The Dark Knight: Record Breaking Midnight Showings

[BradH]

The Coens are the really versatile ones, doing broad comedies, serious film noir, romantic comedies and even Homeric allegories.

I hate to encourage your insanity but I have to agree on this. In fact, I thought The Hudscuker Proxy was very much in the Burton/Gilliam tradition. It was hardly a blockbuster so they put the bong down and slowly backed away...

Kane invented extremely broad and simple characters for his original comic book. They have been repeatedly reinvented 6-ways-from-sunday by Miller, Moore, Ed Graham, Burton, Shoemaker, Nolan and a dozen others. Each generation builds on the mythology created by all the previous interpretations, but going back to Kane's bare-bones original and calling him a genius is an insult to all genius's.

Each generation doesn't build on the mythology so much as reinterprate it. That works because Kane created strong archetypes that stand the test of time. Those characters have been hammered relentlessly if you include all the comic books. They're still viable not because they're so believable but because they're mythical. Creations like that don't happen every day and many comic book characters have fallen by the wayside. Blue Bolt anyone?

And don't bother throwing a quote from Kane at me about how much he liked Burton's vision, because all these old guys are smart enough to say what's right in order to get thier old product to sell.

Well, he certainly had no trouble dissing Frank Miller's story.

Superhero comic books suck because they are written so that a 4th-grader can understand the concepts, dialog and motivations of the characters.

Good call from Wooch on Year One. As I read what you wrote I immediately thought of Gordon and his motivations as a father and husband in that story.

I'm an adult with adult tastes and needs.

Let's not go there.

We should want more.

Yeah, and I'm gonna get it with The Watchmen next March.

Hiya bud, long time no see. Hope you find a copy of my new book!.

You should hope it's hard to find a copy! Hey, check yer e-mail.

heh, yeah, I made the Silent Running connection to Wall•E immediately too.

Speaking of Pixar, I hear they're doing ERB's A Princess of Mars. It's supposed to be a mix of CG and live action. That makes sense because Disney has had the film rights forever. I remember in '89 when they almost signed Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts for a live action version. Thank GOD that fell through! I predict Warren Specter will make the videogame for Disney. That should rule. He's a genius. Just like Bob Kane.