I'm Reading Your Stuff: General News and Discussion Thread

[Mysteryman]

I love Reeves, but sorry, how can you take so many years to write a script for a COMIC movie? I mean, it's a movie based on comic books. There are so many stories Reeves can take.

There are 4 years between TDK and TDKR and in between Nolan wrote a complex film like Inception

And why would a COMIC movie be easier to write than anything else? Especially, if you wanted to make the BEST film you could?

 

[antsman41]

Calm down and let Matt cook, damn.

 

[Erik Lensherr]

And why would a COMIC movie be easier to write than anything else? Especially, if you wanted to make the BEST film you could?

Cos there are already a lot of good stories from comic books out there and you can take movie scripts from other movies and adapt them into a comic book version. Just like Reeves did with Fincher's Seven or Joker with Taxi Driver.

CBMs are easier to write. Don't deny it

 

[antsman41]

 

[Filmfan93]

We are nearly 3 years away from now to the release of Batman Part 2.

Between the release of Batman and Batman Part 2, we will have had:

- 2 Nolan films released (Oppenheimer & The Oddysey) and he'll be likely mid-production on his next film.

- Marvel Phases 4, 5 and almost the entirety of Phase 6, including 2 new Avengers films released (Doomsday & Secret Wars). Heck, when this film releases in cinemas, Secret Wars will have just hit home media on Blu-Ray/4K. Let that sink in.

- 2 new Avatar films.

If you call this "normal" and justify this time for a comic book movie script to be written for a single film...

 

[donuts]

Cos there are already a lot of good stories from comic books out there and you can take movie scripts from other movies and adapt them into a comic book version. Just like Reeves did with Fincher's Seven or Joker with Taxi Driver.

CBMs are easier to write. Don't deny it

That's not how screenwriting works.

Anyway, it's funny that people mention Avatar. The sequel took quite a while to get made.

 

[WayneMB]

Cos there are already a lot of good stories from comic books out there and you can take movie scripts from other movies and adapt them into a comic book version. Just like Reeves did with Fincher's Seven or Joker with Taxi Driver.

CBMs are easier to write. Don't deny it

this might be the dumbest thing i've ever read. that's not how screenwriting works

also, the Fincher sh*t is still so funny to me, Matt has not mentioned that film even once. people are struggling to realise they are watching a genre movie that just might have pulled from similar influences as Fincher lol.

 

[Gothamsknight]

I hope all is well in Reeves personal life. We truly have no idea why the film is taking so long, even with the knowledge of Reeves being a slow writer. The delay sucks, but it is what it is at this point. I loved the first film, and thought The Penguin was spectcular. Having said that, I do have to agree with others when they say the first film didn't light the world on fire enough to warrant this long of a wait, and again, I say that as someone who is a fan of The Batman. It just makes me feel so lucky that we managed to get Nolans entire Batman trilogy out in 7 years, and thats with blockbusters in between both BB & TDK as well as between TDK & TDKR. It's insane to think about, and it also feels like a different world at this point. Times do indeed change, and it feels like such a bygone era at this point that it's hard to believe it ever existed.

The good news is at least next summer we will not only have the new Superman film from James Gunn, but also set pics from The Batman Part II, which we all will be excited to see. Which brings me to my other point, people need to stop picking on James Gunn. He's been nothing but supportive of Reeves vision.

 

[BatsAndNights]

Cos there are already a lot of good stories from comic books out there and you can take movie scripts from other movies and adapt them into a comic book version. Just like Reeves did with Fincher's Seven or Joker with Taxi Driver.

CBMs are easier to write. Don't deny it

"Comic book movies are easier to write because you can just take stuff from comic books" is actually wild

 

[Comicbookguy339]

"Comic book movies are easier to write because you can just take stuff from comic books" is actually wild

I agree with you in the sense that if making these movies was so easy then we wouldn't have gotten so many bad cbms over the years. However, there are a plethora of stories to draw inspiration and lift elements from. Disney and Warner are mostly still in the business of publishing comics because they act as R&D for movies and games.

 

[emc5466]

Jeff Sneider says the reason for the delay is problems in Matt Reeves’ personal life that Sneider refuses to divulge. Multiple scoopers online have hinted at this.

 

[BatsAndNights]

I agree with you in the sense that if making these movies was so easy then we wouldn't have gotten so many bad cbms over the years. However, there are a plethora of stories to draw inspiration and lift elements from. Disney and Warner are mostly still in the business of publishing comics because they act as R&D for movies and games.

And how many of those movies, series', entertainment products that are 100% treated like R&D on a conveyor belt are actually good?

I won't say the number is 0, I'm sure you can list some. But the amount that are bad far outweighs the amount that are good

My main point honestly is that trying to say comic book movies being easier to write because of a source material or source of inspiration is genuinely silly. 99.9% of entertainment is inspired by something. That doesn't exactly mean it's easy to turn it into something of actual quality

 

[J.Drangal]

Jeff Sneider says the reason for the delay is problems in Matt Reeves’ personal life that he’s not going to get into. Multiple scoopers online have hinted at this.

I always refused to post about this kind of speculation but if it's now in the discussion here and there, I'll say that this is what I suspected for quite some times...

I'm never the last to make sarcastic comment about Reeves' slowness but with that whole new year of delay (kind of) contradicting the little updates we got just days ago... I can only imagine personal matters coming into play.
I won't make theories on it though.

 

[TheSmoothKnight]

 

[Comicbookguy339]

And how many of those movies, series', entertainment products that are 100% treated like R&D on a conveyor belt are actually good?

I won't say the number is 0, I'm sure you can list some. But the amount that are bad far outweighs the amount that are good

My main point honestly is that trying to say comic book movies being easier to write because of a source material or source of inspiration is genuinely silly. 99.9% of entertainment is inspired by something. That doesn't exactly mean it's easy to turn it into something of actual quality

I think you misunderstood what I meant. WB and Disney still publish comics because comics serve as idea machines for other more profitable media. In that sense it is easier to put together cbms than making something up from scratch.

 

[BatsAndNights]

I think you misunderstood what I meant. WB and Disney still publish comics because comics serve as idea machines for other more profitable media. In that sense it is easier to put together cbms than making something up from scratch.

I feel like it's more apples and oranges than a strict one being harder than the other, honestly.

A completely new idea has zero expectations from the audience. As long as you get the audience's attention and make them care, the details so precious to fans of a source material don't matter because there is no source material. While requiring a lot more effort to make everything, there's no restrictions really on what you make beyond what you think is gonna result in something good. Meanwhile for an adaptation it's the opposite. There's less creative juices used on outright creation but far more in how you create the adaptation to try and do the source material justice. Less to create, but a lot more restrictive in how exactly you adapt the source material (you also need to figure out usually how to literally make the source material work in a completely different form of media). I don't think it's so simple that a completely new thing is easier to write than an adaptation. Your creative output just gets used differently.

 

[Comicbookguy339]

I feel like it's more apples and oranges than a strict one being harder than the other, honestly.

A completely new idea has zero expectations from the audience. As long as you get the audience's attention and make them care, the details so precious to fans of a source material don't matter because there is no source material. Meanwhile for an adaptation it's the opposite. There's less creative juices used on outright creation but far more in how you create the adaptation to try and do the source material justice. I don't think it's so simple that a completely new thing is easier to write than an adaptation. Your creative output just gets used differently.

Fair. But I feel that a filmmaker has quite a bit of leeway when adapting a comic. Fans expect the creatives to stay true to the established characterization and aesthetics but it's not like adapting a popular novel where you absolutely need to hit most of the story beats of the original for viewers to not crucify you.

 

[BatLobster]

One thing I will say is that Reeves is an extremely privileged position as a writer/director to be given this much time when handling the company's most valuable IP. In the vast majority of real creative jobs, at least in my experience...the number 1 thing that gets you hired/fired is your speed. Much of the time, companies will see that as more important than the quality of your work. And not all employers are sympathetic to what's going on in your personal life.

For all the people thinking there's some wedge between Gunn and Reeves, I actually think it's the opposite and you have a filmmaker executive in Gunn who is watching Reeves' back and making sure he is given the needed time/space.

 

[BatsAndNights]

Fair. But I feel that a filmmaker has quite a bit of leeway when adapting a comic. Fans expect the creatives to stay true to the established characterization and aesthetics but it's not like adapting a popular novel where you absolutely need to hit most of the story beats of the original for viewers to not crucify you.

Normally there is a decent amount of leeway, but it's still night and day in comparison to the leeway you're gonna get with an idea that's completely your own. You still have to try and funnel those creative juices into ensuring you get enough of the source material that it's gonna be enjoyable for the fans if you want it to be a good adaptation. Meanwhile, if it's a completely fresh thing, your literal only limits are what you think is gonna result in something good. But a completely new idea is also inherently riskier because it's not a proven product. As I said, apples and oranges.

 

[BatsAndNights]

One thing I will say is that Reeves is an extremely privileged position as a writer/director to be given this much time when handling the company's most valuable IP. In the vast majority of real creative jobs, at least in my experience...the number 1 thing that gets you hired/fired is your speed. Most companies see thay as more important than the quality of your work. And not all employers are sympathetic to what's going on in your personal life.

For all the people thinking there's some wedge between Gunn and Reeves, I actually think it's the opposite and you have a filmmaker executive in Gunn who is watching Reeves' back and making sure he has enough time.

Yeah, as I said, it very much reads like something private is going on in Reeves' life and Gunn's being a really, really, good boss about it. He's being that boss who goes "take literally as much time as you need" when you tell them a family member's passed away. It's nice to see, honestly.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Don’t trust anything Sneider says. He may be right, but he also could be full of **** (which he is at least half the time). I remember him saying it was an “open secret” that the Candyman reboot was a total mess and that turned out to be a lie.

 

[Venom 1988]

Don’t trust anything Sneider says. He may be right, but he also could be full of **** (which he is at least half the time). I remember him saying it was an “open secret” that the Candyman reboot was a total mess and that turned out to be a lie.

Sure but in this case he's not the only scooper reporting this either.

 

[AndrewGilkison]

The medium of comics is such that you have to write a story every month, so writers and artists have a deadline and have to pump out an issue on the regular. Joe Quasada talked about that on a Kevin Smith podcast a decade ago, how its the "the great syphilis boulder" because keeping that kind of consistency is not easy.

Now CBMs are much more complex in that there is more at stake, like any blockbuster. But it seems the stuff with Reeves is a mix of things (personal issues, a weird writing style he has that results in a slow output, other projects on his plate as a producer, etc).

 

[emc5466]

Don’t trust anything Sneider says. He may be right, but he also could be full of **** (which he is at least half the time). I remember him saying it was an “open secret” that the Candyman reboot was a total mess and that turned out to be a lie.

The Candyman reboot was a mess that was saved with reshoots. The first cut of the film had a completely different villain for instance.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Sure but in this case he's not the only scooper reporting this either.

The thing about Reeves’ personal life or Superman being “a mess behind the scenes”?