Anyone can play!

[andrewducker]

Bearing in mind the conversation here:
http://andrewducker.livejournal.com/1086412.html

[Poll #732724]

Comments

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I'd rather having something good than nothing. But I'd rather have nothing than more of the same. "Doing it right" doesn't concern me, regardless of the source material.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

"Doing it right" doesn't concern me, regardless of the source material.

I agree. As long as what we get entertains me. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film is a good example.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

It's a shame, since there's often a massive (well, massive in terms of internet fanboys) outcry that people are even daring to film something.... To heck with them. A film or TV show of something is always going to be different.

Rumours of a Blue Beetle TV show (if there was such a thing, it's just an example - keep it in your pants) would make me go "ooh"... I'd then wait to see what kind of thing they were doing with it (sci-fi action, dark and broody loner in gritty streets, teen drama, comedy claymation etc) before going "sweet jeebus, not another of those..." ;-)

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I agree, but not in the specific case of a Green Lantern film starring Jack Black as Kyle Rayner. A world of "NO!" :)

[trav28.livejournal.com]

I stand by my previous comments - why have hamburger when you can have fillet steak?

[andrewducker]

I don't remember steak being an option...

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd like steak too.

[trav28.livejournal.com]

Only if it's an authentic steak and given the ok by the original artists/cow/publishing house/writers ;)

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Alan Moore is really annoyed when he orders steak, and then it turns up and he finds out that they've added a sauce... and it's quite nice sauce (a bit peppery, a bit of brandy in it maybe)..and even Kevin O'Neill likes the sauce, but goddamit, he didn't WANT sauce...

[trav28.livejournal.com]

Sauce is bad...anarchy good ;)

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Damn, I want to live where you live, if you can go to a restaurant and get steak with anarchy.

[trav28.livejournal.com]

We have anarachic steaks here in B'ham. Whatever you do - do not ask for it to be rare ;)

I prefer Balti, me!

[trav28.livejournal.com]

*grins*

Sorry, was cribbing Paul Newman (I think?) there ;)

[wolflady26.livejournal.com]

I think television is full of crappy shows already. Anything that isn't really good should be left alone.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't usually agree but I do in the specific case of bad superhero adaptations! But of cousre who knows what's "getting it right"? We both really liked V for Vendetta but some people would no doubt rather it had never been made..

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Yeah. In everything else, something is better than nothing. In the unique case of comic book adaptations, the reverse is the case.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

"I'd rather have something than nothing"...

.. wasn't what I was saying at all. I know you were using that to lead to another discussion but I just feel the need to clarify that. ;-)

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

If they can't do it right, I'd like a cool looking trailer rather than nothing. That's my option #3.

[thishardenedarm.livejournal.com]

the first option kind of doesnt work because at the begining of the act of adaptation there is surely a presumption of success, of getting it kind of right. Unless that they _know_ its going to come out wrong, but the proceed anyway in bad faith, in which case option one would be "if they are cynically intending to do it wrong, they shouldnt do it at all", which no-one could disagree with.

The only other way this statement could parse is if it means something like "adaptations shouldnt be done by people who are delusionally convinced they are getting it right, when they are clearly not". Again, a no-brainer.

I cant belive i've got drawn into this, I must go and wash myself in Henry James. I'm on The Golden Bowl now, his famously convoluted last novel. Its like an amazing workout for the psyche; like having your intellectual sphincter stretched by a particularly impressive instrument. That will be the sound of no-one caring.

[andrewducker]

When a lot people start out with "I'll try to make something that avoids offending people and has a wide appeal without doing anything that might startle the audiene or make them think at all" then they really are effectively saying "We aren't going to make a decent adaptation."

And it's not necessarily about adaptations - an awful lot of TV is like that - designed to play up to people's expectations and feed them something that's just enough off-bland to be worth watching at all.