So anyways I just joined the majority of the Western World and saw
300. Good fun, if a bit of a let-down from how sweet the trailers made it appear. Strangely, I haven't read the source material but now I want to for but one reason: to see if that line from early in the film where King Leonidas refers to the Athenians as "boy-lovers" was in the comic. It's pretty common knowledge that homosexuality was actually viewed as
better by the Spartans (as neither partner was tainted by "the frailty of the female sex"). So it came across a bit odd to have this frat boy "Hey them guys in Athena-Gamma-Delta house are all queeeers" remark pop up.
You may recall that good ol'
Fight Club had a similar mix of aggresion, maleness, bonding and shirtlessness. Aside from cries that it was pro-fascist, something
300 has also suffered a bit of, there were also the crieso of "man look all them homooooosexual undertones!". Learning from that, I think that perhaps this line was included with the hopes of pre-empting such comments. I don't think it succeeded but it did muddy the waters by bringing in
accusations of homophobia.
But then, I wouldn't be too surprised if it is in the original work as Frank Miller is not the most likable guy. He can really embody some of the worst of right wing thinking in America and I believe it says a lot about him that he is seriously pushing to do a mini-series where
Batman hunts down Osama Bin Laden. Sure, I have a copy of
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns as well as
Year One and even
a Sin City volume. But it's interesting to have
300 come out because it is,
frankly (oh ho ho) the last work of any quality that he put together before losing his mind and starting to write
strangely mysognistic drivel.
I know we have another Sin City on the way, but what happens after that? Batman and Daredevil have both had claims layed to them that make it nigh-impossible for a direct translation of Miller's work on either character.
Martha Washington is, oddly, too anti-American to have a chance in hell of getting made.
Sin City 2 will scrape that barrel of stories clean and
300 isn't exactly set up for a sequel. So all that leaves, as the man isn't terribly prolific for someone who has been in the comics game for almost thirty years, is
Ronin. Given the success of
300 thus far, it isn't hard for me to say that we'll probably see Ronin come out some time in the next few years - especially as it is another historical piece that they could film entirely in front of a green screen. As a result, I think I'm going to look into picking up a copy of that instead of
300 - especially since it's likely to be used almost verbatim for the storyboards.
Meanwhile, today has been a good day for writing and drawing of my own.
Tom set me an intersting challange wherin I am to try drawing one of my webcomics characters with a 15 minute time limit, then 30 then again with 45 minutes. I'm doing one of Clive as well as one of Devon and I've done the 15 minute drawings for both. The 30 minutes should be done by the time I crash (drinking and talking over the film project on a work night has caught up with me) and it'd be fair to expect pics some time tomorrow.
In the interest of still being able to talk about whatever film work I get involved with, while respecting people's privacy, I think I'm just going to use alias' from now on. Keeping tight lipped about what is the primary reason I came to England in the first place just seems too bloody stupid not to do so. Thus I will refer to the fellow whose script idea (related to Parkour and technology in the community) as MySpace Man - since that is, oddly, how I found out about him.
I was just thinking today that it is a real shame I wasn't doing this blahhhhg thing a few months earlier, since I could have captured the pre-production and shooting of my trailer. Ah well, even though I'm currently developing an idea of MySpace Man's, there is a good chance this could lead to the making of one of my own shorts. I'll tell ya, few things combine such a density of amusing and interesting anecdotes into a short period of time as working on a film. All the more reason to make sure I'm well rested so I can continue work on the script tomorrow!
In six months of living in England, this is the first time I've seen one of these vans despite the millions of cameras present in London. I'm far less bothered by the cameras than most, yet this van really pissed me off. Why? Because when I took a picture of it I immediately imagined a policeman holding me up and asking why I'd done so! It persisted as a genuine worry for a handful of seconds. Not much, but a handful more than I'd say is acceptable. Though I'd tabled the issue a few months back, the script I'm working on for Myspace Man has definitely brougtht it to the forefront of my mind again. Still, right now I'd say I have more of a problem with biomorphic citizenship cards and mandatory car tracking devices than cameras.
Anyways, a couple of night time shots in parting and a warm "Hello!" to todays batch of people who found this site by googling my name to find out what the heck Ryan North was referring to. Come to get the joke, stay for the veal!
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