How comics conquered the movies
In 1995, Judge Dredd, star of the British sci-fi comic 2000AD, made his movie debut with Sylvester Stallone in the lead role, writes Rob Williams. John Wagner, creator and long-time writer of Dredd, attended the premiere and watched with a heavy heart. The satire and subtlety of his character had been replaced by tired Hollywood formulas. The studio hadn’t been interested in his input. He made it to the credits and saw his name roll past hidden among hundreds of others.
Wagner enjoyed a happier Hollywood experience when his 1997 graphic novel A History Of Violence, about a small town have-a-go hero with a secret Mafia past, was made into a very good movie by David Cronenberg in 2005. It was clear that in the decade between the two films, Hollywood had started to take comics seriously.
Today, Hollywood not only gives credit to comic creators, it courts them. The movie deal for Kick-Ass was done prior to the comic even being finished. As writer Mark Millar says: “Issues one to four were written before Matthew [Vaughn] started scripting. Issues five, seven and eight were just a half-page plot each so he could write the screenplay.”
The current gold rush on comic book films began in earnest in 2002 with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. Raimi was a Spidey fan and stayed true to the source material. The movie made $400m in the US and Hollywood realised that storylines from the geek heaven of Marvel Comics could resonate with a mass audience. The sequel Spider-Man 2 (2004) was big too and Marvel, co-producing with Sony Pictures, decided to go it alone. In 2008, Marvel Studios self-produced Iron Man and the publisher’s top creators were brought in to ensure the movie accurately captured the comics. Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr, took more than $300m in the US, with a sequel due this summer.
DC Comics, Marvel’s main rivals, also hit the jackpot in 2008 when The Dark Knight – again picking and choosing from classic Batman comics – became a cultural phenomenon, bringing in $533m in the US, making it the third highest grossing film of all time behind Titanic and Avatar.
This didn’t go unnoticed by the industry. In 2009, Disney bought Marvel for a reported $4bn. And Time Warner, DC’s owners, is moving forward with film adaptations of other characters such as Green Lantern and The Flash.
“Faithful” has become the mission statement for all those taking comics to the cinema screen, with movies such as Sin City (2005), 300 (2006) and Watchmen (2009) even including comic panels on screen.
Hollywood talent agencies, such as ICM, have set up special departments to represent comic creators, with a view to transforming their properties into film deals. Non-superhero indie comic book fare has also made a breakthrough. Both The Losers, based on an “adult” comic about a rogue special ops team, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World, the pop art tale of a “himbo” bassist who has to battle his new girlfriend’s evil former boyfriends, are expected to be breakthrough hits this year. Maybe the geek shall inherit the Earth after all.
Rob Williams is author of Cla$$war (Com.x), recently optioned by Mandeville Films. He writes for Marvel Comics and 2000AD
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