Swamp Thing 3D

[Lord_Stewie]

Hey,

JOEL SILVER MAY REVIVE SWAMP THING IN 3D

Any interests on this:

Just last night I killed some time with the trade paperback of Alan Moore’s first issues on Swamp Thing. Despite some clunky, overwrought lines those stories remain a landmark for smart horror comics. The tone is just so perfect and nuanced despite the tidbits that fail. I’d love to see a Swamp Thing movie that worked, one that could be quiet and creepy and feel like elemental forces of the green were rumbling beneath the theater. Now Collider is reporting that Joel Silver is developing a Swamp Thing movie, with an eye for 3D. That probably dashes my hopes.

“I’m developing a picture now that I’d like to do,” Silver said. “I’ll hopefully do Swamp Thing, which is a movie we’ve had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3D.” That’s about all he had to say. When pressed for a follow-up, Frosty (who was originally talking to Silver about the upcoming Whiteout) just got “maybe going to do it. I like it.”

Now, I’m not saying that Silver won’t spearhead a good film. I really enjoy a lot of his stuff — the guy got Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang made, not to mention a host of projects I don’t even need to name — but his movies aren’t terribly subtle. And Swamp Thing needs some subtlety.

But being positive for a second, let’s imagine Silver actually moving forward with this, and getting a filmmaker who could take some of the same impulses that powered Speed Racer to bring the green guy to life. Think of the amazing artwork of Steve Bissette and John Totleben thrown on screen with the same hallucinogenic spirit as the images in Speed Racer. In that case, I’d get interested fast. The 3D might even work in that context.

The Swamp Thing was originally Alec Holland, a scientist working on a ‘bio-restorative formula’ in the Louisiana swamp. Killed for his invention, Holland’s body fell into the swamp which, reacting with the formula, produced the elemental Swamp Thing. The character has had various incarnations, but Alan Moore’s is the most notable as a vegetative being connected to ‘the green’, or the Earth’s plant life. But he isn’t Alec Holland; he’s an elemental that effectively remembers the dream of being a man. (Reading the stuff again, I thought of Cronenberg’s version of The Fly, which came way after Moore’s stories, where Brundlefly describes himself as an insect that dreamed it was a man.) There’s a great, weird, creeping movie in these stories if someone has the patience and confidence to do it right.

UPDATE

AUG 31st:

According to the folks at MTV, mega producer Joel Silver, at a press conference for the upcoming thriller “Whiteout,” has announced that he’d love to tackle “Swamp Thing” as a big-budget 3D extravaganza. And while I’ll be the first to admit that the two “Swamp Thing” titles currently on the market are a few flies short of garbage, they do hold a special place in my heart due to the outrageous levels of campiness present in both features. However, is the incredible Hollywood machine willing to bank on a character that has yet to yield positive box office results? Considering that Nicholas Cage is still getting work, I’ll concede that anything is possible at this point.

Here are Silver’s exact words:

I’m developing a picture now that I’d like to do…I’ll hopefully do Swamp Thing, which is a movie we’ve had for a long time. We think that would be great to do in 3D. There are a couple of projects I’m thinking about (for the format) but not everything.

Although I’d love nothing more than to see Heather Locklear munch on phallic vegetables from Doctor Alec Holland’s deformed body one more time, I’m guessing they’ll take the character in a more serious, mature direction. As long as it’s better than the television series, I suppose I’ll have nothing to complain about. Theoretically speaking, of course.

Basically same news like the one before. Its a more confirmation on this.

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update: May 23rd, 2010:

Joel Silver on Swamp Thing:

SWAMP THING

They were close to making it and then an issue with the rights came up. He says, “We actually developed a couple of drafts and were close, but then, all of a sudden, it became evident that the motion picture rights were not held by Warner Bros. Even though DC owned the underlying material, the movie that was made by Embassy with Adrienne Barbeau was owned by another company.”

Source.

Sounds like legal issues are becoming a norm in Hollywood.

ENJOY.