Was on a SFSignal podcast last night that I only partially had any business being on. (I actually don't read super hero comics.) The topic was "Which Female Super Hero Deserves Her Own Movie?" I liked the idea. So, I signed on and did some research. I had a good time. The discussion got a bit recursive, however, when I argued that if comics didn't have a good enough female super hero to carry a film, why didn't they just write a new one? Clearly, the ones they have don't measure up. So, be creative. Make something up! Then came the "But they wouldn't have a ready-made a
udience!" stance. Dude, Hollywood makes films without that and succeeds all the time. And then, look! You've a new property! Then it went back to how it had to be an already written character. Round and round. Mind you, that wasn't the *panelists* position. Just someone arguing the studio point of view. It seemed extra lame in that light. I mean, either you're capable of creating interesting characters or not. And anyway, don't comic book companies come up with new male characters all the time? (Someone brought up Blade which didn't have a great following but made a lot of money.) We did eventually arrive at a list that might be cool with some rewriting. Still, I don't understand why a new female super hero can't be made from scratch, if nothing in the current batch works. I just don't get the excuses.
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest... I looked outside my kitchen window this morning and saw a guy dressed in black, carrying enough tree trimmings to cover his head and entire upper half of his body. My first thought was, "We are a hedge. Move along." Which when you think about it, is rather fitting before morning Kung Fu class. :)
stina_leicht
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that said, am i the only one who feels the expression "tentpole" is a rather unfortunate word choice?
Pretty much the only Hollywood company not doing that and focusing on script and character? Pixar.
But I think we're both arguing the same point: not that the characters don't exist or don't have fan bases, but that the studios aren't willing to make those movies. I disagree about the fans, though. If, say, they made an X-Men film that put Storm or Kitty Pryde in the central role, the fans would be there for it. (Provided that it was a good film with a solid script, of course. My biggest fear is such a project would get the same half-assed scripting that they gave Green Lantern or such, and thus it would fail, and then the studios would throw up their hands and say, "See, didn't work!")
(Have I mentioned that superhero movies is a subject I'm passionate about? :)