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David Fincher Directing Miller/Darrow's HARD BOILED'! Break Out The Party Hats!!
Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This is enough to keep me smiling all day long. Doesn't matter what else I hear or what else happens. This is great news. Stupendous news. David Fincher may be directing an adaptation of Frank Miller and Geoff Darrow's amazing HARD BOILED, one of the most visually exciting graphic novels I've ever seen, and Nicholas Cage may be playing the lead, finally satisfying his long-standing hard-on to be a comic book character come to life. If this comes to pass, I will personally kiss everyone responsible on the lips, whether they like it or not.
Here's the link to VARIETY's story about the deal. It mentions that Fincher is going to direct SEARED as his next film after PANIC ROOM, and he's still supervising work on RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA, so his filmography over the next couple of years could be very interesting.
I gotta give Lorenzo Di Bonaventura props on putting this together, too. We may have criticized him on this page in the past, but he seems determined to bring some of the best talent from the comics world over to the big screen. IN particular, Frank Miller seems to be the beneficiary of much of Lorenzo's attention these days between BATMAN YEAR ONE and this.
"Moriarty" out.
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Finally!!! I've been waiting for this ever since i read Hard Boiled. Just hope the movie(if it happens) will be just as visual as the comic. Oh man, this is sweet as hell. And goddamnit, that harry.gif is scary today
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David Fincher is amazing. Se7en is one of if not my favorite movie/s. Frank Miller is one of the greatest comic writers of all time. When you put the two together we should be in for something really great. Though what does this mean for his Chuck Palahniuk project. I think he was working on lullaby.
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If it is, this could be unbelievable. They'd need to pad out the story though, but from a visual standpoint Fincher's the man.
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Fincher's the man ... he deserved an Oscar for "Fight Club", but well, I think this flick had to much truth in it ... and some people can't deal with the truth (yeah I'm talking bout AMPAS). And Cage? No, I don't like him anymore ... he's mutated in such a family guy (Corelli? Uh. Family Man? Come on.) tt out (tt's not a family guy ... he's ruff)
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Seriously, does this guy attach himself to every comic book property? Actually I kind of see him in this role, and lord know's it'll be nice to see Cage do something decent. I'm still looking forward to Ghost Rider's Mandolin though.....
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I semi-agree with the Talk Backer above me. Fincher does deserve something for Fight Club, but its not an Oscar, more like a thumb tack enema. He does make the best looking movies I don't like, so seeing him reproduce Darrow's incredible art would be a blast.
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This is great, GREAT news!! Fincher would be absolutely perfect for this film.... but Nic Cage? That makes me wonder when this film will fall apart and NOT get made, since the man's track record sucks with comic book movies.
Personally, I see someone more like Ed Harris, or even Harvey Keitel... someone a bit more 'craggy' looking in the face.
So, I have to ask, since I can't remember right now... is he directing "Rama" or just 'supervising'?
Anyway, this man is more and more becoming my favorite director. Now, with his doing my favorite novel of all time AND one of my favorite comics of all time, it's getting too perfect. All he has to do next is adapt Paul Chadwick's "Concrete" and I could die a happy man. -
Has anyone ever read this comic? If you had, then you know it's one of the most graphically intense drawn books ever made, clearly Geoff Darrow's defining work. The art for this comic made it something worth getting when it came out. Does anyone truly believe that this will ever get truly realised in a film? The off the wall action and pervertedness of the scenes made you go back and scan every inch of the huge double page spreads, if this movie is ever made it will be shrunk down to focus on the main story and character in a generic Blade Runner type world where in reality the story was not that hot to begin with, the art is what saved the book.
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Hard Boiled is light on story, heavy on mindblowing visuals-- a perfect fit for Fincher. And Nick Cage is actually just right for Nixon/Seltz/Burns. Someone pinch me.
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That is one of my fears; that it won't live up to darrows artwork. And the comic would only make up for just one hour of movie. But if they have the sheer guts to make this as graphic as the book and keep the great synical humour that it has (and hopefully portray Nic Cage as cool as Nixon/Seltz/blablabla) then this is gonna definitely gonna be in my top ten list of best movies ever!!
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I think Skinnyboy's right. Ed Harris would be perfect. After him, I'd go with Bruce Willis but only as a last resort. Cage is just wrong for the whole look and feel of this story. Fan-freakin-tastic news though. Regardless, I hope it does get made, and I'd love to see Fincher at the helm. Many have described him as the next this or the next that. I like to think he's the first. (of the new-breed of directors and their clones. Now ATTACK CLONES! ATTACK!!!!!)
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This news seriously made my day. I have such a big smile on my face now if only they could turn "Good Omens" into a movie and we will have the best Comic Movies since "Ghost World". Fuck "X-Men 2" this is where it's at.
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Aug 24, 2001 7:02:23 AM CDT
Harry why did you have to bring back the "American Beauty" head?
by foreskin_jones
WHY??? STOP THE MAAAAAAAAAADNESSS.
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...rocks the house! Bring it on along with The Panic Room! **** "I don't want my eggs scrambled, I want them... 'Hard Boiled!'" --TLG
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A good comic does not a good film, make. Which is why 'the Watchmen' won't ever get made. Was there a story in Hard-Boiled? I only remember people driving mutant 50's automobiles with mounted browning machine-guns through over-crowded shopping centres. This would be entertaining for five minutes - but U can't make a film out of it! Really - what would be the point of Hard-Boiled the Movie. I can't see it.
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i liked the idea of Ed Harris, but i also like Fred Ward or Robert Forster in the lead, too. Even De Niro would be a great choice. but at this point i'd rather see an adaptation of Miller's Ronin, which Fincher would also be a perfect fit.
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Yeah right. This is one of those pipe dreams that never happens. Plus Fincher attaches to everything. He's been the man since he made all those cool videos when I was 14 (if it was an amazing vid circa '89-91, he did it) but the guy jumps around a lot. Still here's hoping against hoping!
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i love any comics Frank Miller does, anything. although i'm not too big on his art in older books, he is my favorite writer, hands down... Geof Darrow, while not my favorite artist(they would be Erik Larson, "Sin City" Miller, and Simon Bisley), I don't think i've ever seen another artist with his amazing eye for detail. "Hard Boiled" takes ten minutes to read, but you can stare at the gorgeous art for hours... David Fincher is one of my favorite directors working today(two of his films are in my top twenty, "Seven" and "Fight Club"), and he has a great eye for good dark material... Nic Cage is a fine actor (see "Moonstruck", "Leaving Las Vegas"), even if many of his post oscar roles have been nothing to write home about. I could see him working out alright. (the poster above who mentioned Harvey Kietel, good call)...... I want to smile, I really do, for this could be awesome. BUT... "Hard Boiled" is NC-17 to the max(even Spielburg couldn't get away with an R for this one), and that's one of the things that is great about it. It's SO over-the-top that I doubt even Verhoeven could do it justice. Another thing that is great about it is how cluttered Los Angeles is in it. This would require such a large budget, that i just don't see it happening. Unless they contact the "Final Fantasy" animators and get about 5 million digital extras and cars. And if it isn't as over-the-top and cluttered as the comic, then what's the point? The story, while sort of interesting, isn't really too special. The dialogue is among Miller's worse in my opinion. (much of it was changed last minute when Darrow expanded things, or so I've heard). Really, the only reason to do this is the amazing art. Without a huge budget, and a NC-17 it will just miss the point. Not to mention it won't make money with the masses.(it sucks too, i'd watch it twenty times if it retained the mad-house ultraviolence of the book) this is the longest post i've ever written I think, I think I'll sleep now. -Batty out....... P.S.- please never adapt "Sin City" to a film, it wont work. unless it's animated. and in the exact style of the comic(much like how "The Maxx" on MTV was almost frame-for frame the same as the comic) with damn good voices. Some things just work better in comics, some work better in film, and some just don't work anywhere.
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Damn this sucks!
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Aug 24, 2001 3:25:18 PM CDT
Bulls**t! No-one in Hollywood is smart enough to think to put th
by cash bailey
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Aug 24, 2001 5:24:03 PM CDT
Why the fuck does Fincher wanna waste his time on `Seared`?
by pumpkinsboy
For Gods sake, the whole movie is about waiter style food terrorism, which Fincher has already aptly displayed in Fight Clubs pissing in the soup scene, why do a whole fuckin movie that would, from what I can tell, merely replicate that scene? Rendevous will be oh so beautiful in finchers hands, panic room will rock and this project looks fine too, but what I'd really love is to see Fincher get his teeth into an historical piece, maybe ww1-2 or Civil war/war of independence stuff, just my own personal hankering of course, and oh, if Fincher did `I Am Legend`, we would see the greatest vampire movie of our times. Basically, the guy could do anything he wants! Just stay away from `seared`, yawn yawn yawn yawn yawn....
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...Is that he's owned the rights for the last couple of years ( I heard this from someone who works in a EXTREMLY popular comic store in LA were the likes of Cage and others frequent). Anyway, with Fincehr invovled, chances are pretty good that the flick will seriously rule!
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won't direct this. His name is attached to too many properties. Whenever he actually shoots a movie, ten rumors go up about what he's doing next. The sad thing is that most of the projects he's interested in sound very cool, and when they don't reach fruition it's kind of a letdown. I don't know, but Panic Room sounds like a step down from Fight Club to me. He should have done Rendezvous with Rama with Morgan Freeman instead. As for Hard Boiled, I think that Nicolas Cage should be in no more movies until he gets his shit together the way it was before he won his Oscar. Since he's had his pick of the roles, it seems that he sold out quite hard to the Bruckheimer troop. I also don't know if the look of the Hard Boiled comic can transfer well on-screen. When Geoff Darrow designed some of the Matrix sets, it came off pretty well but, even though not a huge comics fan, I think that Darrow's art is really meant to be enjoyed and savored and looked at, which really collides with Fincher's style of quick-cut filmmaking. If that's the case, the design of the film won't be on par with that of the comic, because it will cost too much to have some colossal, intricately detailed set to only be featured for a few moments. I have the Big Damn Hard Boiled book, which is a blown up version of the mini-series without color or lettering - just Darrow's pencils and inks, and man, it is just fabulous. I wish that his style and method was conducive to a more prolific list of credits, but he puts so much into his illustrations that one can just get lost in there. Don't mean to be sucking Darrow's dick here, but I think that there are many other properties out there worthy of David Fincher's attention, and comic-book adaptations, even from Frank Miller work, should for the most part be left alone, as they're nothing but cash-cow, hopeful franchises anyway. It's strange that there are no good original stories out there anymore, and a lot of films have to come from source material. Nobody in the industry has a lick of confidence when it comes to the writing aspect of filmmaking. Or, there's just no more originality out there. Either way, Fincher should just combine the best of both and employ Geoff Darrow to design the Rendezvous with Rama production.
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Ed Harris, Bruce Willis, et al. might look more like the character than Cage, but Cage could better play the part. Nixon isn't really a conventional tough guy. On one level he's Hard Boiled and whups a lot of ass, but on another he's just a naive goofus with an "Aw Shucks" attitude. It's a dichotomy Cage could capture perfectly. He's got a perpetually dumbfounded look to him that's ideal for the character.
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Hard Boiled is not a graphic novel...I have the original THREE comics (each as big as Rolling Stone Mag, but still technically comics) that comprise the full story, so therefore, if you have read all three issues under one cover, you have read a TPB. A nitpick to be sure, but this is a case where a graphic novel can be considered a comic-book (albiet one large comic story), but a comic-book cannot be considered a graphic novel. The movie is technically like the X-Men movie, a comic-book movie. However, I can see where calling something an adaptation of a graphic novel may make it sound less likely to attract the oft-maligned and stereotyped "comic fanboy/geek" when someone is trying to pitch a comic-book story as violent, dark, and adult as Hard Boiled. After all, the person pitching the idea wants to be heard and taken seriously, after all, how will anyone listen to/take him/her seriously if they start off by saying..."I have this great idea for a movie, and it started out as a comic-book... (I am being facetious folks, as if you could not tell)" Although, the end result is that making it sound like it had sophisticated or true bookstore roots got the job done...the start of what will hopefully be a great hard R film. Or if we are really lucky, an nc-17 film, truly keeping out all those annoying teens who sneak into R films, I can see a theatre enforcing the rating that is as close to an x as you can get, moreso than an R rating for a film that they secretly wants lots of teens to buy tickets, popcorn, and soda for, such as AP2...geared towards teens, pushed to market for adults only...go figure.
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Are they going to make that frickin movie or what?
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wait 30~40 years and get Haley Osmond to play the lead role.
maybe by then the visuals will be easier and the world will be ready for the subject matter.
plus by then it will have that ultra-cool retro feel to it.
go get the book and enjoy it the way it was created.
person295
all oppinions mentioned above are utterly useless. -
http://scifimedia.ign.com/media/comics/captainamerica31l.jpg is the funniest, ever...
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Aug 25, 2001 5:40:09 PM CDT
The art was the only redeeming quality about "Hard Boiled"
by ragged robin
It sure wasn't Miller's sucky script. Has Miller written anything decent in the past 10 years? Tell you what, after watching him produce material that gets more and more cliched as the years go by, is ANYone looking forward to his Dark Knight 2 thing? Have you seen the art for this atrocity? Miller's turning into another Byrne, I swear.
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Really, I'm surprised...no-one has at all mentioned somebody who ( to me ) could possibly pull this off not only visually but with the perverse sensibility that the material demands - Paul Verhoeven. Yeeessss, I know what a lot of you may be thinking, "Hollow Man" whilst visually arresting was disappointingly turgid and formulaic when all is said and done and "Showgirls",well I can't really say anything to justify that,however, Verhoeven with "Robocop", "Total Recall" and "Starship Troopers" has clearly proven he has what it takes to produce spectacularly violent and impeccably visualised cinematic cartoons that drip with sardonic black humor.
I'sn't that really what we're talking about here? A combination of Miller (screenwriter), Darrow (production designer) and Verhoeven (director/rabid euro-baboon humping the leg of American culture) could engineer an orgiastic geyser the likes of which would make Ol' Faithful look like bathwater spit!! Seriously though, "Robocop" was a ferociously funny and intelligent satire that totally blew me away when I first saw it as a wee lad. As a fan of the brilliantly deadpan Brit sci-fi comic "Judge Dredd" I had no enthusiasm for the absurd Stallone star-vehicle it was turned into in '93. Why would I be interested when Verhoven had already captured the spirit of the comic in "Robocop"? Furthermore, why is it that practically nobody got "Starship Troopers"? All I've ever heard is people ripping on the film describing it in the most disparaging terms as either pointless, stupid or woefully written and acted. Huh? "Starship Troopers" was, is and remains an absolute tour-de-force - a hysterically funny vision of a dystopian society populated by Ken and Barbie doll Nazi clones, infused with tongue-in- cheek pop culture parody, spectacular and bloody action setpieces and thrillingly realised cgi. Personally I think a film like ST has more of a message about the nature of conflict than all the faux sentimentality and carefully orchestrated pathos inherent in films of the ilk of "Saving Private Ryan". War is hell.....especially if your'e a drycleaned fascist puppet shot out into the cold depths of space to face an enemy against which dogma is no defence - giant ravening insectoids who literally want to rip you to pieces. Fun stuff! I'ts a straightup WW2 propaganda pic transposed to the future, and it's a damn memorable one, at least to anybody who can bother to see it for what it is. Anyway, if I'm making any point at all it's that Paul Verhoeven, of all the directors who might be considered for helming such a tricky project as HB, is probably the most qualified. he's done it before and he can do it again. As for Nic Cage's likely casting I don't have any opinion on that one way or the other. toodloo. -
I don't think a Hard Boiled movie sounds like a very good idea. As mentioned in quite a few talkbacks the writing in Hard Boiled is hardly the main attraction. As a matter of fact, it's not even a particularily interesting or original story. What made this comic famous was the hyper-detailed artwork by Geof Darrow. I don't believe you could accurately translate this into a live action movie, unless the whole movie was computer generated. I don't think Fincher would be a good choice at any rate. Why not a nice adult oriented animated movie? But, honestly I don't think we need a Hard Boiled movie of any kind. The comic is quite sufficient.
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Why is Nick Cage the name that always seems to be assoicated with comic book movies? First there was Superman (eek!!!!!!!!), then Ghost Rider, now Hard Boiled. What's next, Batman? (oops...that's George Clooney...again.) Nick Cage as Wonder Woman anyone? He doesn't even seem to fit into any of these roles as far as I can tell.
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what the fuck is Hard Boiled???
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