May had a lot of news about upcoming adaptations and remakes.

Farscape movie in the works.
Rockne O’Bannon, creator of Farscape, has confirmed the rumours that a Farscape movie was in production, at least as far as the script.  The confirmation was announced at WonderCon.

Prequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in pre-production.
The movie brings back Michelle Yeoh and fight coordinator Yuen Woo-ping to present what Yu Shu Lien did before the events of the original movie.  Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon came out in 2000; the delay was caused by a rights conflict between the studio and the estate of Wang Du Lu, whose novels were the base of the movie.

Six issue Avengers mini-series coming from Boom!
John Steed and Emma Peel will be back in a comics mini-series called Steed and Mrs. Peel.  The cover art in the article really does suit the show.

Casting started for the Jem movie.
After seeing how crowdfunding worked with Veronica Mars, the director of the live-action Jem and the Holograms turned to YouTube and asked for fans to sumbit video auditions for online casting.

Twin Peaks returns in fan-made web sequel.
Fans of David Lynch’s TV series Twin Peaks have begun the 25th anniversary celebrations by having a third season done on Twitter.  The central repository for the fan series is Enter the Lodge, where the tweets are collected.

Hector and the search for a distributor.
Hector and the Search for Happiness, based on the book of the same name by Francois Lelord, has been picked up by Relativity.  The movie, starring Simon Pegg and Rosamund Pike, tells the story of a psychiatrist travelling the world in search of happiness.

JK Rowling novel to become TV series.
The Casual Vacancy, JK Rowling’s first novel after finishing the Harry Potter series, has been picked up as a BBC and HBO co-production.  The book will be turned into a mini-series, following the town of Pagford, England, after the local councilor dies.

More Jem casting news.
All the actresses have experience to some degree but aren’t major names.  Hayley Kiyoko, playing Aja, has an EP, “A Belle to Remember“, on her resume.   Aubrey Peeples, playing Jem, has performed as a singer, including on the TV series Nashville, but doesn’t have a release.  The live action adaptation still has some hurdles, especially with the original creator Christy Marx not involved, but the casting of the core allows the movie to be about Jem and the Holograms and not furthering the singing careers of the leads.

SyFy getting in on the adaptation train.
Four new series on SyFy, all of them are adaptations.  Letter 44, Pax Romana, and Ronin are all based on comics.  The fourth, The Magicians, is based on the novels by Lev Grossman.

Dad’s Army to hit the silver screen.
The BBC sitcom Dad’s Army is being adapted as a film.  Toby Jones will play Captain Mainwaring, portrayed by Arthur Lowe in the original.  Bill Nighy will be Sergeant Wilson.  The original TV series focused on a British Home Guard unit in World War II.  The writer of the original show, Jimmy Perry, added a provision when he signed over the rights that he wouldn’t have to write anything in the adaptation.

Sailor Moon cast announced.
More on the Sailor Moon news from last month.  The Sailor Senshi have been cast, with Kotono Mitsuishi is back as Usagi.  The character designs for the new series are based on their appearances in the manga.

Toy and snack movies ahead!
First, Barbie.  A live action Barbie comedy is in the works from Sony.  It’s not too surprising a move; the animated /Barbie/ features have done well and the online series /Life in the Dreamhouse/ has gone four seasons.  Mattel, like all toy companies except Hasbro, is also trying to recover from a drop in sales in the past year.
Next, Peeps.  The pink and yellow marshmallow candies are following in the footsteps of The LEGO Movie.  Adam Rifkin will helm the movie, basing it on the Peeps dioramas his niece and nephew made.

Another Disney ride gets tapped for a movie.
In celebration of the attraction’s 50th anniversary, It’s a Small World will be turned into a family movie.  The earworm generating song will be part of the movie.  Disney is batting .500 with rides turned into movies lately; while The Haunted Mansion stumbled a bit, Pirates of the Caribbean became a huge hit.  It’s a matter of finding the right team.  Or inserting a subliminal message into the song.

Minecraft, the movie.
The producers of The LEGO Movie will bring the digital version of playing with blocks to the big screen.  Warner Bros, the studio involved, will also work on a live-action tie-in for the movie.

Scarface to be remade, too.
The remake will bring the story into the today’s world.  The immigrant’s story will see Tony’s background change to Mexican from the original Italian as seen in the 1932 and 1983 versions.  The filmmakers are looking to cast a Latino in the role.

Marvel’s Peggy Carter to get her own series.
Peggy Carter, who first appeared in Captain America, is getting her own spin-off series on ABC in the fall.  The series will be set in 1946 following the events at the end of the movie.  This comes in the wake of the renewal of Agents of SHIELD.  Meanwhile, over at Warner, no news of a Wonder Woman movie.

Private Benjamin to be remade.
The Goldie Hawn movie about a spoiled rich girl who joins the Army is being remade, with Rebel Wilson in the title role.  The update will see a redneck join with the rich girl.

Animated Flintstones movie to be produced by Will Farrell and Adam McKay.
The Stone Age family will return to the big screen animated instead of live-action.  The movie will be the first animated film of the characters since the 1966 The Man Called Flintstone.

Go, go Power Rangers!
Lionsgate has licensed Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers from Saban for a reboot movie.

Didn’t see the Rosemary’s Baby remake?  You’re not alone.
Maybe Mother’s Day wasn’t the best day for the airing.  The remake was up against A Game of Thrones, the season finale of Once Upon a Time, and Cosmos.

Corner Gas movie being Kickstartered.
The Canadian sitcom about life in Dog River, Saskatchewan is being turned into a movie if the Kickstarter campaign is successful.

Blade Runner sequel may see Harrison Ford return as Deckard.
Ridley Scott may provide the answer to, “Is Deckard a replicant?” in the Blade Runner sequel.  Ford himself showed interest during an AMA on Reddit.

Infamous Chick tract being adapted as movie.
Dark Dungeons, Jack Chick’s infamous anti-Dungeons & Dragons comic tract, is getting the movie treatment.  Zombie Orpheus Entertainment will be treating the tract with the respect the company, staffed by gamers, think is due and will play it straight and accurate.

 

Ancient history has fascinated many people.  Universities offer entire departments of history and classics based on research by historians and archaeologists.  However, there are people who have more fanciful beliefs on what happened before recorded history.  There are those who believe that life here began out there, that ancient astronauts landed here to become the first humans.  Others believe that the ancient astronauts were once worshipped as gods after they provided such cultural leaps as written language and large works of art and engineering*.  While evidence is lacking, the concept of ancient astronauts can be jumping off point for a work of fiction.

Stargate is one such work of fiction.  Released in 1994, the movie established that the Egyptian god Ra was really an alien who needed the body of humans to maintain his immortality.  Getting to Earth involved travelling long distances, using a device the ancient Egyptians referred to as a “stargate”.  Long since buried, the artifact was recovered in the late 20s and became an object of study, which is where the main characters come in.  First, Daniel Jackson, played by James Spader.  Doctor Jackson is a proponent of the ancient astronaut hypothesis, and has studied ancient Egyptian history and languages.  His research leads to him being recruited by a joint United States Air Force and civilian project to decipher hieroglyphs found on a relic.  On the Air Force’s side, Colonel Jonathan “Jack” O’Neil, played by Kurt Russel, has been brought out of his retirement as a failsafe in case the relic is operational.

Doctor Jackson figures out the symbols, realizing that they’re not words, but coordinates that inform the Stargate the location of the other end.  A team is put together to explore what lies on the other side, including Colonel O’Neil and Doctor Jackson, the latter to work out how to return to Earth, the former with orders to plant a bomb to destroy the gate.  On the new world, the team discovers a city of humans, all speaking a variation of ancient Egyptian.  During the search for the coordinates to Earth, Ra appears in his pyramidal spaceship to search for a new body.  The presence of O’Neil’s team encourages a revolution against Ra by the populace, one that ends when O’Neil’s bomb detonates as Ra tried to escape in his spacecraft.  Doctor Jackson remains behind, having married Sha’uri.  The movie ends with O’Neil and Jackson saying their farewells and promising to see each other some time in the future.

Stargate could have ended there, its main plot wrapped up.  There was room for further movies; the idea of turning a popular movie into a TV series wasn’t known at the time.  Other than M*A*S*H, the only other recent example was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which had started airing in March of 1997, with Mortal Kombat coming in 1998.  June of 1997 saw the pilot of Stargate: SG-1 debut.  “Children of the Gods” aired on Showtime, as would the first half of the series’ run.  The bulk of the cast of the movie was replaced, with Richard Dean Anderson playing Colonel Jack O’Neill, “with two l’s” and Michael Shanks playing Daniel Jackson.  “Children of the Gods” starts with the Stargate, inactive but guarded over the three year difference between the movie’s release and the airing of the pilot, coming to life.  Beings similar to Ra and his soldiers march through, killing three of the guards and kidnapping the one woman on the squad.  As a result, Colonel O’Neill is brough back from retirement again, this time by General Hammond instead of General West.  Hammond gets the truth from O’Neill in a quick recap of the movie, including the part where the Colonel sent the bomb to Ra’s spaceship instead of destroying the Stargate itself.  With that news, a message is sent to Jackson, paving a way for a squad to go through the gate.

While Dr. Jackson and Col. O’Neill catch up, the alien who attacked the Air Force team on Earth come through the Stargate on Abydos, the same one the O’Neill’s squad had used.  The alien takes away several of the natives with him, including Daniel’s wife and O’Neill’s adopted son, Skarra**.  Jackson returns to Earth with O’Neill, determined to find his wife.  A briefing by General Hammond introduces the core concept of the TV series, the SG teams.  Each team would be sent through the Stargate to the various viable coordinates discovered, coordinates that Dr. Jackson and Captain Samantha Carter, played by Amanda Tapping, have worked out.  Jackson and Carter hit it off immediately, as the good doctor’s previous research helps her with her theoretical astrophyics.  Together, they work out that many of the coordinates have drifted just from the movement of the galaxy.

With the coordinates of the apparent origin of the new alien, Apophis, teams SG-1 and SG-2 move out.  The new world is unlike Abydos.  Where Abydos was a desert, the new planet is verdant, covered with plants.  SG-1, led by Col. O’Neill, is able to find the people taken by Apophis, not just from Abydos but from many worlds with their own cultures.  Apophis, ultimately, escapes with Daniel’s wife and Skarra having been transformed.  However, Teal’c, played by Christopher Judge and one of Apophis’s guards known as a Jaffa, is impressed by how SG-1 handles itself and believes that they can succeed in defeating the alien and switches sides.

With the pilot over, the hard part comes.  The cast and crew have to deliver a strong story featuring the characters weekly.  Over ten seasons, the longest an American science fiction series has run***, they did just that.  The movie took a look at first contact and the difficulty of communicating, even when the two sides can trace back lingusitic history.  What Stargate SG-1 did was expand the setting, building up Goa’uld and the Jaffa, introducing the Asgard, a species whose appearance was based on the Greys and were responsible for Norse myth, and allowing the technology base on Earth to grow as the series progressed.  During this, two spin-off series came about; Stargate: Atlantis, set in a distant galaxy with a team of explorers and specialists who knew that they may never return back home because of the energy required to maintain a wormhole that far, and Stargate: Universe, set on board the Ancient starship Destiny with a crew who are trying to find their way back to Earth.

Stargate-SG1 built on top of what was shown in Stargate, taking what was discovered and expanding.  The key elements, ancient astronauts and the Stargate’s coordinates, were in the movie and were fully exploited in a way that was consistant with the events in Stargate.  The TV series used its format to expand the setting, adding to the movie without ever taking away from it.

Next week, the May round up on adaptational news.

* For example, the Egyptian pyramids and the Nazca lines in Peru.
** Skaara was played by Alexis Cruz in both the movie and the pilot, making him the only actor who was in both.
*** There are terms and conditions here.  Star Trek had more seasons but over multiple incarnations.  Doctor Who has lasted longer, but is British.  General Hospital was a long running soap opera that pre-dated television, but wasn’t science fiction.  Still, Stargate SG-1 deserves recognition of being able to last as long as it did over two cable stations.

Apologies for the hiatus.  I’m taking this week off to recharge and to get ready for the next batch of reviews.  Lost in Translation should return next week with Stargate SG-1.

Science fiction in comic books wasn’t doing well in Britain of 1977, with titles whithering.  However, with Star Wars on the horizon, a new publication, 2000 AD aimed to change that.  Several characters debuted in the weekly, including Judge Dredd.  Dredd, as created by John Wagner, was meant to be a tough cop along the lines of “Dirty” Harry Callahan on a big bike.  However, artist Carlos Ezquerra took the description of “judge, jury, and executioner” and created a faceless law enforcer, with overtones of the fascism he grew up with in Spain*.  The iconic helmet was inspired by a medieval executioner’s hood.

As the story got re-written to match the artwork, the dystopia of Mega-City One grew.  Despite 2000 AD being a British comic, Mega-City One was placed on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.  The vision of the setting was an outsider’s look at American society through the lens of celebrity and violence.  As the political shift to the right grew in the late 70s, with Margaret Thatcher becoming the UK Prime Minister in 1979 and Ronald Reagan becoming the American president in 1981, Dredd’s world picked up fascist overtones.

With 2000 AD running weekly, and the Judge Dredd Megazine running monthly, many stories were created.  The title was treated as an open sandbox, letting writers tell whatever story they could in the setting, with Dredd himself the element that tied everything together.  The open nature of the title allowed for elements like psychic abilities, the supernatural, and even time travel to be introduced.

In 1995, the first film adaptation came out.  The movie had Sylvester Stallone starring as Dredd.  There were a few issues with the film, leading to a lukewarm reception.  One big problem, though, was that the studio didn’t want to keep Stallone’s face hidden under the helmet.  In the comic, Dredd never removed his helmet; he was a faceless law enforcer.  Removing his helmet meant adding a sense of humanity to the character that was never there.

With the 35th anniversary of Dredd’s creation in 2012, a new movie was released.  Dredd would see Karl Urban in the titular role.  Urban’s previous work includes Lord of the Rings, the JJ Abrams Star Trek, and Doom.  In each of those movies, he portrayed his role well, to the point of channelling DeForest Kelly in Trek as Dr. McCoy.  In Dredd, Urban became the role again, keeping Dredd’s ever-present scowl on his face.

The movie pulled in many elements from Judge Dredd’s long run, some only showing up as minor details, like in the graffiti scrawled on the walls of Peach Trees.  Mega-City One was shown as a huge sprawl, dotted by towering City Blocks like Peach Trees.  The inside of Peach Trees was desolate, almost soulless.  Ma-ma herself was created for the movie, but she appeared first in the Judge Dredd Megazine in an origins story.

The movie went well out of its way to be a proper Judge Dredd story without adapting one straight from 2000 AD.  The problems with the 1995 Judge Dredd were nowhere to be seen.  Being a fan of the character, Urban argued that Dredd would never take off his helmet, even in a scene written where he would.  As mentioned above, at no point did Dredd take off his helmet.  The only time he was seen helmetless was when he was getting dressed; even then, his features were shrouded in shadow.

To include all the aspects of the comic would take far more time than a ninety-six minute movie has to spare.  Still, hints of the larger setting and history appeared.  Judge Anderson and her psychic abilities came straight from the comic, hinting at mutants and the Dark Judges.  The best way to explore the full setting may be a weekly series, giving time to set up arcs and to delve into the setting.  However, Dredd, while scratching the surface of the setting, captured the comic’s feel without having to change who Judge Dredd is.

Next week, Stargate-SG1.

* Spain was ruled by Francisco Franco from 1938 to 1975 as a dictatorship, which coloured Carlos Ezquerra’s view of authority figures.

Fairy tales are a popular sources for adaptations.  Disney grew on the strength of Snow White and Cinderella.  Of late, the trend has become remaking the tales in a darker, grittier version.  TV series like Grimm and Once Upon a Time and movies like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland* have taken classic tales and explored the darker side.  Even Supernatural has explored American mythology on its way to popularity.

Hansel & Gretel, Witch Hunters was meant to cash in on the trend.  Released in 2013, though originally scheduled for early spring 2012, Hansel & Gretel continued the classic fairy tale of two children abandoned in a forest who find a cottage made of candy and must escape the witch who lives inside.  Like most fairy tales, the original story of Hansel and Gretel warns children to be careful, to not succumb to desires, like eating too much candy, and to respect other people’s homes.

The movie tells the tale before the credits, using it as a mini-origins story.  The credits were used to show Hansel and Gretel’s career of hunting witches using animation based on the artwork of the purported period.  When the live action returns, Hansel, played by Jeremy Renner, and Gretel, played by Gemma Arterton, are grown up and have been brought in by the mayor of Augsburg to rid the town of witches and find the children taken by them.  However, the head witch, Muriel, played by Famke Jannsen channeling her inner Morticia Addams, is using the upcoming blood moon to make sure that all dark witches will no longer burn on pyres.  Along the way, the witch hunting siblings run into a fanboy who has a collection of their exploits and a poster of Gretel on his bedroom wall.

Hansel & Gretel, Witch Hunters is well aware of what sort of movie it is.  It doesn’t take itself seriously, yet shows equal amounts of horror, action, comedy, and drama.  The weapons the siblings use add to the over-the-top nature of the film; Gretel carries a double-barrelled, fully automatic crossbow.  The movie becomes Strawberry Fields, from Casino Royale, and Hawkeye, from Marvel’s The Avengers fight the supernatural.  Yet, it works.

The movie is a re-imagining of the fairy tale, continuing the story of Hansel and Gretel past their defeat of the witch of the candy cottage by using her own over agaisnt her.  Hansel & Gretel, Witch Hunters expands the story and the setting, adding twists that both surprise and follow from the characters while still keeping a sense of fun in the mix.  The writing showed an understanding of the fairy tale and an eye on how a pair of orphans could survive while adding little quirks, like the fanboy, that spoke to the desired audience.

Next week, Dredd.

* Yes, Alice isn’t a fairy tale, but does share some characterstics of such a story.

A change of plans this week.  I’ve been holding on to some items too long and I realized that I hadn’t had a round up last month.  On with the show!

A Game of Thrones, the Movie
With the TV series catching up to George R.R. Martin’s writing, something needs to be done.  One potential fix, feature-length movies.  The movies would be prequels, set 90 years prior to the start of the books.  This should give Martin the time to finish or at least pad out the series long enough to prevent the TV series from overtaking.

Jem and the Holograms to get film treatment.
Truly outrageous!  The movie has a webpage set up where fans can make suggestions on plot and casting and submit audition video.  However, Christy Marx, the creator of the original series, is not involved.  How this will affect the movie remains to be seen.

No more Inspector Morse adaptations?
Creator Colin Dexter has added a clause in his will that will prevent other actors from playing Inspector Morse.  He feels that the performances of both John Thaw and Shaun Evans cannot be surpassed.  The clause can be challenged, but it is likely that Dexter’s estate will agree with him.

Left Behind movie series to be rebooted.
Nicholas Cage will star in the remake of the adaptation of the first of the Left Behind books.  Release date has been announced for October 3.  The first adaptation was by Kirk Cameron in 2000, with the sequels released direct-to-video.

Fox to spin-off a Mystique movie while Sony does the same with the Sinister Six.
While Marvel Studios is busy with the Avengers, the licensees aren’t content to be left in the dust.  Fox has plans for a Mystique movie to go along with the Wolverine series.  Over at Sony, the Sinister Six, Spider-foes each and every one of them, has signed on director Drew Goddard.  The movies mean that Marvel will have more characters on screen than rival DC Comics, despite the latter’s owner, Warner, having not licensed any character to another studio.

New Sailor Moon series to debut July, broadcast includes Internet streaming.
The Pretty Soldier-Sailor is returning and can be seen through Niconico Douga, a video streaming site similar to YouTube.  An account will be needed to watch but the new Sailor Moon will be available internationally.  The build up has been kept low, with very little hype to create expectations.

Cracked.com lists the five adaptations that are overdone.
Beyond just naming, Cracked looks at why the movies don’t work well.  The key appears to be the creativity ends with the original idea and doesn’t continue through the actual production.

Mrs. Doubtfire sequel being written.
Chris Columbus, the director of the original, has been signed, as has Mrs. Doubtfire himself, Robin Williams.  The original movie hit theatres in 1993, and a sequel was attempted in 2001 but never got past pre-production.  Given the age of the original movie, it may be Williams’ name that proves to be the draw.

Princess Jellyfish to get live-action adaptation.
The manga Princess Jellyfish, aka Kuragame Hime, will be getting the live-action treatement.  The official site is now up.  Release date is December, 2014.

Once again, the review is about another movie still in theatres, so I’ll try to avoid spoilers as much as possible.

March turned out to be movie-filled for me, as I managed to catch several in the theatres.  The first three, The LEGO Movie, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and Veronica Mars were all adaptations.  The last movie, Muppets Most Wanted, falls into an odd designation.

I’ve reviewed Muppet movies in the past, with The Muppet Movie and The Muppets.  Muppets Most Wanted is a sequel, the eighth of The Muppet Movie as Bunsen Honeydew points out in the movie, and all of them coming from The Muppet Show.  Muppet movies fall under one of three types.  The first type is where the Muppets play themselves.  The best example is The Muppet Movie, where it was sort of how the Muppets came together.  The second type is where the Muppets play characters based on themselves*.  The Great Muppet Caper is a good example of this second type.  The third type is where the Muppets play completely different characters, usually in an adaptation.  Muppet Treasure Island shows that the Muppets can be both themselves and another character in this third type.  Both The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted are of the first type of Muppet movie.  This is where it gets difficult to figure out whether the lastest film is a sequel, an adaptation, or a bizarre hybrid out of Bunsen Honeydew’s labs.

Muppets Most Wanted picks up right where The Muppets ended, with the sets being struck, the props being returned, the extras going home, and even the cameras being put away.  All the cameras, but one, which is still rolling.  The Muppets don’t just break the fourth wall; they shatter it, twist it, and turn it into origami.  After a song about making the sequel, they are convinced by Dominic Badguy**, played by Ricky Gervais, to take The Muppet Show on a world tour.  The origami crane that was once the fourth wall is now a Moebius strip.  Meanwhile, the new number one criminal, Konstantine, who looks very similar to Kermit, has escaped.  And the camera is still rolling.

There is no doubt that the movie is well worth seeing.  Danny Trejo in a song and dance number alone is worth admission.  Psycho Drive-In has a full review of the movie.  The question, though, is Muppets Most Wanted a remake, reboot, or adaptation, or is it just a sequel?  To even try to answer that question, I had to examine the details.  First, Muppets Most Wanted happily calls itself a sequel to The Muppets, which was a reboot of Muppet movies that owed its existance to The Muppet Movie.  At the same time, the latest film couldn’t exist without The Muppet Show.  While the rest of the movies wouldn’t exist, at least in their existing forms, there’s always a possiblility that Muppet movies would happen.  Muppets Most Wanted needs The Muppet Show for the plot.  Indeed, the movie shows the backstage shenanigans that happen when Kermit is removed from managing the show.

Yes, Muppets Most Wanted is an adaptation.  The form is of a documentary of The Muppet Show on tour with a criminal genius using the ensuing chaos for his greatest crime, except for being a documentary.  All the hallmarks of both The Muppet Show and previous Muppet movies – zaniness, camoes, self-deprecating humour, Miss Piggy trying to woo Kermit, severe damage to the fourth wall – are on display.  The Muppets themselves are as people remember.  Thus, Muppets Most Wanted is not only a sequel of The Muppet Movie, but an adaptation of The Muppet Show, one that has raised the bar on expectations of Muppet films to come.

Next week, Miami Vice.

* I know the Muppets are puppets, but bear with me.  Each Muppet has a distinct personality that has been shown for up to fifty years.
** Pronounced Bad-zhee.  It’s French.

Before I get into the review, I want to go through a quick bit on how I decide what to review.  The past few weeks, I’ve gone to see movies in the theatres that were based on or a continuation of an original work.  Other times, I pick up a movie on DVD that looks like it would be interesting to review, good or bad.  Then there’s how I chose The Mechanic; I picked up a DVD to watch for just entertainment and discover that it’s a remake of an earlier movie or based on a novel or short story.  There are many movies throughout the history of Hollywood that were based on novels, short stories, and plays, and the output of film studios over the course of a hundred years means that I may not recognize a title as a remake.  The discovery that a movie I’m watching is an adaptations means that my normal approach to reviews needs to take into account that I didn’t experience the original first.  There’s a chance that the new order could skew the review.

The Mechanic, also known as The Killer of Killers, was released in 1972.  Charles Bronson was known for his tough guy roles in movies like The Dirty Dozen, The Magnificent Seven, and Death Wish before starring in this movie.  Playing Arthur Bishop, the titular hit man, the movie shows him going through two kills, the latter being his old friend, Harry McKenna.  The McKenna’s son Steve, played by Jan Michael Vincent, seeks out Bishop to learn the trade.  Bishop accepts Steve under his wing and starts teaching him not only his methods but his philosophy.  However, the people who pay Bishop decide that this departure of the rules needs to be punished, setting up a conflict between mentor and teacher.

The remake of 2011 sees Jason Statham take on the Bronson role, with Ben Foster as the student Steve.  The plot remains the same; Statham’s Bishop kills the father of Foster’s Steve and takes the kid under his wing.  The difference comes in pacing.  Bronson’s Mechanic is very much a character study of Arthur Bishop, a look into what makes a paid assassin tick, how he approaches his life.  The 1972 movie is very much related to the earlier spaghetti westerns and samurai movies; Bronson’s Bishop has rules, both his own personal set and the set imposed by his employers, that he follows and is punished for breaking.  The movie builds up suspense and drama, and takes its time showing who Arthur Bishop is.  Statham’s Mechanic, however, is very much an action movie, and moves the focus from being a character study of Bishop to the mentor-student relationship between Bishop and Steve.  The pace is faster; in the time it takes to get Bronson’s version to receive the order to kill Harry McKenna, Statham’s version has started Steve’s training.  Both, however, keep the same ending for Steve.

As an adaptation, the 2011 remake changed the feel from the original.  This is not necessarily a bad thing; as previously mentioned, a shot-for-shot remake will just have audiences wondering why they just didn’t watch the original.  Changing to an action movie could draw in a larger audience, one that isn’t as used to the slower pace of the original.  The focus on the relationship allowed the remake to explore a different aspect; instead of a samurai, Statham was more workman-like, professional, but doing a job instead of adopting a full lifestyle.  Ultimately, it will come down to what a viewer wants, a character study of a hit man or an action movie involving the teaching of a specialized skill to a protege.

Next week, Muppets Most Wanted.

The review is about another movie still in theatres, so I’ll try to avoid spoilers as much as possible.

The idea of a heart-warming story about a boy and his dog is practically cliché.  From Rin Tin Tin to Lassie to Boxey and Muffet on the original Battlestar Galactica, people have sat and watched stories where boy and dog save the day.  However, only Ted Key flipped the relationship around.

Peabody’s Improbable History started in 1959 as a series of short cartoons as part of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show*.  In each cartoon, Mr. Peabody, a brilliant dog capable of building a time machine, took his pet boy Sherman to a historical event using the WABAC Machine.  The event would never be going as the history books said, though.  There was always some problem that needed correcting, and Mr. Peabody was just the dog to help.  Each short would end after the problem was solved and after Mr. Peabody quipped a pun related to what happened.

In 2002, Rob Minkoff decided to bring back Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman.  After twelve years of development, caused in part by a similiarity to the first Despicable Me movie, Mr. Peabody and Sherman was released.  The movie took the core concept of the original shorts, the trips taken by the main characters in the WABAC Machine, and expanded it, adding details to not just the world around Mr. Peabody and Sherman but the relations between the two.  The movie starts with a nod to the original Peabody’s Improbable History with a trip to pre-Reign of Terror** France to visit Marie Antoinette.  After a misunderstanding that escalates to revolution, Mr. Peabody extricates both Sherman and himself to return home after quipping a pun.  All in all, a bang up job where nobody lost their head.

The movie continues, showing Sherman’s first day at school and dealing with one of the more dreaded beings ever to set foot on Earth, a girl named Penny.  Things don’t go well, leading to Sherman biting Penny, setting off a chain of events that brings in Mrs. Grunion, a Dolores Umbridge-style antagonist.  Grunion wants to separate dog and boy.  In an effort to work things out with Penny’s family, Mr. Peabody invites them over for dinner to discuss the events.  While Peabody charms Paul and Patty Peterson, Sherman gets to show Penny around, with strict orders to not show her the WABAC Machine.  Naturally, Sherman shows Penny the WABAC Machine, starting the romp through history, meeting luminaries such as Tutankhamen, Agamemnon, and Leonardo da Vinci.

Between 1959 and 2014, a lot has changed in the world of animation.  Computers, which were room-sized, tape-driven monstrosities with minimal graphics capability in 1959, are integral to animation today.  Audiences expect more in the relationships between characters.  Smoking is forbidden; the pipe-smoking Mr. Peabody of 1959 just wouldn’t be shown.  Casual cruelty, especially towards children, is also frowned upon.  The acceptable quality of animation has also changed; for a feature film, backgrounds can no longer be sketched in or repeated on a loop.

The other huge jump from Peabody’s Improbable History to Mr. Peabody and Sherman is running time.  Peabody’s Improbable History was part of a 22 minute episode of The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, so it never took more than four to five minutes.  Mr. Peabody and Sherman runs 92 minutes; the movie just can’t rely on the old formula to work.

The scriptwriters were up for the task.  They took the core of Peabody’s Improbable History and used it as the foundation for the movie.  It didn’t matter if part of the audience was too young to have ever seen the shorts; the movie starts off with an extended version that would fit well in the original’s run.  The movie then expands, discovering and developing the relationship between dog and boy, and between Mr. Peabody and Sherman with the rest of the world around them, all without sacrificing the humour Peabody’s Improbable History was known for.  Sure, there may be a fart joke or two, but anyone who knows of history, of drama, and even of psychology will get the humour.  You have to admire a movie that works in a subtle Oedipus complex gag into a scene inside the Trojan Horse.

Does Mr. Peabody and Sherman work as an adaptation?  Yes.  The script built on top of the original cartoon and expanded without sacrificing what made Peabody’s Improbable History memorable.

Next week, The Mechanic.

* Also known as Rocky and His Friends among others, depending on the syndicator.
** Five minutes before to the Reign of Terror.

Television series exist at the whim of a programming exec.  Series not pulling in the right audience for advertisers get pulled, sometimes within weeks of the pilot airing.  There have been times when the number of weeks is less than one.  One case in Austrailia had the show pulled during airing.

The longer a series lasts, the more fans it picks up, through word of mouth or even accidentally catching an episode.  If you’ve been following MuseHack or any site through Crossroads Alpha for any length of time, you’ll know that fans can get creative when supporting a series.  This was as true with the original Star Trek as it was with Veronica Mars.  What Star Trek fans didn’t have available to them was Kickstarter.

Veronica Mars aired first on UPN then on the CW after UPN merged with the WB network, lasting three seasons from 2004 to 2007.  Sixty-four episodes, one fewer than traditionally needed for syndication, chronicled the life of the titular character in a film noir homage.  Each season had its own mystery arc, with Veronica working on smaller cases each episode as well.  Veronica was also an outsider in her school, the fallout of her father, as sherriff, trying to arrest a prominent Neptune, California, billionaire for the murder of one of Veronica’s friends.  When her father became a private investigator, Veronica helped out, and took advantage of the skills she picked up to find her friend’s murderer.

Over the course of the three seasons, Veronica gained close friends and solved cases.  The series ended with her having to make a difficult decision – leave the wretched hive of scum, villainy, and corruption known as Neptune or stay as a licensed detective herself.

Veronica’s choice was never shown.  The series was cancelled after the third season, though work had been done for a potential fourth that would have seen Veronica as a rookie FBI agent.  Fans wanted more.  The Mars bar campaign saw ten thousand of the candy bars sent to CBS headquarters.  However, the fate of the show was sealed.  Being on a fifth network that had to merge to survive took its toll.

All was not lost.  The creator, Rob Thomas, had written a Veronica Mars movie script.  CBS, one of the co-owners of the CW along with Warner Bros, passed on the idea.  However, a new player had arrived.  Kickstarter gave people a chance to directly fund projects; money would only change hands if the donations reached the dollar value required set by the creators.  All Kickstarter campaigns last thrity days, to give projects enough time to get the word out and drum up support.  When the Veronica Mars movie went to Kickstarter, the $2 million goal was reached within 11 hours.  Fans wanted the movie.  The studios, seeing the interest, added to the funding and greenlit the movie.

The movie was released as a limited engagement, on a smaller number of screens than the typical release.  At the same time, the movie was available for digital download.  Opening night saw theatres sold out of tickets.  With nine years between the end of the series and the movie opening, could the movie adapt to the time gap?

Adapting a TV series to a movie involves some growing pains.  With Veronica Mars, there is an added complexity.  Many adapted TV shows become just longer episodes, not really taking advantage of the new format.  Fans can be vocal about what they want, but may not be aware of what they truly desire; it’s a delicate act balancing the familiar and the unexpected.  Veronica‘s added complication is the lack of time for the season-long arc.  Can the script handle needing to be both longer and shorter while still being Veronica Mars?

To appease the fan need for the familiar, the movie brought back many familiar faces.  Along with Kristen Bell, Veronica herself, the movie reunited her with Jason Dohring, Tina Majorino, Percy Daggs III, Francis Capra, Krysten Ritter, Chris Lowell, Daran Norris, Ken Marino, Ryan Hansen, and Erinco Colantoni.  Veronica gets dragged back to the wrteched hive after one of her Neptune friends is accused of murder before the weekend that the Neptune High School reunion takes place.  The reunion acts as the perfect metaphor for the movie; almost ten years have past since fans last saw the characters.  Who would they be now?  Almost every character* had changed in surprising ways, the unexpected that the fans also want.

The core of the TV series was the drama that Veronica herself went through, the changed lives, even hers, in the wake of her investigations.  Without that core, the Veronica Mars movie could just be the Betty Jupiter film.  Rob Thomas, though, knew that core and used it as the base to build the rest of the movie on.  Few characters get through the movie unscathed, and even Veronica herself gets caught in her own wake.

With the script getting to the heart of what made Veronica Mars a popular hit, even a cult classic, the adaptation to the big screen allowed fans to return to Neptune and enjoy a proper Veronica Mars story, gaining from the change in format without losing anything in translation.

Next week, Mr. Peabody and Sherman.

* There’s always that one person who doesn’t appear that he has left high school.  For Veronica Mars, that person is Dick Cassavetes, played by Ryan Hansen.