Good Omens - the movie?!
I love Terry Gilliam. He's a funny, funny man. I'm also more than passing fond of Johnny Depp and Robin Williams - they're both also very funny. Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett - again with the funny and the fondness.
Combine all that and turn Good Omens from book to movie with Depp playing Crowley and Williams playing Azriphale? I vote against it.
There are some books that should never be movies. Neverwhere was one of them. Brilliant, funny, creepy book - 6 hour BBC miniseries was flat and boring. Gormenghast had the same problem. Granted, they're talking making a Hollywood movie out of Good Omens, so it wouldn't be 6 hours. I always cringe to see "an adaption of.." in reference to the books, especially when it's done to make a longer book fit in a time limit. It means they're going to chunk things up and change them, and unless the director is really, superiorly clever, it causes much angst and anger amongst book purists.
Christ in chex mix, Lord of the Rings, which may have been one of the best long-story adaptions ever, damn near caused riots when changed various parts of the story. (For the record, I think they could've chopped out at least 30 minutes of 'and they're walking.. look, still walking.. yes, they're still walking..' scenes, but on the other hand, that was when I lit out for a potty break, so at least they served some purpose.) Good Omens is another book with a rabid fanbase, I shudder to think what will happen if they adapt it too much, or if Robin Williams couldn't reign in his outrageousness as Azriphale.
What happened to Hollywood producing original movies? To answer my own question, I think they got scared. Good Omens is failing because it can't raise a $15 million dollar budget. In the grand scheme of movie making, that isn't a very large budget, but it's still more money than any investors would like to lose. There seems to have been a run on original plot movies flopping, so in recent years all Hollywood has been churning out have been "adaptions" of comics, books, and other movies. If a movie does well, suddenly there are 2 more major motion pictures along the same plotlines in theaters within a month. Or a sequel, threequel, or prequel. It's ridiculous.
This is why I like independent movies. Indy movies usually can't afford the rights to some piece of published writing, and usually have to rely on an original screenplay. While not every indy movie is a Cannes runner, at least most of them aren't out butchering my bookshelf for plot ideas.
I hope the investors don't make the $15m. Most of the humor in Good Omens wouldn't translate at all well to film. Not without making it pratfall, dumbed down humour or excessively overusing voice-overs.
Blah. What a way to start a morning.
-Peregrine
Combine all that and turn Good Omens from book to movie with Depp playing Crowley and Williams playing Azriphale? I vote against it.
There are some books that should never be movies. Neverwhere was one of them. Brilliant, funny, creepy book - 6 hour BBC miniseries was flat and boring. Gormenghast had the same problem. Granted, they're talking making a Hollywood movie out of Good Omens, so it wouldn't be 6 hours. I always cringe to see "an adaption of.." in reference to the books, especially when it's done to make a longer book fit in a time limit. It means they're going to chunk things up and change them, and unless the director is really, superiorly clever, it causes much angst and anger amongst book purists.
Christ in chex mix, Lord of the Rings, which may have been one of the best long-story adaptions ever, damn near caused riots when changed various parts of the story. (For the record, I think they could've chopped out at least 30 minutes of 'and they're walking.. look, still walking.. yes, they're still walking..' scenes, but on the other hand, that was when I lit out for a potty break, so at least they served some purpose.) Good Omens is another book with a rabid fanbase, I shudder to think what will happen if they adapt it too much, or if Robin Williams couldn't reign in his outrageousness as Azriphale.
What happened to Hollywood producing original movies? To answer my own question, I think they got scared. Good Omens is failing because it can't raise a $15 million dollar budget. In the grand scheme of movie making, that isn't a very large budget, but it's still more money than any investors would like to lose. There seems to have been a run on original plot movies flopping, so in recent years all Hollywood has been churning out have been "adaptions" of comics, books, and other movies. If a movie does well, suddenly there are 2 more major motion pictures along the same plotlines in theaters within a month. Or a sequel, threequel, or prequel. It's ridiculous.
This is why I like independent movies. Indy movies usually can't afford the rights to some piece of published writing, and usually have to rely on an original screenplay. While not every indy movie is a Cannes runner, at least most of them aren't out butchering my bookshelf for plot ideas.
I hope the investors don't make the $15m. Most of the humor in Good Omens wouldn't translate at all well to film. Not without making it pratfall, dumbed down humour or excessively overusing voice-overs.
Blah. What a way to start a morning.
-Peregrine
posted by Peregrine at 8:01 PM
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