This week we saw the premiere of the Blade television series on Spike. This time everybody's favorite Daywalker is played by Kirk Jones, formerly Sticky (Fingaz) of Onyx. While I'm looking forward to the show, it got me thinking about comics properties on both the big and small screens.
Marvel seems to have every character short of Batroc the Leaper locked into some form of development deal or another, but what does the Distinguished Competition have in the pipeline? New installments in the Batman & Superman franchises. Joss Whedon's Wonder Woman project. David Goyer's Flash picture is in some stage of production. A Legion of Superheroes cartoon? What else? (and no, James Cameron's Aquaman doesn't count) Part of the problem is that DC is part of the Time Warner family, and consequently all of their characters (with a couple of unique exceptions discussed below) are limited to the Warner Bros. studio. Marvel can pick and choose the studio each property goes to and, to a lesser extent, the talent on the project. DC has no such flexibility. What does this have to do with Blade? He's an example of the most successful type of comic movie; a relatively unknown character, a managable budget and most importantly, it wasn't tagged with the 'Comic Book Movie' label. That last part may piss you off but the fact is "Comic Book Movies' have a stigma atteched to them. You and I remember the good Comic movies: Hellboy, Batman Begins, and X-Men 2. What does your buddy that doesn't read comics remember? Nipples on Batsuits, Halle Berry purring, and Jennifer Garner holding sais. Especially when you consider how much movies cost to make today studios are reluctant to put a property into production unless they are sure it will make them money. Again, I go back to Blade. From a technical standpoint Blade was everything Superman Returns is not. Superman was one of the most beloved characters in the history of literature. Blade was unknown to all but the most hardcore Marvel fans. Superman cost as much as $325M to make. Blade cost less than a tenth of that. But most importantly Blade, as a character, is fairly flexible, while Superman is just too iconic to modify. You can't cast a 40 something Kiefer Sutherland as Superman. But a minor character like Blade? He can go from his early 20's to late 30's with no problem. His backstory can be tweaked and you can use, or not use, any member of his supporting cast you want to. Just as importantly he doesn't need a lot of expensive special effects; no flying, no fire breathing, no shape changing. You can do Blade on a budget that almost guarantees it's profitability. The same can't be said for Superman. Marvel took the Blade model and ran with it, but DC, other than Constantine, still seems to be thinking "Blockbuster or Bust". If a character isn't enough of a household name then they don't get a movie. Period.
So does DC have a character in their library capable of following the Blade formula? Of course they do.
- Cyborg - While Vic Stone began as a rip-off of the Six Million Dollar Man, he's evolved into much more over the years. Lots of emotional context to play with here. You could go crazy on the character design here and still have it work. Being a high profile black character helps too.
- Plastic Man - This one is an oddity. Plas' movie rights are actually in the hands of the Wachowski brothers, and a draft of their script has been online for years. It was too expensive to do in the 90's, but with advances in CGI it could be done on a much more reasonable budget. The right balance of humor and action could be difficult to pull off but it has the potential to be off the charts.
- The Omega Men - This one would be better as a TV series than a movie I think. Aliens from a dozen different worlds banded together to fight for their people's freedom, it's like Farscape meets Battlestar Galactica but with tons of blood and gore. It could be one hell of a series, if they got the make-up and costumes right. You could even have guest stars like Adam Strange, Captain Comet and Vril Dox.
- Manhunter (Kate Spencer) - It's L.A. Law with a killer vigilante! Another selection that makes a better TV show than film. But the idea of a strong but flawed female character hunting super criminals by night while prosecuting them by day just works as a tv show. A little Law & Order, a little CSI, a little Buffy and you have a hit baby! And who doesn't want to see Dylan (The Tech Wonder) Battles on screen?
- Deadman - Maybe the longest shot of the bunch. This could be a great horror movie. The Hindu spirituality is pretty unfamiliar to westerners, but it's fascinating and can be visually stunning. I'm not quite sure who Boston Brand would be fighting exactly, but the magic/horror side of DC is an untapped gold mine.
- Starman (Jack Knight) - The most emotionally real comic in a long time, at one point it was in development as an hour long drama but nothing came of it. While it would work great as a TV show, it could be amazing as a series of movies, each covering one of the eras of the character, and culminating in Grand Guignol. Jack Knight doesn't wear a costume, and he doesn't look like a bodybuilder or a basketball player. You could put real actors in the roles of Jack, Ted, Sadie & The Shade, not glorified stuntmen. I can see the movie poster in my head as I type this.
There you have it. Six properties, each inhabiting a different niche of the DC universe. All could be money makers. None are likely to see the business end of a camera unless DC and Warner Bros. change their practices soon. And that is a crying shame.
technorati tags: Comics, Movies, Television,
