Alan Moore still hates Hollywood

[Desdichado]

While the argument could be made that Blade kicked in the doors for comic book movies, how many people knew he was a comic book character at the time? Was he even in a monthly series then? I'm pretty sure his series was dead and got resurrected after the success of the movie.

Everyone in Hollywood who was watching the success of the movie.

It was also the first Marvel movie to get green-lit after the IP wrangling that went on with them.

I'd say Blade helped to restore Hollywood's faith in comic properties after the disaster of the later Batman movies. However, I'd say X-Men and Spider-Man were the movies that made the general viewing public aware of how compelling comic book characters can be.

They already knew that from the earlier Batman and Superman movies. The problem wasn't that people wouldn't watch superhero movies, the problems were that Marvel's characters were all tied up in legal battles and therefore couldn't be licensed to Hollywood until that was resolved, and the Superman and Batman franchises, while starting off strong, had turned very campy and very bad, leaving a sour taste in Hollywood's mouth about the whole affair.

In any case, I'm not the one making that case; that's what people following the affair at Marvel say. Blade was the movie that kicked off the post-Batman superhero movie boom.

 

[Klaus]

Everyone in Hollywood who was watching the success of the movie.

It was also the first Marvel movie to get green-lit after the IP wrangling that went on with them.

They already knew that from the earlier Batman and Superman movies. The problem wasn't that people wouldn't watch superhero movies, the problems were that Marvel's characters were all tied up in legal battles and therefore couldn't be licensed to Hollywood until that was resolved, and the Superman and Batman franchises, while starting off strong, had turned very campy and very bad, leaving a sour taste in Hollywood's mouth about the whole affair.

In any case, I'm not the one making that case; that's what people following the affair at Marvel say. Blade was the movie that kicked off the post-Batman superhero movie boom.

Hobo's right. The success of Blade sparked the thought "hey, a minor character made all this money! Let's try that with the biggest characters in comics!". You can see heavy influences of Blade's design on the X-Men movie. Were it done today, I have no doubt the X-Men would have incorportated more of their comic book design, after Spiderman, Iron Man and Batman.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Hobo's right.

Have to agree as well.

 

[Desdichado]

Woohoo!

 

[Darth Shoju]

Have to agree as well.

I'm not really disagreeing. I'm sure Hollywood was testing the waters of the super hero genre with Blade, and its success opened things back up for comic movies. I'm just saying that I doubt most of the people who went to see it knew it was based on a comic book. If I can amend my previous statement somewhat, I think it was X-Men and Spider-Man that reminded the viewing public of decent comic book films like the earlier Superman and Batman movies. I think that most people saw Blade as another vampire movie, albeit more action-oriented.

This is all probably just semantics, but that's the way I see things anyway.

 

[Ranger REG]

the Superman and Batman franchises, while starting off strong, had turned very campy and very bad, leaving a sour taste in Hollywood's mouth about the whole affair.

Not Warner Brothers.

Besides, aren't most Marvel films with the exception of a few that have already been contracted to other studios, like Sony Entertainment, are being produced (i.e., funded) by Marvel's new film studio division?

 

[Felon]

Blade was what let the genie out of the bottle, actually. By the time X-men came along, comic book movie adaptations were all over the place.

I guess it's fairly subjective, but I don't think most folks regarded Blade as a superhero--in fact, he didn't have anything resembling a costume or any actual powers other than vampire-bite immunity until after the movie--or knew of his comics origins. OTOH, everyone knows where X-Men came from, and it was much more of a blockbuster at the box office.

I guess Blade sort of got the foot in the door, and X-Men kicked it open.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

I guess it's fairly subjective, but I don't think most folks regarded Blade as a superhero, while everyone knows where X-Men came from. Also, X-Men was much more of a blockbuster at the box office.

It doesn't matter what the general public thought of where Blade came from but where the studios thought he cam from. The important part was that the studios realized they could make money off of comic book IP.

 

[Shayuri]

Goodness. Whole lotta thread over not much at'll.

Answer's yes to everything.

Yes Alan Moore hates Hollywood. Yes he's got a right to. Yes, he's self-righteous and nutty. Yes, he's pretty fracking brilliant. Yes his stuff is good. Yes, some of it's overrated. Yes, the movies based on his stuff generally aren't as good, in quantifiable, measurable ways. Yes, some have merits of their own, apart from being based on Alan Moore books.

Yes yes yes yes.

And all of these things are okay. They can co-exist peacefully. None are mutually contradictory.

So...what's the argument about again?

 

[Klaus]

Not Warner Brothers.

Besides, aren't most Marvel films with the exception of a few that have already been contracted to other studios, like Sony Entertainment, are being produced (i.e., funded) by Marvel's new film studio division?

Starting with Iron Man and Hulk, yes. But not Spidey.