Recent discussions on the Top Five podcast have, for some reason, touched on the subject of the awful 2008 film version of Will Eisner’s seminal comic strip, “The Spirit.” Not only was the film itself technically flawed, not only did it come off as a retread of Miller’s humorless ‘Sin City’ flick, but it was creatively the polar opposite of the classic Spirit tales from which it allegedly spun. I recall thinking that this production would be troubled when Miller known for his angular art, deadly serious characters and dark themes of sex and death, was being billed as the film’s visionary over Spirit creator Will Eisner whose work was visually and thematically fluid, rounded and organic, with a touching, almost whimsical undertone and recurring themes of redemption and rebirth (which is not to say that it didn’t have its own bits of sex and death, as P’Gell and Silk Satin will attest.) It’s roughly the equivalent of ‘Peanuts’ being adapted by Rob Zombie, or Super Goof brought to you by the Farrelly Brothers. (Actually, now that I mention it, I might be interested in seeing how the latter film turned out, though that probably wouldn’t make it any less addle-pated and terrifying.)
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) always enjoys it when we can play ‘What If?’, asking: What’s the ABSOLUTE WORST adapting creator/adapted work combination you can imagine?
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Michael Bay + anything from my childhood
M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender…Oh what could have been…
Uwe Boll and anything remotely iconic.
It’s so hard to pick. I think I prefer thinking of the worst as those that bear no resemblance to the original to the point of either making me wonder why they needed the name, or that it was the only thing they put money into
Double Dragon
Cheaper by the Dozen (the newer one)
I, Robot
Starship Troopers. There were no powersuits. ’nuff said.
JJ Abrams’ Star Trek