"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Smith On Not Making Superman

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a big Kevin Smith fan, from the time that I first saw his self-financed, indie flick Clerks at my college's Memorial Student Center film series to laughing my ass off at the so incredibly over the top, inside joke laden Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. He's the original independent director that made it big in Hollywood and yet still never lost his call a spade a spade, everyman qualities.

Now many of you may not remember, or have probably never even heard, that he was attached to a Superman vehicle a while back. In this video he talks about the long and arduous journey he took through Hollywood executive groupthink hell to finally not remake Superman in the late-nineties. If you watch this make sure you watch it all the way to the end, you won't be disappointed. And if this is all true (I have no reason to believe that it isn't) I'm really glad that I do not work in that town:

I find it deeply disturbing that the people who are chiefly in charge of bringing some of the greatest comic book characters who have ever existed to life on the big screen are so woefully ignorant of even the most basic details and qualities of said characters. "Wait, who's Kal-El?" Jesus...

(via)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So that's why there's a giant fuckin' spider in the wild, wild west.

JBW said...

That part just killed me, DLB. Interesting how these types of decisions for movies happen, huh?

Tim said...

It's all true. I've either worked in, or with, Hollywood since 1987. While I understand some of the crap that goes on, other parts mystify me utterly. The first thing I was told when I got a job at one of the major studios was "do not think logically. It will destroy you."

JBW said...

I figured you were located in So Cal from comments you've made at Don's site in the past, Tim. If you have any cool "insider" stories like Kevin Smith's I'd love to hear them.