Can somebody help with a bit of background on this. Saw a trailer for the movie the other night and it looked pretty good. I've a sneaky feeling its a comic originally?
Yup, Alan Moore, Kev O'Neill, much superiour to the film by all accounts.
More details
the graphic novel. is SUPERB.
characters from literary history who have non human abilites. a kind of victorain X-MEN or superhero grouping.
really evil villains and superb art work.
alan moore on top form as always.
the book is excellent.the movie i will watch in the context of entertainment.
by all accounts the movie is more the premise of the books heart the victorain era super heros grouping rather then the alan moore story.
but non the less. i shall go hoping to be entertained.
Heres the offical site.
Critter
Link: LXG
Lineup in comic:
Allan Quartermain (King Solomon's Mines)
Mina Harker (Dracula)
Henry Jekyll (Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde)
Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man)
Captain Nemo (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)
In the movie, Dorian Gray (The Picture of Dorian Gray) and Tom Sawyer (Huckleberry Finn) are added to the roster.
J-Bo-but-don't-see-the-movie-it's-dreadful-1
"In the movie, Dorian Gray (The Picture of Dorian Gray) and Tom Sawyer (Huckleberry Finn) are added to the roster."
And they couldn't use Hawley Griffin because Universal hold the screen rights to the character. so it's not The Invisible Man, just an invisible man.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this film is going o be pish.
I saw it last week. It *is* pish. The Nautilus looks good, though.
J-Bo-1
++Tom Sawyer (Huckleberry Finn) are added to the roster.++
What does he do? Whitewash some fences?
He's hardly the most 'super-heroic' of literary characters...I'm sure they could easily have found someone more suitable - even Mark Twain's own 'Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' would have fitted better!
++And they couldn't use Hawley Griffin because Universal hold the screen rights to the character. so it's not The Invisible Man, just an invisible man.++
They could have called him Hawley, though - it's just 'Doctor Griffin' in the book. I suppose he's better off than some of Wells' characters, though - neither 'The Time Machine' or 'War of the Worlds' bother to give ANY name to the protagonist...
Griffin's re-named in the movie, but I forget what.
Sawyer actually appears as a secret / govt. agent in some of Twain's later novels, so isn't as bad a choice as may first appear. He is, however, crap in the film. But not as bad as Connery.
J-Bo-it's-really-really-really-bad-I'm-not-kidding-1
Can't wait to see what exciting plot twists they get out of the Dorian Gray character. "Ha! You think I'd get the syph from all that buggery, but I didn't! My painting did!"
What they do with Dorian Grey is both completely predictable *and* completely stupid. Yay Team Hollywood!
J-Bo-Worst-Movie-Since-The-Core-1
I take it they've taken a rather nice gothic novel about a narcisist who escapes the ravages of time and his decadent lifestyle by transfering them into his portrait and instead made the character invulnerable to RPG rounds, or something stupid like that?
I ask purely for rhetorical reasons, the answer is depressingly obvious...
Does Hyde look anything or act like he does in the comic?.As they only seem to show quick flashs of him in the ads and trailers I've seen so far.
I heard Dorian Gray was supposed to make an appearance in the most recent LoEG series, so it's not totally ridiculous to put him in there. Unlike, say, making Mina a vampire or giving Nemo a sports car.
Although Dorian is supposed to make an appearance, I'm sure I've read Alan Moore recently sneering at him being a member of the League - along the lines of him only having the power to look attractive...?
Good guess.
J-Bo-1
He's unrecognisable from the comic, in both respects.
J-Bo-1
"Unlike, say, making Mina a vampire or giving Nemo a sports car."
Yes.
J-Bo-1
yet another comic adaptation thats going tobe ripped apart.....
I personally cant wait to see this film - just to see what they do do to the stopry - cant be any worse than spiderman or the hulk....
or can it?
Well... I liked both spiderman and hulk, so, the answer to your question is yes.
I know everyones is gonna slate me here, but did we expect anything less? Look at any novel thats been made into a film. Its been dumbed down and diluted, the same thing is bound to happen woth comic books. Personally, Im just happy they are giving it a go. If its cr@p its cr@p. We'll still read the comic book........
Yer Slips
Well, at least it seems that (for once) the creators have been given their financial dues and what have you. Unlike a certain movie we could name...
sb
Is Dorian like Faceman then and uses his good looks and charm to bluff his way past foxy receptionists in corperate buildings...?
I think the deal with Dorian Gray in the film is that he's basically immortal because the picture gets wounded instead of him. Personally, I preferred the treatment he got in the comic. In one issue, there was a Dorian Gray Paint-By-Numbers and in another the picture was being restored...
Maybe that's the Dorian Gray cameo. If that's the case, then that definitely doesn't justify his appearance in the movie.
"Look at any novel thats been made into a film. Its been dumbed down and diluted"
I don't know - cutting out half of AMERICAN PSYCHO made the movie a lot better, and more effective, than the book (IMHO, natch).
The "losing something in translation" rule doesn't *always* apply, and LOEG - given that it exploits the comics medium to a much lesser extent than, say, WATCHMEN - should hav e been easier to film than it evidently was.
Because - let me say it again, o my brothaz and sistaz - LXG is a load of sh*te.
J-Bo-1
"Is Dorian like Faceman then? "
that's be a great idea for a comic. If only there was somebody doiing a version of the A-Team in comics today, it'd be great.
It's a good idea. Might have to update it though, make it more contemporary and trend setting.
God, I can picture it now, they'd probably have all kinds of attempts to make it "revelevant" for mentioning "contempary issues" and then dump them entirely so they can do a story about speedboats or something. And they'd pad it out with hideous sub-Ennis "bonding" between characters.
" If only there was somebody doiing a version of the A-Team in comics today, it'd be great."
Strongly recommend you check out Diggle and Jock's THE LOSERS, then...
J-Bo-1
I read volume 1 today, and enjoyed it immensley. I'd been hearing about this for SO long without finding a copy that it was typical yesterday when I found both LXG 1 and TOP TEN 2!
AARRGGH!
Hope the Top Ten book is still there next month.
Kev O'Neill is on superb form in this. The style suits perfectly. A new thing (to my eyes) was the Mignolaesque touches in the first meeting with Edward. He can still cram almost as much into a panel as it is possible.
Must find vol 2
Rotts
Volume 2 isn't out yet- in fact, the final comics issue of Vol 2 has been delayed yet again, and isn't due til the middle or arse-end of this month. Typical Alan Moore. "Ooh I'm so mysterious and brooding... pass me the bacardi, wife, and if that's Tharg on the phone tell him to bugger off and not to keep hassling me about Halo Jones. I'm on my yacht in the Caribbean and I'm not writing comics for any bugger."
Steev
Steev, didn't his wife run off with his girlfriend?
Presumably they stopped worshiping his snake.
fnar fnar
hyook, hyook
Since I missed it the last time.
- Trout
Oddboy remember we've only got his word that his life is that interesting, personally I think he was one of those nameless faces in that Star Wars fanboy fotae, and he lives his life through the pages of comix, not like us...erm.ermm
I'll get me coat
Huffy
" Typical Alan Moore."
Are you sure it's Alan's fault that the comic's late?
J-Bo-1
J-Bo, Surely you're not blaming Kevin "quick get Jesus Redondo to do Nemesis Book II because I'm too slow" O'Neil?
I ain't blamin' nobody. TBH, I'd rather have a good book late than a rush job on time.
J-Bo-1
Absolutely.
But I'd rather have a great book NOW!!
*tsk* getting all impatient, I know, I know...
"-Bo, Surely you're not blaming Kevin "quick get Jesus Redondo to do Nemesis Book II because I'm too slow" O'Neil?"
Or Bill Shienekwhatever for not quite finishing Big Numbers.
I just thought of another one.
Or Brian Bolland because we had to wait a million years for The Killing Joke.
Or John Totleben for Miracle Man #16.
Notice these are mostly Moores books?
Rotts
"Notice these are mostly Moores books? "
Maybe he just has REALLY bad fortune with artists..?
IIRC the story with Big Numbers is that the script was written on something like a tablecloth, and was destroyed by first series artist Al Columbia (like I said, IIRC) in a fit of pique, which is why it has never resurfaced.
J-Bo-1
"Brian Bolland"
Joking, surely?
J-Bo-1
""Brian Bolland"
Joking, surely? "
I'd never joke about something this serious.
Thanx to all who replied. How did I miss something this good? Must buy the novel.
See what happens when you live in a cave on a rock in the middle of nowhere with only Sheepdog Bob for company? You miss all the good stuff.
Stop having dialogues with yourself dounreay, its not a good sign.
I wasn't talking to you , I was talking to Sheepdog Bob.
Yeah, but he's not real is he, being an imaginary sheepdog.
How can you say that? Now you've hurt his feelings. Look at his little face...
Bolland's legendarily slow at sequential work. It's why he largely illustrates covers these days, as I believe he's stated in a few interviews. Killing Joke delays = likely the art.
I think part of it is that Alan's scripts are immensely detailed and he tends, of necessity, to work with detail-heavy artists (the ABSOLUTE LOEG book contains all the script for Volume One, and it runs to about 1.5 times the length of the comic).
But, y'know, the results - mmmm.
J-Bo-1
J-Bo-1 you've seen the flick, is Cpt. Nemo still an indian mutineer?
B.
Capt Nemo. Dontcha love the English language? you fight to get the invaders out your country and your remembered as a mutineer, you feck up and get all your soldiers killed and your a hero. Mind you with Englishmen in general being the only acceptable baddies in Hollywood these days you never know...
Gordonhuff of Cartoon.
Sorry about that rant just slipped out, isn't there a story of an artist sitting with a clock doing 'x' number of pages a day regardless of the 'art'? Which would you prefer? Discuss.
Expect more French bad guys, and movies in which euroweenie UN troops screw up and manly US Marines have to save the day...
I'm waiting for the next Bond film to include such dialogue as,
M: "Well, Bond, we would let you go and save the world. But according to certain people, we need actual proof that they have Weapons of Mass Destruction."
BOND: "Damn peaceniks preventing us good guys from doing our thing! Next they'll be telling us that collateral damage is a bad thing!"
"Fox, dismissing the allegations as "absurd nonsense," says its film was based directly on the cartoon-illustrated "graphic novel" of the same name by comic book creator Alan Moore"
"Directly"?? They deserve to lose just for that - it's the same kind of buck passing that happened when the Dredd film came out!
Still, I hope they call Mr Moore to take the stand, either in his finest 80's white Convention suit, or his latest wizardy get up!
so the bearded one is being secretly controlled by the evil forces at fox?
Yeah right, i can just imagine rupert murdoch flying out to northampton to give his hirsute minion the latest ABC title's plot...
love to see Moore in court in full ritual regalia though!