Random ramblings on a Friday

[charliesmum]

Okay. I had this whole entry and when I went to post it LJ told me the time was backdated or something, and when I went to fix it, I lost my whole post. Gah.

Now this post is not going to be nearly as good as the one I lost. They never are. LJ - the modern writer's 'man from Porlock'. *looks around to see who gets the pretentious reference*

So last night I had a dream that I was watching the movie Constantine, and in my dream I was actually saying 'They didn't call it Hellblazer, I don't have to believe it' because apparently it is even bugging my subconscious that Keanu Reeves was picked to play John Constantine, and they didn't even try to make him English.

This dream led me to ponder what it is that bothers me so about books (or graphic novels) getting made into movies. I came to the conclusion that what really bothers me is that movies are so much more invasive than books on a mass level, and therefore there will be many people who will never read the book or, worse, never even know there was a book first.

Thanks to this movie, it is possible that John Constantine will now forever been seen as an LA-living, Valley-Dude drawling, Keanu-Reeves looking guy instead of the demon-driven, darkly scarcastic Sting looklike Englishman I know and love, and people will say "Constantine? Oh, that was that bad Keanu Reeves movie, wasn't it?" instead of "Oh, Hellblazer. Great story. Alan Moore is a genius." and so on.

Don't get me wrong, I like movies. I love when a movie captures imaginations all over the world, and I'm sure there are hundreds of people out there with ideas for original screenplays, so why every popular book be made into a movie? It's like we don't trust our own imagination to carry the story well enough, so we have to let Hollywood do it.

And in Cute Charlie news, this morning he mentioned again how he wants to be a Fireman when he is an 'odult' and when I asked him what Firemen did he thought for a moment and then said "Firement un-set fires."

Comments

[jessii-6.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's acutally more of a 'hey, let's see... this is famous, lots of milking potential here!' instead.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

Me! I got the Man from Porlock who interrupted Coleridge when writing Kubla Khan.

I once wrote a parody of that meeting, with a stoned on Laudanum STC dealing with a sort of Monty Python little man.

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

I once wrote a parody of that meeting, with a stoned on Laudanum STC dealing with a sort of Monty Python little man.

Please tell me you still have it somewhere so you can share, because I'm sure it is great. I'd love to see it.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

Did it years ago, in pen (before we had the computers) and sadly lost.

Actually not that sadly, it was not that good.

[cactus-wren.livejournal.com]

Bleh. I hate when LJ does that. I learned the hard way after LJ ate a looong deleterius report to always copy my post and then if LJ eats it, I just paste into the box and try again.

Pardon the hyper one who has no idea why she is hyper.

[dragonwhishes.livejournal.com]

Cam-why?-n is taking over our minds!

Could she really be Bush in disguse?

*knows she is going to get killed for this.*

[vampirehobbit.livejournal.com]

"demon-driven, darkly scarcastic Sting looklike Englishman"

I haven't read these books OR seen the movie... but you're getting me very interested! Tell me moooore!

[charliesmum.livejournal.com]

DC Comics Vertigo puts them out - they've been around since at least the mid to late 80's I think. Hellblazer (http://www.insanerantings.com/hell/) Is the name of it. It is very, very dark - the first story arc has him trying to vanquish these ghosts or demons and he accidently kills a little girl. At one point he gets demon blood in him, but I forget why, and later he gets lung cancer and makes a deal with three demons of hell, effectively making it so none of them can have him - so they have to cure him. Neil Gaiman has written issues, and Alan Moore created John Constantine based on Sting's character in Brimstone and Treacle. (somewhere i have a quote from Neil Gaiman confirming that, so I know I'm right)

See also camwyn's totally brilliant Harry Potter Hellblazer crossover - I believe she has it posted on Fiction Alley. (she mentions it on a recent post.)

If you want a REALLY quick overview of John get Neil Gaiman's Graphic Novel called The Books of Magic - it was 4 stories about a boy who has the potential to be the most powerful sourcerer of his age, and John takes him around see all the magic in the world (including Fairie) to give him the chance to chose if he wants magic or a normal life. That's a really good one, and you should be able to find it in big bookstores.