Congratulations on your new job as DC Entertainment President! I am excited to have you join the DC Nation to bring our favorite characters to the big screen!
I believe that the confidence which Jeff Robinov has in you is well-founded and that the many years of Development Hell for DC at the movies has at last come to a merciful end!
It is not the comics which you have read that matters, it is the passion that you bring to the table which will prove the key to your greatest successes at the newly minted DC Entertainment!
Now, me, I am passionate about Wonder Woman!
But there you are, sitting at your new desk with your In Box overflowing, overlooking the smoggy L.A. Basin, and perhaps you are wondering:
"I've got the job, now what? Maybe I should start small and inconspicuously. DC has thousands of characters to choose from! Constantine performed pretty well, for us. Maybe I should call Keanu for a sequel! Talking babies are always big box office. Maybe a movie about Sugar N' Spike? What this town really needs is a family comedy without a blackout drunk. I should greenlight Angel and the Ape!"
What would Wonder Woman do in your shoes?
"Be brave! Be bold! Pick me!"
All kidding aside, the active titles that are now under your control are easily characterized, as they fall under 7 basic genres:
HORROR - Constantine
SPACE OPERA - Green Lantern
MYSTERY - Madame Xanadu
FANTASY - Fables
ENSEMBLE DRAMA - Teen Titans
POLITICAL DRAMA - Ex Machina
SUPERHERO - Wonder Woman
Yes, there she is, again!
Diane Nelson, you have been brought in to deliver tentpoles, and that is how it should be! Your movie projects should support TV shows, DVDs, websites, videogames, toys, licensing, theme park attractions, CDs, concerts, books and merchandising like:
Toothbrushes
Sleeping Bags
T Shirts and
Charm Bracelets
As far as licensing goes, Wonder Woman is already in the pipeline! You have the great artist Jose Luis Garcia Lopez on your Licensed Merchandise payroll who has strong experience illustrating our favorite Amazon ever since the tabloid comic Superman VS Wonder Woman back in 1978! For a more recent example of his work, check out Jose Luis Garcia Lopez illustrating the terrific Metal Men feature with Dan Didio; yes, THAT Dan Didio; in DCs Wednesday Comics!
If you don't believe me, ask Paul Levitz!
Diane Nelson, you have worked at Disney, so you have a keen understanding of multi-platforming. You have overseen the Harry Potter movies from the beginning, so you have been wildly successful at converting one medium to another medium.
This is the job that you were born to do, Diane Nelson, and we are lucky to have you doing it for DC Entertainment!
Woo woo!
You might agree with me that the R-rated market for movies has been dwindling for the last decade, and that the under-performance of "Watchmen" might well have resulted from that inexorable trend.
You might find, as I do, that the gift of the PG-13 rating; given to us by Steven Spielberg with his "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" release; is the gift that DC Entertainment should take full advantage of with its' tentpoles!
You might think, like myself, that if PG-13 was good enough for "Live Free or Die Hard", then that it is more than good enough for DC Entertainment!
Like most popular entertainments, comics characters are not endlessly malleable. These characters live by certain rules and require certain characteristics to be enduringly popular. These characters are commonly:
Earnest
Grounded
Attractive
Accessible
Confident
Charismatic and
Graceful
Now, you may be thinking that,
"Batman is traumatized. Superman is orphaned. Spider-Man is guilt-ridden. Iron Man is an alcoholic. Hulk is a schizophrenic. The Fantastic Four are mutated beyond recognition. The X-Men are hounded. How do any of these successful movies reflect those values which Brad has listed above?"
Of course, the answer is: they don't!
The best comics character for the movies is waiting for her close-up!
Say it with me: Wonder Woman!
Woo woo!
Wonder Woman has the potential to be the Miley Cyrus Tentpole of comics movies!
Lest we confuse "well-adjusted" with "vanilla", let us remember that vanilla has served Miley very well, so far! Vanilla can make a good girl a lot of green, which is what a tentpole is all about!
What Wonder Woman lacks in storm and stress, she more than makes up for in sass and specificity:
1) Her creator; William Moulton Marston; melded Wonder Woman's backstory to Ancient Rome and the Greek gods. This gives Wonder Woman instant legitimacy as a warrior and as a self-supporting female archetype.
Wonder Woman is not a jewel thief (Catwoman), a rogue assassin (Elektra), or a freelance archeologist surrounded by nerds(Lara Croft: Tomb Raider).
Wonder Woman knows who she is (an Amazon princess), knows what she wants (a world at peace) and knows how to get it (stop Ares from starting another World War)!
2) When World War II broke out, Wonder Woman's comics were completely invested in that war effort. This made Wonder Woman a cultural staple equal to Rosie the Riveter and an enduring source of inspiration to iconic feminist Gloria Steinem.
How much moreso will a Wonder Woman movie inspire embattled girls around the world, today?
3) Wonder Woman uses violence only as a last resort and always tries to rehabilitate her adversaries. This completely distinguishes Wonder Woman from every other action character.
Wonder Woman has the selflessness of a hero, the high style of a supermodel, and the moves of a ninja: a killer combination if ever a one there was!
Wonder Woman: accept no substitutes!
Wonder Woman: let us Greenlight no other DC Entertainment project before her!
When Wonder Woman was created in 1941, she was so far ahead of her time that she instantly became a publishing phenonmenon: now her time has properly come to likewise rule the tentpole!
Woo woo!
Wonder Woman has the courage of Harry, the sureness of Hermione, and the empathy of Ron! Diane Nelson, you know it is true!
Woo woo!
Wonder Woman has a perfect personality, a busy schedule and the grandfather from Hell!
Wonder Woman was made from sacred clay to uncoil her magic lasso and to stop the greatest threat of all time!
Who's that wearing them fancy boots?
Wonder Woman!
What time is it?
Wonder Woman time!
When the gods cry "war!", who are you gonna call?
Wonder Woman, say it loud!
Woo woo!
Diane Nelson, you can bring your namesake; Princess Diana; to the big screen!
Wonder Woman will become the next great tentpole for DC Entertainment! I have the three excellent screenplays:
Wonder Woman: AMAZONS!
Wonder Woman: ARRIVES!
Wonder Woman: ARES!
You have the power, Diane Nelson! Hear the voice of Athena at ringside:
"Welcome to the thrillah in Thymescira! In that corner, the unstoppable god of bloodlust! In this corner, our All Star Sensation from the DC Nation! Have you got your soda? Do you have your buttered popcorn? Are you ready to rumble?"
Wonder Woman is!
Woo woo!
Let us make this happen, Diane Nelson! I am at your service!
Sincerely,
Brad S Barnes
And to everybody else, be good and I'll talk to you, soon!
Brad
Monday, September 14, 2009
A Musicals Question!
Hi everybody!
When I think of THE WIZARD OF OZ, I think about the characters and the story, then I remember the music, but I don't immediately think of it as a musical: I think of it as a great movie with great music.
Film critic Robert Osborne argued that Judy Garland was the most talented performer in the history of movies; that she could dance like a dervish, sing like an angel and act with audacity - that Garland had no discernable weaknesses. Even though I believe that Katherine Hepburn had the greatest range of any actor in the movies; having made great romantic comedies (THE PHILADELPHIA STORY), great screwball comedies (BRINGING UP BABY), great melodrama (ALICE ADAMS), and great historical drama (THE LION IN WINTER), let's face it: Hepburn could not sing well or dance much. So I concede that point to Osborne!
Like everything else in the movies, musicals are an elusive prey. After the massive success of THE SOUND OF MUSIC in 1965, the advent of Rock and Roll made it harder to build a story entirely around the music. Rock and Roll is about acting out, not about introspection. In THE WIZARD OF OZ in 1939, the music is used as a coping device to take in all of the fantastical events happening to a simple girl from Kansas. Compare that to, say, TOMMY in 1975, which is basically one long acid trip about a deaf, dumb and blind kid. Even using the impressive Beatles catalogue in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE in 2007 found the story helplessly trapped in the 1960s with once-vital social issues having long since been resolved.
When I think about FLASHDANCE in 1983, I think about the dancing first and the music second. I remember the ridiculous premise: steelworker by day, exotic dancer by night with dreams of becoming a ballerina. Compare that to the equally ridiculous premise of SAVE THE LAST DANCE in 2006, but there is not one memorable song from that movie. FLASHDANCE made the careers of director Adrian Lyne (9 1/2 WEEKS), screenwriter Joe Esterhaus (BASIC INSTINCT), producer/studio executive Sherry Lansing (FATAL ATTRACTION) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer (THE ROCK). A whole movie making machine of guilty pleasures came out of FLASHDANCE! Even the marketing of the movie was questionable: at the dawn of MTV, they would run music videos from FLASHDANCE with images of leotards and leg warmers instead of lipsynching lotharios; these were basically trailers for the movie, and it worked wonders.
A musical cue can make a movie: the whistling from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY and even from THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, the piano playing from THE STING, the love theme from THE GODFATHER (leave the gun, take the cannoli!), the marching band horns from ROCKY (his entire life was a million to one shot!) even the assaultive strings from the shower scene in PSYCHO (Mother! What have you done?).
However, music isn't everything. Frank Sinatra's best movie by far was THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, which didn't have great music. One of the best musical performers of all time is Dick Van Dyke, whose career on his own show and on DIAGNOSIS: MURDER was not driven by music. Top musical performers like Ben Vereen and Gregory Hines never broke into the mainstream. As for women, after Barbra Streisand, what other musical performere has made it big on the big screen? Madonna? Beyonce? Jennifer Hudson?
John Travolta had a cluster of musical movies (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, URBAN COWBOY and GREASE) but, other than the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL kids, and, maybe, Mike Myers in the AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY movies, there are no go-to musical performers out there, right now. Maybe Miley Cyrus will succeed where so many others have failed, but even the Disney machine has had a difficult time creating a multi-platform superstar over the last 20 years.
So when I include music in the WONDER WOMAN project it is with the knowledge that it is to enhance the experience, not to be the entire experience. However, to ignore the music would be ridiculous. If ever there was a character who came to us from somewhere over the rainbow, it is WONDER WOMAN!
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
When I think of THE WIZARD OF OZ, I think about the characters and the story, then I remember the music, but I don't immediately think of it as a musical: I think of it as a great movie with great music.
Film critic Robert Osborne argued that Judy Garland was the most talented performer in the history of movies; that she could dance like a dervish, sing like an angel and act with audacity - that Garland had no discernable weaknesses. Even though I believe that Katherine Hepburn had the greatest range of any actor in the movies; having made great romantic comedies (THE PHILADELPHIA STORY), great screwball comedies (BRINGING UP BABY), great melodrama (ALICE ADAMS), and great historical drama (THE LION IN WINTER), let's face it: Hepburn could not sing well or dance much. So I concede that point to Osborne!
Like everything else in the movies, musicals are an elusive prey. After the massive success of THE SOUND OF MUSIC in 1965, the advent of Rock and Roll made it harder to build a story entirely around the music. Rock and Roll is about acting out, not about introspection. In THE WIZARD OF OZ in 1939, the music is used as a coping device to take in all of the fantastical events happening to a simple girl from Kansas. Compare that to, say, TOMMY in 1975, which is basically one long acid trip about a deaf, dumb and blind kid. Even using the impressive Beatles catalogue in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE in 2007 found the story helplessly trapped in the 1960s with once-vital social issues having long since been resolved.
When I think about FLASHDANCE in 1983, I think about the dancing first and the music second. I remember the ridiculous premise: steelworker by day, exotic dancer by night with dreams of becoming a ballerina. Compare that to the equally ridiculous premise of SAVE THE LAST DANCE in 2006, but there is not one memorable song from that movie. FLASHDANCE made the careers of director Adrian Lyne (9 1/2 WEEKS), screenwriter Joe Esterhaus (BASIC INSTINCT), producer/studio executive Sherry Lansing (FATAL ATTRACTION) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer (THE ROCK). A whole movie making machine of guilty pleasures came out of FLASHDANCE! Even the marketing of the movie was questionable: at the dawn of MTV, they would run music videos from FLASHDANCE with images of leotards and leg warmers instead of lipsynching lotharios; these were basically trailers for the movie, and it worked wonders.
A musical cue can make a movie: the whistling from THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY and even from THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, the piano playing from THE STING, the love theme from THE GODFATHER (leave the gun, take the cannoli!), the marching band horns from ROCKY (his entire life was a million to one shot!) even the assaultive strings from the shower scene in PSYCHO (Mother! What have you done?).
However, music isn't everything. Frank Sinatra's best movie by far was THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, which didn't have great music. One of the best musical performers of all time is Dick Van Dyke, whose career on his own show and on DIAGNOSIS: MURDER was not driven by music. Top musical performers like Ben Vereen and Gregory Hines never broke into the mainstream. As for women, after Barbra Streisand, what other musical performere has made it big on the big screen? Madonna? Beyonce? Jennifer Hudson?
John Travolta had a cluster of musical movies (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, URBAN COWBOY and GREASE) but, other than the HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL kids, and, maybe, Mike Myers in the AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY movies, there are no go-to musical performers out there, right now. Maybe Miley Cyrus will succeed where so many others have failed, but even the Disney machine has had a difficult time creating a multi-platform superstar over the last 20 years.
So when I include music in the WONDER WOMAN project it is with the knowledge that it is to enhance the experience, not to be the entire experience. However, to ignore the music would be ridiculous. If ever there was a character who came to us from somewhere over the rainbow, it is WONDER WOMAN!
Talk to you, soon! Be good!
Brad
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Trilogy Vs. Epic!
Hi everybody!
During the Labor Day weekend my intention was to thresh out the WONDER WOMAN screenplays, but then arrived at the conclusion that three movies were necessary to house my notations. This threw the entire process into a fundamental re-thinking and prevented me from simply banging out my notes and pulling together the various narrative threads.
I am not working from a pre-existing narrative such as LORD OF THE RINGS, which is a matter of picking and choosing from a plethora of incidents. Nor am I working from a series of self-contained narratives such as the series of Jason Bourne books by Robert Ludlum.
Speaking of BOURNE, the first Matt Damon film was actually a remake and reimagining of an earlier movie adaptation which found its' success upon the DVD release, not from the initial theatrical release. Having unexpectantly found its' audience, the second BOURNE movie immeasurably benefitted from the addition of Joan Allen to the cast. The third BOURNE movie; allowing for his amnesia to clear; provided an emotional completion to the structural mysteries which had driven the first two movies. The backwards logic of telling the BOURNE stories this way made for an unusually-effective movie trilogy.
There is no way to duplicate or to apply the flashback storytelling of BOURNE to the WONDER WOMAN project. Likewise, how the GODFATHER movies began in the middle of the story in the first movie then bookended the beginning and the end in the second movie is equally impossible. These were not simply editing tricks like those as employed in PULP FICTION; these were production decisions directly resulting from successful initial movies which allowed for staging an unexpected sequel or sequels.
With LORD OF THE RINGS, Peter Jackson had a much-beloved epic to cherry-pick from which more-than-justified its' imposing length of 3 movies. The wealth of unused footage on the DVD releases testifies to this. There is no way WONDER WOMAN can match that level of audience loyalty.
I am more mindful of the success of long-form narratives, which are easier to notate in TV than it is in movies.
For example, the freshman season of Steven Bochco's MURDER ONE is a great example of a missed opportunity. Bochco had made his bones on COLUMBO, so he knew how to wrap up a mystery. Then Bochco had created HILL ST. BLUES, so he knew how to elicit fine performances. Then Bochco had created NYPD BLUE, so he knew his way around the courtroom. By using an entire season of TV to prosecute one high-profile murder case, Bochco audaciously attempted to unravel a murder case of such complication that no audience could have possibly guessed who did the crime; which was essentially turning the delight of COLUMBO on its' head. But TV is about compression; not expansion; so when the murderer was finally revealed on MURDER ONE they were so completely out of left field that it might as well have been committed by the butler. Had MURDER ONE been half its' length it might have worked.
Which brings us to the classic miniseries RICH MAN, POOR MAN. During the production, nobody realized that although Peter Strauss was the crush-ready WASP with feet of clay, it would be rough-hewn Nick Nolte as the n'er-do-well brother with the heart of gold who would capture the audience's heart. So when Nolte perished at the end of the show, it provided an emotional impact that no one had anticipated: it actually elevated it from trashy soap opera to legitimate drama. When the producers belatedly realized that they had just killed off their meal ticket, they tried to hire Nolte back as his own son in the sequel, but Nolte chose to pursue a movie career, instead, which; after a shaky start in THE DEEP; proved to be the better choice.
Which all goes to say that altering the WONDER WOMAN project from a two-parter to a trilogy requires a retrenching of preparation to avoid the innumberable errors that have plagued earlier productions.
The skulls and bones of failed sequels have been the bane of Hollywood since the glorious exception of GODFATHER II, and we would be foolish to charge in with less than three fully-articulated narratives before we commit any resources to the WONDER WOMAN project. Only the blood simple fables of HALLOWEEN, of FRIDAY the 13th, of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, of SAW, of HOSTEL, spawn endless sequels that manage to charm generations of moviegoers.
When we ask moviegoers to spend $10, buy a tub of popcorn and a toot of Coca-Cola, and commit their cubicle-tortured behinds to two hours of sparkling entertainment in a darkened room with a hundred complete strangers, we'd better be built to boogie.
Nobody boogies better than WONDER WOMAN, and we will make sure that the WONDER WOMAN project boogies three separate times without missing an Amazonian beat!
The WONDER WOMAN project ain't beanbag!
Talk to you soon, be good!
Brad
During the Labor Day weekend my intention was to thresh out the WONDER WOMAN screenplays, but then arrived at the conclusion that three movies were necessary to house my notations. This threw the entire process into a fundamental re-thinking and prevented me from simply banging out my notes and pulling together the various narrative threads.
I am not working from a pre-existing narrative such as LORD OF THE RINGS, which is a matter of picking and choosing from a plethora of incidents. Nor am I working from a series of self-contained narratives such as the series of Jason Bourne books by Robert Ludlum.
Speaking of BOURNE, the first Matt Damon film was actually a remake and reimagining of an earlier movie adaptation which found its' success upon the DVD release, not from the initial theatrical release. Having unexpectantly found its' audience, the second BOURNE movie immeasurably benefitted from the addition of Joan Allen to the cast. The third BOURNE movie; allowing for his amnesia to clear; provided an emotional completion to the structural mysteries which had driven the first two movies. The backwards logic of telling the BOURNE stories this way made for an unusually-effective movie trilogy.
There is no way to duplicate or to apply the flashback storytelling of BOURNE to the WONDER WOMAN project. Likewise, how the GODFATHER movies began in the middle of the story in the first movie then bookended the beginning and the end in the second movie is equally impossible. These were not simply editing tricks like those as employed in PULP FICTION; these were production decisions directly resulting from successful initial movies which allowed for staging an unexpected sequel or sequels.
With LORD OF THE RINGS, Peter Jackson had a much-beloved epic to cherry-pick from which more-than-justified its' imposing length of 3 movies. The wealth of unused footage on the DVD releases testifies to this. There is no way WONDER WOMAN can match that level of audience loyalty.
I am more mindful of the success of long-form narratives, which are easier to notate in TV than it is in movies.
For example, the freshman season of Steven Bochco's MURDER ONE is a great example of a missed opportunity. Bochco had made his bones on COLUMBO, so he knew how to wrap up a mystery. Then Bochco had created HILL ST. BLUES, so he knew how to elicit fine performances. Then Bochco had created NYPD BLUE, so he knew his way around the courtroom. By using an entire season of TV to prosecute one high-profile murder case, Bochco audaciously attempted to unravel a murder case of such complication that no audience could have possibly guessed who did the crime; which was essentially turning the delight of COLUMBO on its' head. But TV is about compression; not expansion; so when the murderer was finally revealed on MURDER ONE they were so completely out of left field that it might as well have been committed by the butler. Had MURDER ONE been half its' length it might have worked.
Which brings us to the classic miniseries RICH MAN, POOR MAN. During the production, nobody realized that although Peter Strauss was the crush-ready WASP with feet of clay, it would be rough-hewn Nick Nolte as the n'er-do-well brother with the heart of gold who would capture the audience's heart. So when Nolte perished at the end of the show, it provided an emotional impact that no one had anticipated: it actually elevated it from trashy soap opera to legitimate drama. When the producers belatedly realized that they had just killed off their meal ticket, they tried to hire Nolte back as his own son in the sequel, but Nolte chose to pursue a movie career, instead, which; after a shaky start in THE DEEP; proved to be the better choice.
Which all goes to say that altering the WONDER WOMAN project from a two-parter to a trilogy requires a retrenching of preparation to avoid the innumberable errors that have plagued earlier productions.
The skulls and bones of failed sequels have been the bane of Hollywood since the glorious exception of GODFATHER II, and we would be foolish to charge in with less than three fully-articulated narratives before we commit any resources to the WONDER WOMAN project. Only the blood simple fables of HALLOWEEN, of FRIDAY the 13th, of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, of SAW, of HOSTEL, spawn endless sequels that manage to charm generations of moviegoers.
When we ask moviegoers to spend $10, buy a tub of popcorn and a toot of Coca-Cola, and commit their cubicle-tortured behinds to two hours of sparkling entertainment in a darkened room with a hundred complete strangers, we'd better be built to boogie.
Nobody boogies better than WONDER WOMAN, and we will make sure that the WONDER WOMAN project boogies three separate times without missing an Amazonian beat!
The WONDER WOMAN project ain't beanbag!
Talk to you soon, be good!
Brad
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