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V for Vendetta Going to Hollywood 175

Posted by CmdrTaco from the nothing-creapy-in-that-book dept.
gludington writes "Alan Moore's "other" early masterpiece, V for Vendetta, is in early pre-production. Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers will produce for Warner Brothers, and Natalie Portman will play Evey Hammond. The rest of the movie is as yet uncast (and unwritten), so release dates on the article and the imdb entry should be taken with a sizable grain of salt."
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V for Vendetta Going to Hollywood More

V for Vendetta Going to Hollywood

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  • Petrified (Score:2, Funny)

    by Doc Ruby ( 173196 )
    Salted grits! The front of my pants will never be the same.
  • I thought they were the Wachowski siblings now, since one of them got a sex change.

    • Re:Wachowski "brothers"? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Alright, one liners for Larry/Linda:

      If that's what the blue pill does to you, I'll take the red pill ANY day.

      Even if he looks as good as that lady in the red dress, I still wouldn't want to arrange a meeting.

      How does he know what chicken tastes like...oh, nevermind.

      I can only show you the closet door, you must come out of it on your own.

      If he's the guide, I really don't think I want to find out how far his rabbit hole goes.

      The matrix used a lot of console-based stuff, but I bet if he had his way, ther

  • Mmmm...just the thing (Score:4, Funny)

    by switcha ( 551514 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:12PM (#11352534)
    Natalie Portman will play Evey Hammond ... the imdb entry should be taken with a sizable grain of salt.

    A little salt is just the thing to liven up a bowl of hot grits.

  • You KNOW Hollywood Will Screw It Up (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cr0w T. Trollbot ( 848674 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:12PM (#11352535)
    Instead of a masked, classical-allusion-spouting antihero, it will star Vin Diesel cracking one-liners while shooting people.

    The real challange is to see which sucks more, this or the movie version of Watchman.

    - Crow T. Trollbot

    • I doubt that the movie version of Watchmen will be made for a while now, unless the ending is changed dramtically.

      I feel it would be deemed too "challenging" for the generic movie audience unfortunately.
    • I have faith that there are enough people in Hollywood who violently admire the Watchmen movie to make sure it stays roughly true to the story. If they don't, we'll find out just how many people in the rest of the world feel the same way. :)
    • Agreed. They've having this comics frenzy at the moment which was fine as long as the victims were spider-man, x-men and other daredevil (one fucked up movie!). Also, the league of extraordinay gentlemen, average comic book, terrible movie, no problem. But now, sin city? (good please dont let them screw that one), V for Vendetta? (with Portman?nooooooo) and even scarier, the WATCHMEN??? please tell me who in hollywood is able to make a watchmen movie that will satisfy the readers expectations! About V for

      • Relax, yo. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by susano_otter ( 123650 )
        There was a time when these movies had not been made. There was just you and the comics. And life was good.

        After these movies are made, there will still be you and the comics. Life will still be good.

        There was a time when there was a bad movie in the theaters, but you did not go see it, and you did not suffer. Life was good.

        There was also a time when there was a bad movie, and you did go see it, and you did suffer. But then the movie was over, and life was good again.

        These movies can't "ruin" anythi
    • have you checked the trailer for Sin City?

      looks seriously cool - and true to the comics style..
    • this or the movie version of Watchman

      Nice troll, Jackie Harvey, but neither will be worse than Elektron with Janice Garner.

  • What is Vendetta? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Uh. Call me stupid, but what the hell is Vendetta? And why is Slashdot posting blurbs about random movies all the time these days without, you know, offering a sentence explaining what the fuck said movie has to do with anything?
    • V for Vendetta is a very well known and acclaimed graphic novel (that's geekspeak for big comic book). P.S. You're stupid. (You asked for it ;))
      • It did not start as a graphic novel, though. When we old timers first got our hands on it, it was a 12 issue miniseries...

        I think I just brought those in some things I picked up from my mother's house, actually. I'm going to have to pick though the books and see if they're still around...

        • True enough, but similar things could be said about most of Dickens' novels which started out being serialized.
        • Damn kids! Back in my day, it first appeared serialized in Warrior magazine, along side MarvelMan and other works. After Warrior magazine went under, DC eventually got it and then it was finished as a 12 issue miniseries.
          • I forgot about that. :p

            Never did see the Warrior stuff. What year was that?

            • I never knew that. And here I thought I was so cool for having bought the individual issues.
              • I'm currently digging through one of my unused bedrooms in my house trying to find my V issues, but I could have sworn Moore actually wrote a small column in one of those issues explaining how V ended up where it did.

                V did not finish in the Warrior run. I think it got about 50% through and either Moore gave up for a while or the mag went belly-up (any really old-timers out there who can say?). The entire story was not told until it reached DC. So, while the folks who read the Warrior stuff were the fir

                • The other interesting thing is that, before the DC run finished, Alan Moore had said he would do no more work for DC. If my memory serves me correctly (and it always does... :), Moore, Frank Miller, and a few other creators protested DC's firing of Marv Wolfman as one of their editors, after Marv had made some comments that upset Jenette Kahn and the other PTB. Miller was later mollified; Moore said he would stick by his refusal to work for them again. The only reason Moore finished V for Vendetta for the
        • 12 issue miniseries...

          But now with N. Portman it's going to be a 12 tissue movie...
      • Initially, I thought it might be a remake of V [firsttvdrama.com]. It wasn't until I saw the cover picture and recalled that I'd seen it on the Space channel, on one of their comic book vignettes, that I realized it was YACBFA (Yet Another Comic Book Film Adaptation).

        P.S. The poster was not stupid, merely uninformed.
    • Okay, Stupid. RTFA.

      From said article: "Synopsis: A powerful story about loss of freedom and individuality, V for Vendetta takes place in a totalitarian England following a devastating war that changed the face of the planet. In a world without political freedom, personal freedom and precious little faith in anything comes a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask who fights political oppressors through terrorism and seemingly absurd acts. It's a gripping tale of the blurred lines between ideological good
      • A powerful story about loss of freedom and individuality, V for Vendetta takes place in a totalitarian England following a devastating war that changed the face of the planet. In a world without political freedom, personal freedom and precious little faith in anything comes a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask who fights political oppressors through terrorism and seemingly absurd acts.

        Agh, not another Moore documentary.

      • A powerful story about loss of freedom and individuality

        I read a recent review about some California Syrah's in Wine Spectator magazine. And, what was really odd, is that the wine reviewer talked about how the vintage seemed to have lost some "freedom and individuality" from prior vintages.

      • "Action-heavy"? Oh fuck.

        Still, at least they appear not to have cast a star as V, so there is a chance of them not "doing a Stallone" and showing his face.

    • Use the Wikipedia, Luke! [wikipedia.org]

      --grendel drago

  • Wachowski (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:14PM (#11352548)
    So there will be Calvinist overtones divided into three parts, the first of which will be revolutionary and mind-blowing. The second will be an advancement, more action, have lots of confusing theology, and twins (albino). The third part of the movie will suck...but have the longest "die already!!!" scene ever.

    Oh, and due to the whole pandering-to-the-audience thing they seem to be infamous for, there will be a scene with Portman and hot grits.

    • Re:Wachowski (Score:3, Insightful)

      by aztektum ( 170569 )
      It might be ok. Afterall first Matrix movie wasn't their story in the first place. Google for "mother of the matrix". They're pretty good at adapting other people's source material.

      At least this time they're up front that it's an adaptation. That should be good enough for the /. crowd to forgive them.

      Who do we hate today?

    • You're forgetting Bound.

      The movie will prominently feature a marginalized group, like homosexuals or people of color. The movie will have an obvious color theme. The movie will exhibit a solid understanding of cultural theory and/or philosophy, although that understanding will not be crucial to enjoyment of the film.

      Based on the material in V for Vendetta, the Wachowskis may also bring some politics into the mix. I'd love it.
    • So there will be Calvinist overtones divided into three parts, the first of which will be revolutionary and mind-blowing. The second will be an advancement, more action, have lots of confusing theology, and twins (albino). The third part of the movie will suck...but have the longest "die already!!!" scene ever.

      Actually, that's perfect.

      Alan Moore wrote 7 issues of V for Vendetta which started really strong bust started to lose focus, then left it on the shelf, unfinished, for a while, then finally emerged
    • So long as it's "Calvinist" as in "and Hobbes"...

  • Google (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Google Search results [google.com] for V for Vendetaa.

  • Just give in... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Xentax ( 201517 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:15PM (#11352559)
    ...and create a subdomain "hotgrits.slashdot.org" so these stories can go about their ignoble-comment-collecting business.

    I mean, I'm a Natalie fan, too, but posting anything remotely relating to her *here* and expecting a meaningful discussion is ... well, proof that hope springs eternal, I guess, but not much else.

    Xentax

  • Wachowski BROTHERS? (Score:5, Funny)

    by The_Rippa ( 181699 ) * on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:15PM (#11352560)
    Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers will produce for Warner Brothers

    Don't you mean the Wachowski Siblings [fabmagazine.com]?

  • Is this good or bad? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Uzziel ( 148474 )
    Hm....
    On the one hand, this is one of my all-time favorite graphic novels. I would love it if more people became aware of it.
    But on the other hand, I just know it's going to get butchered. The Wachowskis had a chance to tell a subtle and ponderous story in The Matrix and they completely blew it.

  • Crap! (Score:5, Funny)

    by KillerDeathRobot ( 818062 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:17PM (#11352565) Homepage
    I need to read this quick so I'll know what to hate about the movie when it comes out!
  • Life's a vaudeville, and everything else is melodrama.

    Mr Jones, are these your [i]knockers[/i]?
    Oh dear, your [i]mellons[/i] have spilled out!
    • Crap. I said it backwards. Life's a melodrama and everything else is vaudeville.

      Somebody pour hot grits down my pants.

    • Re: Crosses Fingers (Score:3, Informative)

      by mkro ( 644055 )
      Mr Jones, are these your
      knockers? Oh dear, your mellons have spilled out!
      The old "the more obscure the reference, the more smart the moderator feels by spotting it"-trick? ;) For those of you who wonder, this is from a government-run sitcom shown in the background in one or two panels in "V for Vendetta". Can't get more obscure than that.
  • Will this one also end with journey through a version of Star Trek I's "V'ger" ending at a version of Tron's MCP made out of digital bugs, only this time the blind Neo is covered in hot grits?
  • ....is in early pre-production.

    EARLY PRE-PRODUCTION: "Since only geeks know what 'V for Vendetta' is about, we are raising the money necessary to find a huge star. Without one, we are cooked."

    • I'm tired of cartoons being associated with geeks. They have nothing whatsoever to do with geek culture, it takes no brains or though to read them.

      Cartoons and comic books are entirely within the domain of the Spaz, Knob, Bozo, and/or Retard.
      • Well, Transmetropolitan incorporated a lot of hard SF---nanotech Makers, Moravec transfers and so forth. That's pretty dorky.

        And, hell, I'm a geek. I read Vernor Vinge, have a couple thousand edits on Wikipedia and work as a sysadmin. (Well, did. I'm slightly between jobs. But I get interviewed tomorrow...) And I have a wall full of comics. You're saying that Cerebus, with its Marx Brothers allusions and thousand-page political intrigues, isn't just the slightest bit geeky?

        Please distinguish between super

  • Please don't butcher this, please. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dominion ( 3153 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:29PM (#11352694) Homepage
    I really hope they don't fuck with the storyline and the politics of this classic. Alan Moore is one of my favorite political writers, and it'd be a shame if this is given the same treatment as "From Hell" was.

    If you don't know, V for Vendetta was about an anarchist (in the classical theoretical sense, not the bs modern punk rock sense) revolutionary who uses "terrorist" tactics to save Britain from fascism. It's not something that I see Hollywood understanding, even though I think most people would understand why the tactics were used, and the politics behind them.

    In the book, V straddles the line between anarchist and vanguard, taking actions into his own hands, but with the express purpose of encouraging the people to fight back. It's not about an anarcho-socialist utopia, it recognizes the compromises that an anarchist would have to make in dire circumstances.

    And ultimately, it's really, really fucking cool. Please, hollywood, please don't fuck it up.
    • Oh, I'm sure it'll be the same thing, only it'll be set in a post-9/11 American suburbia, with a plot twist at the ends, wherein our protagonist will end up tortured in a Gitmo-like detention center, only to have the whole thing exposed by some enterprising young journalist with connections to the mob. Portman will have a homosexually charged encounter with Tilly, and the special effects will kick ass (except for Jar-Jar Binks, who'll show up and ruin it all)!

    • Re:Please don't butcher this, please. (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Well, they are.

      1)From what I've read, the Norsemen are now Nazis.
      2)There was no WWIII, instead only WWII with a hang over for 60 years.
      3)We'll be lucky if they say "Remember remember" ever. You know, us stupid americans never learn anything about another culture. [for the un knowning, this is a story on "Guy Fox"(I know, not right spelling, but now we will be able to sound it out)]
      4)Oh, and we still won't know how "The Vicious Caberet" will sound like.
      5)and last but not least, I know they like the story,
      • Everything you wanted to know about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder plot:

        http://www.bonefire.org/guy [bonefire.org]

        This year is the 400th aniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, so it would be a nice tie in for a movie...you know, for the international audience.

      • That's "Norsefire", not "Norsemen". If we're being pedantic.

        You know, Americans can pronounce "Fawkes" if we've seen "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". (Remember Dumbledore's pet phoenix?)

        I do agree that the worst part of it all is that they'll have to show V's face. Damn it, that was one of the key elements of the book---that Evey decided not to take off V's mask, because, and I'm paraphrasing here, "who you are could never be as big as all thosepeople you could have been".

        If they include Valeri
    • It's been a long time since Thatcher, though, and that was who Moore was warning us about in V.

      The movie is either going to be one of three things: 1) nice and close to the source; 2) a complete hack job; or 3) updated to take on Bush administration policies.

      If it's #3, be prepared for it to take place in the US and not the UK... and if that's the case, things could be either fucking brilliant or fucking lame.

      • A great point, and the reason why I don't think there could ever be, for instance, a successful faithful movie adaptation of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. Despite its considerable greatness, it is very obviously a product of the '80s and would not be a commercially viable movie if the story and mood are translated accurately. Miller's Sin City, though, is fairly time-independent, which, along with the movie's director's apparent love of the comics themselves, is what gives me hope for Sin City.

        T

        • Having read V for Vendetta many times over, I think it manages to keep away from the rampant Thatcher bashing very well. You can certainly read it without knowing any British politics. I think it's pretty accessible.

          The gist of the story is that the world has undergone a mini-nuclear war (one of the characters mentions that "there aren't any elephants any more") and the resulting food shortages lead to the collapse of the old government and a fascist regime takes over. I'd imagine that it was seen as a fri

      • Well, there's a clue on the official image [efavata.com] for V for Vendetta : "Remember, remember the 5th of November". Which is the first line of the Guy Fawkes nursery rhyme (and it's used in the graphic novel), the guy who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament on the 5th November 1605. So the UK seems very likely.

        • Cool... I hadn't seen that (man, I hope that's an actual picture of the mask).

          One can only hope they are referring to Guy Fawkes, but a quick search of Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] shows that Nixon was elected in 1968 on 11/5, along with other little milestones in US history. Do I think they would equate Nixon's election to the impact Guy Fawkes Night has in V? I don't think so, but I'm not entirely sure.

          So, it could be faithful, or it could be trite. I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

      • Surely you are not suggesting that fascism [secularhumanism.org] has retreated since then, are you?

  • We cross our fingers (Score:3, Informative)

    by mkro ( 644055 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:29PM (#11352697)
    I was just reading through V for Vendetta again yesterday, and fear that they will mess this one up quite bad. "From Hell" didn't go particulary well, but it has a quite complex storyline and many characters, and in the movie some characters were merged in to one, trying to be less confusing.
    V might have a simpler story line, but the mood the drawings set is so much more important. Have a look at some of the panels [shadowgalaxy.net] to see what I mean.

    But oh, it would be nice if they could pull it off, though.
  • I will be absolutely shocked if this movie gets made by Hollywood with the original story intact. I don't think that they'd ever dare do it, just like they can't do the end of Watchmen as in the comic.

    I love Alan Moore's stories. Hate his movies.
    • When someone is fighting for a just cause we don't refer to them as terrorists, we call them freedom fighers or such. Terrorist is a word we use when they fight for a cause in which we do not agree. We do not refer to the people who placed a bomb in Hitlers meeting room as terrorists, do we?
      • A terrorist is someone who uses terror to influence others. The plot to blow up Hitler wasn't a terrorist thing, they just wanted Hitler dead. Lee Harvery Oswald wasn't a terrorist.

        By the strict definition V isn't a terrorist as he aims to destroy the regime not terrorise it until it gives up. He does, however, use terrorist techniques and does scare the people in power, but his main aim is to pull the common people out of their complacency by using shock tactics.
  • Once the Rip-off-ski brothers get their hands on this one, they will most assuredly claim the work is entirely their own.

    Just like The Matrix [slccglobelink.com]...

  • As an American... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anita Coney ( 648748 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:53PM (#11352896) Homepage
    ... I'd love to defend Hollywood. But I know it's shit, so what's the point.

  • Evey = Mathilda (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Malfourmed ( 633699 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @05:55PM (#11352924) Homepage
    Natalie Portman is Evey is unexpected but perfect casting.

    She actually played a similar role in her first movie, the brilliant Leon (aka The Professional). Both Evey in V and Mathilda in Leon are young girls forced to grow up before their time by the harsh world they live in, and who form an intimate relationship with a cold blooded but sympathetic killer.
  • Ideally we should never be told...

  • Hi, I'm Troy McLure... (Score:4, Funny)

    by ettlz ( 639203 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:00PM (#11352970) Journal
    ...You may remember me from such movies as "M is for Murderousness"...
  • don't give hollywood too much credit. from the studio's point of view, its all about the benjamins. and the best way to do that is to cater to a wider, more mainstream audience. the thing i hate the most is the fact that hollywood oftentimes mess up the 'origin stories', thereby completely changing the mythos of the characters or the series. spiderman, x-men, hulk, heck, even smallville all mess up the characters so they attract broader audiences. as ardent fans, i think we do need to understand that p

  • Timing and Political Direction (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:03PM (#11352989)
    I wonder if it will be released before Bush gets out of office.

    On a similar thread, I wonder if the political/philosophical background will be changed to suit mass audience demographics. Telling the public they are responsible for their own problems usually doesn't go over too well with them.

  • Yet another Moore book turned B movie (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rolman ( 120909 ) on Thursday January 13, 2005 @06:29PM (#11353251)
    The problem I see with this movie is that the original storyline may not seem particularly amusing for the current political and moral environment.

    Right now the preview says: "a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask who fights political oppressors through terrorism and seemingly absurd acts", but this description doesn't fit the darker spirit of the original.

    While the description does mention terrorism, V is much more complex than that, as described in several reviews and analysis, like this one [shadowgalaxy.net]. Thus I'm expecting that along the road, V will be transformed into some kind of "masked avenger" or Batman-like superhero, better suited for the post-9/11 era.

    I don't expect the movie to portrait V blowing up government buildings, killing policemen and a priest, questioning Justice and promoting Anarchy, like in the original. So, what's the point of adapting it? If these Wachowski guys want some story about oppression, they'd be better off adapting Cinderella for that matter.

    If it's changed in such a way, it will be ironic that a story that shows a world of totalitarianism and lack of freedom won't be translated verbatim into another medium because of issues with "political correctness".
  • The jury is still out, but the Wachowski brothers have been accused of plagiarizing a woman's material for the Matrix series.

    Article Link [slccglobelink.com]
  • Seriously I hope they start to interrupt their own movies with several minutes long commercials to make up for Fat Manny The Stuntman's Piracy Problem. I also hope they charge $11 per ticket.

    That'l teach US!
  • Being a fringe movie geek, I often get a chance to read unproduced screenplays. Sometimes, it is possible to see the train hurtling towards the bridge that is out way before they ever turn on a camera. "League of Extraordinary Gentleman" was like that. There have been two screenplays for "V" that have floated around Hollywood in the last ten years. One of them, completely ghastly, turned "V" into a superhero fighting an evil world dictatorship. The surprise twist was that "V" turned out, in that version,

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