Comics That Would Make Great Movies/TV Shows

With the spate of super-hero fare lately, I'd love to see a Damage Control TV series. You could name-drop the Marvel heroes without actually having to show them, and the concept itself seems ripe for a quirky show ala Eureka.

2D animated please?

SCUD the Disposable Assassin
Groo the Wanderer

Usagi Yojimbo (as a lush and poetic Kurasawa-inspired stop-motion feature)

And Justin, I just met Don Rosa in June. What a gentleman. Signed my hardcover of Life & Times of SMcD too.

Courtney Crumrin

Ed Brubaker's The Fall(supposedly optioned a few years back)

Gotham Central

Green Lantern done by anyone but WB(or FOX).

100 Bullets on HBO.

Seconding several that have been suggested, Bone in particular (I know I've seen some kind of test animation for it, but it may have been for a video game).

A few off the top of my head:

I hope Fincher gets the money to make The Goon; loved the test reel.

Runaways continues to show potential, though the one I'd love to see would be Whedon's storyline, but you'd need to establish the franchise first.

Alias would be a great vehicle for a good actress, and there's few enough of those (vehicles, not actresses).

Powers is evidently still on the way, and I look forward to that.

Scalped. 'Nuff said.

Planetary could work if you cherry-pick the stuff that would work for a mainstream audience, and dump the overly geeky references. Problem is, it's best suited to being an ongoing, but you really need a feature film series to get the budget to do it right.

For that matter, much of Ellis' recent "off-brand" superhero stuff (Black Summer, No Hero, Supergod, even newuniversal) could be crafted into the kind of super-noir that Watchmen missed (since the upcoming adaptation of Red suggests that Ellis is OK with his stories being monkeyed with a bit to suit Hollywood).

The Twelve might work if it ever gets finished, and if JMS actually sticks the landing; I may be over-valuing its potential as a story because of my love for Weston's art, though.

In addition, both Supreme Power and Rising Stars have the elements to engage a non-comics reading audience (and didn't the delay of the conclusion of Rising Stars have something to do with movie rights?)

Astro City was announced as a feature at SDCC, but that's one that really needs to be an ongoing; no single Astro City story is as strong as the cumulative effect of the series as a whole.

I could see Ghost being a fun fantasy-action pic, particularly since you could re-write the character to actually make sense without really bothering anyone.

Most of the Crossgen stuff succeeded based on art, not writing, but Ruse could be turned into an interesting sort of "Holmes and Watson/ Steed and Mrs Peel/ steampunk" mashup.

The Punisher still awaits proper adaptation; alternatively, you could grab a few of Ennis' stronger storylines and turn them over to someone like John McClane if you didn't want to go with Frank.


A couple of animated suggestions: Mouse Guard (which could be gorgeous onscreen) and Gun Fu (which would be just insanely fun and cheap). And Owly, which would be perfect for younger kids on something like Sprout.

Rising Stars started off so damn good but the ending, gah. One of the worst last few issues of any mini. Besides, these days it would come off as a Heroes rip-off. Ha, wouldn't that be ironic. Something appearing to rip off Heroes, the show that stole every idea and scene imaginable.

Wait. They actually made the "Fables" pilot?!? I thought that was still in the works.

Oh, and I'll second the GCPD call and add "American Vampire" if done on HBO or FX or AMC.

The only thing keeping me from wanting to see a Mouse Guard film is the hope that we'll one day get a big-screen Redwall film.

I would love to see a Demo series. You could have a lot of fun playing with that concept on television.

I have thought Damage Control would make a fun series and a cool way to explore themes in architecture and design, but damn I would only want it if they got some seriously smart writers on it.

I would love to see a really good animated version of the Billy Batson/Shazam comic I read to my son. Some good characters and writing in there for kids that parents could enjoy.

Planetary I think you could repurpose for tv and use it to comment and dissect the medium itself in the way Ellis did with a lot of things.

I would love to see a Heroes for Hire series written and directed by some good crime writers.

I figure it's only a matter of time before someone adapts Blankets.

And it'll probably never happen but I'd love to see a Lynchian Like A Velvet Glove Cast In Iron film.

That would be interesting; IMDB still shows it for 2011, but no cast or anything.

One failed pilot that might have produced a fun series was Global Frequency; unfortunately, apart from Forbes, the acting wasn't very good, and the obviously cheap production values didn't help.

True on both counts, but if you make it an ongoing, you've got years of good stories before you have to worry about fixing the ending.

With Community and Silverman doing so well, I'm surprised that Schrab hasn't worked up the leverage to get something started anywhere with Scud.

He did work Scud into the background of the Sarah Silverman Program 1 or 2 times.

I think the key would be to try and put stuff together with some longevity ie. not just a good idea for the first season. Hopefully the decompression of the walking dead on amc will win out over the hypercompression of watchmen and any preacher adaptation.
Any superhero show will probably have to fit in to one of the established genres:

Sexy teen drama - Smallville / Mutant X (remember that show?)

Teaser forcing compulsive viewing - Heroes / Lost

Bad riff - Push, Jumper

Family drama - No ordinary family, lois and clarke

Comedy - My Hero, mystery men

Post-Modern deconstruction - Hancock, Kick ass

These are just examples that sprang to mind to illustrate the genres.

Personally, i would like to see:

the authority (good luck with that),

Miracleman (no chance),

the Hood (Sopranos-y style super-villain gang),

dr. strange (magical x-files),

Powerman (deeply offensive blaxploitation period piece a la black dynamite).

Oops.

Why a stop-motion Usagi? I've seen so much 2D Asian-based animation. I adore the Cosgrove Hall WIND IN THE WILLOWS series and I think it would awesome to see another anthopomorphic tale like that told in Japan. Plus, you don't tend to see much in the way of stop-motion fights or complex choreography (for obvious reasons), but I think there's a certain simplicity to samurai movement and a stillness to some of Stan Sakai's storytelling that would be perfect for the medium.

Loving the forum thread so far.

Second the morbid anticipation for someone (practically ANYONE) to give Preacher a shot. But, as Chris Spider pointed out, give it the room to breathe and honor the source material or fuck all.

Now what else?

Wasn't Fincher at one time hovering over Charles Burns' haunting Black Hole? Going the live action route with the right sensibility could be a very special thing.

Brubaker's Sleeper was an incredible read. I strongly recommend it to anyone who hasn't encountered it yet.

League of Extraordinary... oh right.

Back to Ennis, why not tackle one of his amazing War Stories? Maybe even a mini-series that covers 2-3 of them.

Speaking of the DC universe DTV titles: Red Son would have a ton of potential.

Really surprised none of you have mentioned Ex Machina yet.

I'm really curious what any of you would think of a big screen adaptation of Straczynski's Midnight Nation.

Lastly, I tend to stick to authors I really enjoy but my favorite blind buy in recent years was The Nightly News (Hickman). Really inventive play on the presentation of the medium. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! It makes you want to have a cigarette afterwards.

Nightly News would be fun if you could find a production that would let you do the asides almost pop up video like for all the info in there.

I would love to see Boom Studios do versions of their Tales series. Especially Ninja Tales since I want to see Albert Einstein fight ninjas on TV.

I'd love to see a Looney Tunes-length MILK & CHEESE animated short.

I would love to see a...1970's set, Power Man And Iron Fist!

Other series I would like to see...Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and...The Micronauts (The Micronauts should be perfect for the...Small Screen)!

This. A thousand times this.

My problem with Ex Machina is that its intelligence and attention to detail never seemed (to me) to be matched by equally compelling storytelling, and I just kind of gave up on it a while back. It's an interesting setting for a series, though.

As for Midnight Nation, my recollection of it is loving Frank's artwork far more than I enjoyed the story.

Not to toot my own, but I'd watch the crap out of the Madman movie I 'pitched' here.

Jason Lee as Frank.
Natalie Portman as Joe.
Directed by Sam Raimi.

BOOM.

If you noticed the homage to the source material through the use of crap above, as opposed to an obscenity, you have my favour.

I don't know what it is about Vaughn but his 10 volume graphic novel runs always suck me in. I wouldn't necessarily call Y the Last Man one of the GREATS, but damned if I wasn't hungry for a sense of what'll happen next. Apparently, the anticipation is all the greater for the readers that followed along issue by issue. Something I have absolutely no patience for. Odd, since I end up having to wait twice as long for the trade paperbacks in the end.

Guess I answered my own question. His storytelling pulls me in and gets me excited for a well thought out sense of closure with the character arc. Sure, having Harris drawing Ex Machina certainly helps.

As for Midnight Nation... on second thought, perhaps a movie of a dude walking across the country isn't the way to go.

Can anyone ever do Grant Morrison justice?

We'll see.

Joe Casey's WildCATs 3.0.

Howard Chaykin's American Century would make a kick-ass HBO series.

I'd love to see an avante garde 2D animated version of MAUS personally - or even a stop motion animation version.

...and I've always thought that DOMU:A Childs Dream would make an epically good big budget supernatural thriller.

There's a really good 4-part interview with Rob Schrab over at The Daily Crosshatch. He talks at length about the various attempts to adapt SCUD, and it sounds like he's kind of content with the way things worked out-- though I'm sure he would enjoy the chance to make an animated, R-rated version of the yellow fellow.

Here's part 1

Also, there's another GLOBAL FREQUENCY pilot in the works, Warren mentioned recently. I liked the first one alright, and I thought the comics were mostly terrific, so I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

I've always been real partial to Sandman Mystery Theatre being adapted into the obligatory HBO series, and have each season be four episodes(4 acts, if you will).

Imagine Nick and Nora from The Thin Man catching Silence of the Lambs type cases, and be thick with the noir atomosphere.

Zevon, I respect your opinion, but I feel that Y:TLM is one of the greats in terms of "comic" series, with an ending that cements that in my eyes. Nevertheless, it could be made into a great television series or even movie if done right, but that is not going to happen unless someone kicks D.J. Caruso's sorry ass off the project (he's currently attached, to my knowledge).

Since I wrote this Chudblog thing there has been interest in both Powers and Fables for TV. Apparently Hollywood reads my seldom updated blog.

They really should give this to Steven Moffat to do this right.

(Moore would still hate it though)

I'd die to see a WE3 live-action film. It's one of the most cinematic graphic novels I've ever read and given the right director it could seriously be something special.

Y:TLM could potentially be great, though it really needs to be done by somebody with vision. The recent draft of the screenplay is pure ass.

I would love to see a David Milch directed and written adaptation of Kingdom Come with Ray Stevenson playing Superman.

...with Kurt Russell as Bruce Wayne and Julianne Moore as Diana.

Russell is a weirdly perfect choice for that role, bit I don't think that Moore is quite "butch" enough to pull off the story's version of Wonder Woman. I think Cynthia Ettinger would be a better fit.

To round out the main characters, I'd go for Keir Dullea as Norman McKay, Liev Schreiber as Captain Marvel, Powers Boothe as Lex Luthor, and Bruce Greenwood as Spectre.

I would love to see a take off of Warren Ellis' Ignition City, since it comes out of his love for Deadwood anyway as well as old serial space stories. Just start it from where the comic ended.

Rain Dog- really good call on Domu.

This. 100 Bullets is so special to me that I would hate to see it done wrong, so its one of those things I'm torn on. Chance it with an adaptation or leave it in its perfect medium?

Joe Hill's Locke & Key would make an excellent series (HBO, AMC). It'd make a terrible movie though. Compressing it would sap its intrigue.

The best part of it is that you can set it in any major city around the world when adapting it to the screen and not lose anything from the story. That apartment block could be in Tokyo, New York, Manchester, Melbourne, Mexico City, Rotterdam, Berlin... well, you get the idea.

I'm stunned Warners hasn't really pursued a Gotham Central project. You have a known property, a ready made procedural format, the opportunity for creative and fresh writing and a few great characters (even if you don't want to do the whole night/day shift thing).

The only concern would be budget, but mostly it would be very real and grounded.

I like Powers a lot, but a TV version would never come close to the eventual scope and outlandishness of the comic.

Some great ideas in this thread. Wake up Hollywood!

Reid Fleming: World's Toughest Milkman, starring Jack Nicholson. What, he's too old? Just use Christian Slater then. ZING

I'd love to see a Groo movie, live action (staring Brendon Fraser natch), animated or stop motion. Actually stop motion would rock the most.

Stormwatch: Change or Die would make a great film, though there is a lot of (mostly badly conceived) backstory that informs the plot.

And Matt Wagner's Grendel. All of them.

I feel, as far as television goes, it'd be too grounded for the nerds and too nerdy for the normals. I could be wrong, and it'd capture both audiences, but I feel that most people would just laugh at it.

The constant talk of Gotham Central as a tv property (here and elsewhere) makes me want to really pick up those books.

I thought this interview with Warren Ellis went with what we have been discussing. Looks like the new Global Frequency pilot is dead. I still want to know what John Rogers' overall arc was going to be for the show. He hinted at something with Miranda Zero.

When threads like this pop up I always say Concrete and Love and Rockets.

P.S. Paul Giamatti IS Reid Fleming.

This is old & obscure but, with it's tone similar to BSG, Strikeforce: Morituri would make a jaw-droppingly good TV series.

Also, Joe Matt's Peep Show. This could easily work as a weekly 1/2 hour show on HBO/Showtime. The same can be said for Seth's Palooka-Ville, Chester Brown's Yummy Fur, or Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve.

I think there's still this whole Batman embargo thing going on, where the character and various characters from the comics can only appear in the films and animated series.

There's quite a few 2000AD properties that good movie good mid range SF/Action/Horror flicks...Fiends of the Eastern Front, Glimmer Rats, Nemesis the Warlock, Slaine,

And my kinky side is stilling awaiting the big budget The Blonde adaption.