Gone To Westeros
Posted on | November 12, 2008 at 1:46 pm | 2 Comments
Last day of vacation. Boo hoo!
Some interesting news lately out of Hollywood on the progress of two highly anticipated (by me anyway) possible future HBO shows. Since both of these projects were first announced, there’s been a regime change at HBO which made it look unlikely (according to some people) that either project would see the light of day.
The first one was the proposed adaption of the Garth Ennis/Steve Dillon 66-issue comic book series Preacher, one of the most blasphemous and graphically violent works ever committed to the four-color page. Also, one of the most exciting, funny, and enthralling. The HBO series was to be overseen by Mark Steven Johnson, director of the Daredevil and Ghost Rider movies. Seeing as how average those turned out, I wasn’t entirely looking forward to seeing what he would do with edgier fare. (Let’s not even mention what he did to A Prayer For Owen Meany.) But in interviews, he said he was going to stay faithful to the comics, even going so far as to adapt each individual issue into a separate episode of the TV series. That had a lot of potential. And as such, it was ultimately shot down by the HBO brass.
But recently comes word that it will be adapted instead into a feature film. A previous try at that in the 90s, to have been directed by Tank Girl director Rachel Talalay, er…. tanked. Thankfully. The director of this new version is going to be Sam Mendes, Oscar-winning director of American Beauty and also director of the upcoming Oscar-bait movie Revolutionary Road, which reunites Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. He has previously directed another comic book adaption, Road To Perdition, which was critically acclaimed but didn’t fare that well at the box office. So he does know his way around a graphic novel and he is a great director. This should prove interesting. I just wonder how much of the story he’s going to adapt for the movie. It’s a looong story, and the first part of it (collected as Gone To Texas) is not really as interesting as the rest of it. So I don’t know how well it would turn out if he just did that initial storyline. But I can’t wait to see who’s going to play super-powered preacher Jesse, his ex-girlfriend hitwoman Tulip, and Irish vampire Cassidy.
Around the same time that the HBO Preacher thing was initially bandied about, HBO also announced they were developing an adaption of George R.R. Martin’s seminal fantasy series A Song Of Ice And Fire. And then… nothing. Even though Martin said the project was still rattling around at HBO, no concrete confirmations of movement have been forthcoming and I assumed it was another victim of the leadership change at HBO. But I guess that HBO is now getting serious about this genre stuff due to the success of True Blood (That’s a success? Even though I like it, I thought the ratings numbers were down compared to past HBO successes. I guess the numbers have inched up lately.) So HBO has actually greenlit a pilot for the series. This is no guarantee that the show will make it to air, but it’s certainly an encouraging sign.
Even though the book series is unfinished and I’m only halfway through the most recent book, A Feast For Crows, I declare this series to be the best fantasy books ever written. Or at least the best I’ve read. And like the HBO press releases say, it’s a natural fit for pay cable. It’s more about the (twenty million) characters than the battles, magic, and creatures. (In fact, there’s very little of those last two in the books at all.) So the budget should be doable. And since there’s a lot of sex and violence, it’s not the kind of thing you’d want to see on say the SciFi Channel or in weekend syndication. A feature film would definitely not be able to tell even a fraction of the story (which, admittedly, does seem to wander a bit at times). They are talking about adapting the series as one book per TV season, which sounds about right. Even at that pace though, they’ll have to cut out a lot of ancillary characters and story. And it’s the perfect vehicle for big stars who may want to dabble in the genre and then be gone, since no character is ever safe in Martin’s universe.
So, I’m holding my breath. After what HBO did to Deadwood, Rome, Carnivàle, and John From Cincinnati, I’m a little worried about the whole story getting told once it gets started. But I’m willing to take that chance.
Latre.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “speed dial worry about misdialing”.
Comments
2 Responses to “Gone To Westeros”
November 12th, 2008 @ 8:47 pm
HBO is on a long dry streak. I’m thinking of canceling as soon as the current season of Entourage is over.
Preacher is a seriously sick and twisted series. And I mean that in the best possible way.
November 13th, 2008 @ 10:55 am
Yeah, HBO needs to do something fast, having lost all its high profile shows. Hopefully this means they’re on the right track to regain some cred.