WAITING FOR WATCHMEN
The Watchmen website is up. I’d have a hard time thinking of movies that have been “in development” longer than this one. Are there any fans of the Watchmen comics here? What will the filmmakers have to achieve to make this a successful, satisfying adaptation?
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NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS PLANT A NEW ONE
Thanks to Josh Hurst for¬†alerting me to the good news (posted at Paste) about¬†an upcoming project from the band¬†responsible for¬†one of the¬†great rock¬†double-albums of all-time: Abattoir Blues / The¬†Lyre of Orpheus.¬†It’s called Dig, Lazarus, Dig!
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OPUS: SOUL JUNK + WOVEN HAND = ?
Jason Morehead is excited, whether the Soul Junk / Woven Hand collaboration is spectacular or disastrous. I’m excited too.
CORRECTION: In the comments on Morehead’s site, it’s now apparent that this isn’t a collaboration at all, but two separate projects on the same lable. Oh, well… that’s still good news.
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CHRISTIANITY AND “EXCLUSIVITY”: THE COMMENTS
Earlier I linked to Brett McCracken’s post on the exclusivity of Christianity. Looks like it stirred up some readers. The comments are getting lively.
What do you think? Christ sometimes appeared to people in ways they did not recognize, and ministered to them. He tells us that many who come to the Lord in Jesus name are sent away because they never knew him. And he warns those who grow smug in their belief that they can tell the difference between the saved in the unsaved that… guess what… he has “sheep in other pastures.” C.S. Lewis had such a deep respect for God’s authority in deciding who is, or isn’t, kingdom-bound that he planted a scene of tantalyzing mystery in The Chronicles of Narnia. At the gates of his kingdom, Aslan welcomes a boy from another faith. The boy is¬†terrified, believing that he¬†is condemned for following a false¬†god. But¬†Aslan assures¬†him that, because of the nature of his humble service, ¬†he was following the way of Aslan, even though he believed he was serving a god called Tash.
Yes, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. But do I understand that completely? Am I ready to say that you must have had a conversion moment, where you “asked Jesus into your heart” to be saved? Am I ready to claim that I am like God, and that I can make a definitive claim about who falls on one side of the “salvation line” and who stands on the other?
Thank God… I can leave that to the Almighty.
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STAR TREK GOES GREEN(WOOD)
Bruce Greenwood improves any movie that includes him. Looks like he’ll be inproving J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek film. Thanks to vigilant Trekkie Peter T. Chattaway for the alert.
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AURALIA’S ADS
Isn’t it cool to see Auralia’s Colors ads up at Hollywood Jesus? I think so. Of course, I’m a little biased…
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AND FINALLY, A YOUTUBE BLAST FROM THE PAST:
November 8th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Regarding “Watchmen,” I’m excited but also very nervous. I really hope that they somehow manage to capture the complex, overlaying plot in some semblance. And that they do justice to the themes of power and responsibility, of man’s inclination and desire to do gross evil in order to bring about something noble.
Regarding the Soul-Junk/Woven Hand collaboration, it’s not actually a collaboration. The two artists were working on their own, new albums. Which, on the one hand is kind of disappointing. But hey, new Soul-Junk and Woven Hand albums! And that ain’t nothing.
November 8th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Again regarding “Watchmen,” they need to not try to “update” the story or try to work modern politics into it. “Watchmen” was written and published as a commentary on 1980′s politics, among other things, and it should stay that way.
Also, like other great comic book stories, it’s about the characters, not about the super powers or the spectacle. As opus indicated, it’s complex and intricate, with extensive symbolism. That was accomplished very well in a visual medium that gives the reader time to digest the finer points of the story, both verbally and visually. For the movie to succeed, it will need to take those things into account for both the first-time viewer and the viewer who’s seeing it for the fourth time and wants to still be picking up fresh nuances.
As Peter Jackson and others have shown, the source material is popular for a reason and when left mostly untampered-with, the final product can be just as good in its own medium. Fortunately, it sounds as though that is the direction things are going with the production. Hopefully Snyder can be as faithful with “Watchmen” as he tried to be with “300.”