Comic Book Heros and Film?
A match made in Heaven
Why do so many films being made nowadays use established comic heroes stories? One view is that the stories are more rounded and complete and everyone likes an origin story. We all know Peter Parker gets bit by a radio active spider, we're all aware that Bruce Wayne witnesses the death of his mother and father. So these are stories ready made to be consummed by the public. Is this true though? Can we be that trusting of the Hollywood money making machine? I think a more acurate take on why Comic book heroes are turned into films is a lot more synical! Money. Comic books have done all the hard work for Hollywood, they have already established a fan base which Hollywood count on to support the film, they also have the advertising all tied up as well, all you have to do is by the next issue of Spiderman etc and they know they have a captive audience who if they pay £3 a month for an issue will surely pay £8 for the pleasure of seeing their hero coming to life.
I would have to agree and disagree with you on one big factor- Passion.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Hollywood is a money grabbing wench, but there’s still a heart of gold at times. This depends completely on those who are making the movies. And yes, super hero movies are a very easy target as there’s already an audience, but some of those audience members grow up and become film makers themselves. Take for instance the entire Lord of the Rings saga- those were made with passion. There was not one member of that crew who hadn’t at least read the books.
As for comic book heroes, a lot of film makers want to retell the classic heroes in new ways to reintroduce them to a newer generation. With newer generations hungry for the dark, brooding heroes with more of an ante-hero feel to them we get films like the Dark Night.
And Hollywood is a very big problem for good storytelling. Like Batman and Robin.... that film was such junk food. I mean, they had one scene were Batman had a special “Batman Credit Card”- it had a completely different tone from Tim Burton’s Batman Begins (which, you could argue set a whole new tone for superhero movies) yet they were in the same series.
The problem is you need Hollywood money to make films to often do special effects that give justice to the superhero stories. I just hope that Hollywood learns you can earn more money with a hit than with a flop- especially with the Spiderman Reboot coming up.