DC loses Alan Moore.

My respect for Alan Moore has increased a lot today.

First I encountered an interesting interview that Alan Moore did of Brian Eno on a Bittorrent site I frequent. I thought it was an odd combo so I felt compelled to download it. It was apparently from a BBC radio 4 show called Chain Reaction in which a figure from the entertainment industry is interviewed and then has the responsibility of conducting their own interview for the next show. Really neat concept. I tried to find a recording of the show where Alan Moore was interviewed but could only find a clip where he claimed that the Killing Joke was his worst work. Which surprised me, but other statements I've read imply that he finds the whole concept of Batman ridiculous.

Then, today, an article on Boing Boing popped up that claimed that Alan Moore has sworn off DC and has pulled the third volume of the League of Extraordinary Gentleman from the publisher. In fact, the article they link to has a lot more interesting information as well. I knew that he had decided to have his name removed from all film adaptations, but apparently he has refused all money they offer him as well. Through this article I found a transcript of his Chain Reaction interview (without the Killing Joke statements I had listened to earlier)

To make things even more interesting, He was apparently sued by 20th century fox because they felt his LoEG was ripping off some America screenwriter.

From the article -

"after the films came out, I began to feel increasingly uneasy, I have a dwindling respect for cinema as it is currently expressed." This came to a head when Alan Moore was sued as part of a suit against 20th Century Fox for plagiarism of the screenplay "Cast Of Characters" which bore heavy resemblance to the movie version of "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" starring Sean Connery.

From the interview transcript -

So, I said, right, that's it, no more Hollywood films. And if they do make films of my work, then I want my name taken off them and I want all the money given to the artists. I thought, God, that sounds principled (audience laughs) and almost heroic! (audience laughs) Then I got a phone call from Karen Berger the next Monday, she's an editor at DC Comics, and she said, "Yeah, we're going to be sending you a huge amount of money before the end of the year because they're making this film if your Constantine character with Keanu Reeves." I said, "Right, OK. (audience laughs) Well, take my name off of it and distribute my money amongst the other artists. I felt, well, that was difficult, but I did it and I feel pretty good about meself. Then I saw David Gibbons who I had done "Watchmen" with and he was saying, "Oh Alan, guess what, they're making the 'Watchmen' film." And I said, with tears streaming down my face, "Take my name off of it David. (sniffles)" (audience laughs) "You have all the money." Then I got a check for the "V for Vendetta" film. It was just, this was within three days!

Despite his noble efforts. He is still having trouble stopping his name from becoming a Hollywood selling point.
From article -

Earlier in the year, Moore received a call from "V For Vendetta" writer/producer and "Matrix" director Larry Wachowski, but told him politely, "I didn't want anything to do with films and had no time this year, being in the middle of work, my day job, writing, I wasn't interested in Hollywood."

Shortly afterwards, Alan Moore was made aware of a press release sent out covering a press conference producer Joel Silver and the cast had held.

In this press release, Joel Silver, as well as announcing that the release date November the 5th 2005 was the 100th anniversary of Guy Fawkes attempt on Parliament, instead of the 400th anniversary, also said of Alan, "he was very excited about what Larry had to say and Larry sent the script, so we hope to see him sometime before we're in the UK. We'd just like him to know what we're doing and to be involved in what we're trying to do together"

Alan felt, basically, that his name was being used in vain. Not only had he expressed the opposite to Larry, but his endorsement was being used as a selling point for a movie - the reason he'd requested his credit and association be dropped from all of these movies.

Poor guy. I will make it a point not to pay money and add to the box office statistics for any of these upcoming films. Of course, that doesn't mean that my curiosity won't compel me to view them through slightly less legal means.

EDIT A mysterious anonymous person pointed out that I had misread the article. Moore wasn't sued by 20th cen fox. He was sued with them. My mistake. The error above will remain because I don't want to seem like I was hiding the fact I made a mistake.

-Brandon

I think I may be becoming a Uwe Boll Fan

I loved the SciFi channel when I had access to cable. I really enjoyed watching the awful films they would put on in order to fill up airspace between Star Trek, canceled 80's action shows and their limited original series selection. They were filled with terrible "science" and awful acting. There was something captivating about them. I can't say why exactly. Perhaps it's the comedy value, like an mst3k episode minus the wit (my fault). Or perhaps it's some sort of "I could do better" feeling I get that makes me feel superior to these creators.

I saw House of the Dead a while after it was in theatres. I'd heard about his "brilliant" idea to splice in shots from the video game into action scenes and knew I had to see it. The film was exactly what I love about terrible sci. fi. The acting was atrocious, the plot was filled with holes. The premise alone is enough to get it nominated for a razzie. A bunch of kids go to a rave, on an abandoned island in the middle of the Caribean and are forced to battle their way through hordes of zombies, while ignoring multiple chances for escape. The ending highlight? The hero purposefully zombifies his dead girlfriend so that he doesn't have to lose her. That is wonderfully retarded.

I decided after seeing Rotten Tomatoes 0% rating that I had to see Alone in the Dark. It was so worth it. First of all, the plot only makes the vaguest sort of sense. A crazy historian unleashes demons upon the world, and for some never explained reason he is able to control them. He also has control over a group of grown up orphans with worms surgically implanted onto their spine to make them... um... more... controllable. These are apparently Uwe Boll's interpretation of the creatures who attack you in the video game. That is about the only tie into the classic game that I can figure out. Everything about this movie is terribly done. The soundtrack switches, seemingly randomly, from a nonoffensive simple mood sound that could fit in the background of an Enya song, to hard screaming rock. There is not a decent actor in the entire film. The love interest is supposed to be some 80's sexy librarion stereotype, but the actress only manages to pull off timid moron with glasses. Fortunatly she is a useful charecter. Without her no one would have been able to translate the menacing warning on the ancient cave's walls, "Once you make it down here alive, you're already dead." That is her only useful role in the entire film. The warning later turns out to be meaningless, because down the cave a little farther they find the abandoned laboratory where they put the control worm things into the orphans (unleashing demons on the world isn't evil enough, the bad guy needs to perform experiments on orphans as well). The attempts to be dramatic in this film tend to be far funnier then they are sad. I can say that this is the first film to make me laugh at a dead nun with slit wrists. Or how about the memorable moment when the commander learns that all his men have died for nothing. He shouts something to the effect of "My men have died for nothing." Flips a table, and is okay with it for the rest of the film. Apparently the flipped table made up for the loss of his men. Sorry, I'm rambling, there is just so much about this film. I was captivated from the first fight scene. It was wonderful how every time something broke the movie would go to slow motion. Crash through window? Slow down. Break table? Slow down. Knock over trash can? Slow down. 7 minutes into this film, and I already knew that this would be a winner.

-Brandon