posted
I saw this today and thought it interesting. Stan Lee explains how comic-book movies work and don't work, and I really think it applies well to how books translate to film, and why they fail. Here's the story:
1. Don't forget what made the comic popular. "Let's not think about comics for a moment. A lot of times a great-selling novel is turned into a movie, but the people producing the movie omit the very element that made the novel a bestseller. That often happens with comics. So often in transforming it into a screenplay they leave out the elements that made the comic book popular. In the case of Spider-Man and the X-Men, they retained most of those elements. Bryan Singer captured exactly what the comic books were trying to portray — the idea of these superpowered characters who instead of being welcomed by the human race were shunned and hated and hounded. He's a perfect example of a guy who wasn't a fan but was a fast learner. With the films that don't work, maybe the people behind it don't have enough confidence in the original material."
2. But don't worry too much about the fans … "They care so much that it's important to them that everything is done just right … but it would be a bigger problem if they didn't care. But they are bright and fair and willing to wait, and now, for instance, you can't picture anyone else but Tobey Maguire playing Spider-Man. I think fans are sophisticated enough to know that you have to do things differently for the movies."
3. … Or the mythology. "Jim Cameron originally had planned to do Spider-Man many years ago, and he told me that he thought it would be better if the web came out of the hand organically rather than through a web-shooter. So there are two great filmmakers, Cameron and Sam Raimi, and they both felt it would be better the way they did it."
4. Spend the money! "Captain America — that was terrible! Didn't expect me to say that? Well, it was terrible. It was a very low budget movie, a quickie; everything about it was not as good as it should have been. Whoever played the Red Skull was pretty good, and the guy who played Captain America … he tried his best, but it was corny; it just wasn't well done."
5. Think: A party! "Spider-Man movies are my favorites — my second favorites are the X-Men movies. These superhero movies are so different from the average cops-and-robbers movie. I mean, you have colorful characters, you have great special effects, it's like going to a party! On the other hand, Ang Lee's direction in Hulk was brilliant, but they made it a little too heavy. I wouldn't have played up the business of Bruce Banner having been such a mistreated young man. It was a little too depressing. Same with Daredevil — I really enjoyed it, but again I thought they really made a little too much of his suffering. To me, Daredevil is a more enjoyable fun type of character in that he always had a wisecrack."
6. Remember: The villain makesthe story. "Think how important he is in the comic book itself. Once you've established the hero, you need a villain who seems to be some way superior to the hero so it looks as if there's no way the hero is ever gonna beat this guy. And that's what makes it fun! How is the hero gonna survive? How's he gonna triumph? — I love Dr. Doom. I love Doc Ock. I love all of them."
7. Keep it simple. "I thought Daredevil was better than most people. But maybe because I have a very simplistic mind, I would have only had one villain. Either the Kingpin or Bullseye. I thought having the two of them detracted from each other."
8. Keep it suspenseful. "Look at Heroes; it's successful, week after week, because it keeps you in suspense all the time! Strange things happen, and you don't know why they're happening — but they're very interesting things, and you want to know what's behind it all. It's interesting to me that now you're seeing things you haven't seen before on television. In Heroes, you're seeing people with these superpowers but they're done very realistically. They seem to be these people you would meet in everyday life, and you wonder how did they get their power? It keeps you in suspense, and that's the perfect formula."
9. Hire actors who care … "I'm a big name dropper, so I'll tell you — I had lunch with Robert Downey Jr. some time ago because he wanted to discuss his character for Iron Man. Just listening to him talk, here's a guy who cares about the role he plays. He wanted to know everything about Tony Stark: How did I feel about him? How did I think he should be portrayed? I'm sure he's spoken to a hundred other people about it, so by the time you see him on the screen I'm convinced you're gonna be looking at Tony Stark."
10. … Even in the smallest parts. "If you have any influence with the Motion Picture Academy, I kind of wish they would give an award for the Best Cameo of the Year. I don't think I'd have much competition, certainly for the most cameos."
posted
To pick up on just one of Stan the Man's ten points: villains.
I've always resisted having a villain in my stories. In fact, no matter how bad my antagonist starts out, I wind up writing at least one sympathetic scene for him. And most of my stories are about man against the universe -- no bad guys at all.
Maybe this is a mistake on my part. I might sell more of my stories if I had a black hearted villain in the piece.
But the trouble with black hearted villains is that they usually initiate all of the action. The villain acts, the hero only reacts. At the end, all that is accomplished is a return to the status quo. I don't like that.
posted
A well-written villian can define the hero. Of course, it's important, as Stan Lee said, not to overload the story with more than one at a time.
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posted
I don't think I've sat through a whole "comic book movie" since the 1970s "Superman" movies---then again, pretty much the whole comic book scene has passed me by. (I may have seen one without realizing its source material.)
I'm inclined to think making a good movie from this material is pretty much the same as that for making any good movie---it's a matter of caring, maybe caring passionately enough to be driven.
Just this morning I caught the tail end of this dreadful movie. "Masterminds," as I recall (I looked it up afterwards.) Something about a bunch of kids held for ransom by terrorists. You had the likes of Patrick Stewart and Brenda Fricker giving good performances, but the end scenes---a chase through the sewers on all-terrain vehicles---seemed logically impaired. I remember the sewer chase [on foot] in "The Third Man," which had it all, as far as I was concerned.
Sometimes I wonder: why do they bother doing something like that, if they can't do it well?
posted
It's funny that Stan would say something close to don't have too many villians because I think the weakness (for me) in X-Men was the focus on too many hereos. I know the comic book had a gazillion X-Men hereos, it was even joked about, but the movies were so packed with good guys that they didn't have much time to build anything with the audience. Television is different. There's a lot more time so devote to each character, so you can have a large ensemble cast and know each one intimately like in Hereos.
How this translates to books is a little different. I admit when books have multiple POV's, I'm usually turned off. I'm trying to think of a book that had a huge cast of characters that the narrative jumped around with, and I can't think of one right off hand. I think that's just my personal taste. I like a story with a tightly focused narrative. I want to stick to one character and ride the story out with them.
And I'll go out on a limb and say, my favorite comic book movie is Tank Girl.
posted
I've been a fan of Stan (the Man) for a long time. Thank you for this. Stan's villains weren't pure evil, it's from him (and the whole bullpen) that I learned that a true villain is a tragedy. A person who you are sad that they are bad. Someone who is just evil and doing bad things for no good reason is a thug, a bad guy, just a sparring partner till you reach the real villain.
I agree that the X-man didn't translate to the Movie as well, they fit better on a long run tv show.
As for a novel with a huge cast with a narrative that jumped around how about The Lord of the Rings
quote: I'm trying to think of a book that had a huge cast of characters that the narrative jumped around with, and I can't think of one right off hand.
The Blue Girl by Charles deLint did this. Well, I wouldn't say huge, but there were at least three main characters and the POV swapped from each, even the time frame swapped. Each chapter would have the POV character's name, along with a "then" or "now" to indicate if this scene was taking place in the past or the present. I thought it worked great, and I usually don't like that kind of thing.
posted
The Carpet Makers by Andreas Eschbach is something of a tour de force. Every chapter has a new POV character.
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posted
Whoops, I meant to say I couldn't think of a book I liked (as in read all the way through) with multiple POV's. But thanks for the suggestions!
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posted
ohh. . .I love villains, honestly my favorite character in all of disney-dom was Scar from Lion King. The main reason for me to suspend writing on a novel is because my villain is weak. Then I'll have to come up with a few nefarious schemes and some doomsday devices before I can get any where else with my book. Sometimes I find it useful to write parts of the book in the point of view of my villain, plotting against the hero like a game of chess.
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posted
George RR Martins series A Song of Fire and Ice (A Game of Thrones, A Storm of Swords and A Feast of Crows) use multiple POV's. Each chapter is a different character plot line and he alternates between between them as the books progress. He does this effectively but you do have a situation where you want to skip ahead to finish out a POV's story, which can ruin some of the surprise when you go back and read the others.
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