Yeah, I just saw it and came here to see if it was here yet.
I don't have mixed feelings about it at all.
From the article:
"He's a little bit more hardcore than other superheroes in that he packs guns and has martial arts training to kill, military style."
"You know what sold me? Charlie said he carries twin 1911's [Colt pistols]. I said, he carries guns? He said, yeah. I said, oh, well, we're doing it. He kills people."
Nope, no mixed feelings at all. It'll be horrible.
I am a fairly new Phantom Phan, but I am correct in that the Phantom does NOT kill people?
Isn't that kind of like Batman killing people or Lone Ranger killing people? Part of what makes them why they are is that they do not kill?
Sounds like they're not tweaking the Phantom, they're tweaking Phantom 2040. I don't mind them telling the story of the next Phantom, but why do we have to go back to a basic premise of 2040? I think it would be great to tell the story of the twins as young adults continually in sibling rivalry trying to "out Phantom" the other while dealing with modern pirates in a techno world.
Regardless, the Phantom DOES NOT kill. They'd better lose that part of it. At one time, I'm sure King Features wouldn't have let them take the character in that direction. Now, I'm not so sure they wouldn't approve whatever, like they did with Sci-Fi's Flash Gordon.
How come just about everyone who gets rights to KFS heroes wants to change them in some drastic way? These characters have existed for years as they are, and every time someone tries to change them, they usually always fail. And the more they change them, the worse they fail.
This looks like a great place to say "Thanks, Moonstone", for keeping the Phantom legend pretty much intact.
This looks like a great place to say "Thanks, Moonstone", for keeping the Phantom legend pretty much intact.
Amen.
Seriously, it seems that whenever a writer gets his hands on an established character, the first thing they want to do is to make the character as unlike he was as possible. I really chalk that up to just a lack of writing skills. I mean, it's possible to tell a great story with a character without making him a killer, a clown or another gender.
Just focus on telling a great story and leave the basics of the character intact.
-Dave
I read the article and the first thought I had was "These guys have not cleared this with the owners.". I can't believe that we won't see some kind of retraction or something else soon.
Ticktock
Seriously, it seems that whenever a writer gets his hands on an established character, the first thing they want to do is to make the character as unlike he was as possible.
-Dave
I hope you don't mean all writers, 'cause for me, it's all about discovering who the character really is, then putting him/her in a scenario that's new. Instead of making aspects of the character new...
Although I am very excited about the possibility of a live action series, I've said it before and I say it again: Mike or Ben Raab (or both, as a classic Hollywood writing-team) should try their hands at writing a Phantom movie or TV-pilot one day, in the style of the Moonstone comics. Would have made the perfect update of the character for new audiences without alienating those who are already fans, like they've been doing in the comics. It makes a lot more sense for me to update "Moonstone style", where they made the environment around the character a bit more modern and realistic without actually changing the Phantom himself. The writers of this proposed show seems to have read about three Phantom stories, if they believe the Phantom is a trained killing machine (maybe the skull made them confuse him with the Punisher). Nevertheless, I have waited years for the Phantom to appear on the screen again, and if they can make something that makes the character catch on like never before in the US, I would love that more than anything.
Besides, I always felt that the chances of us getting a faithful new series, on the big or small screen, diminished greatly after the Billy Zane movie, which stayed quite close to the source, performed dissapointingly at the box office.
I wonder if all this means Hyde Park Entertainment gave up on the film rights to the character.
I wonder if all this means Hyde Park Entertainment gave up on the film rights to the character.
Gee, I don't know, you think maybe Hyde Park and Sci-Fi/Knauf share non-exclusive rights to the Phantom? 
Heh. Actually, I thought about that, but I'm not sure if a movie company would risk buying non-exclusive rights to a character like this (imagine Sony, Warner Bros and Fox releasing Spider-Man movies the same summer...).
Speaking of non-exclusive rights, it seems like things are fine between Moonstone and Dynamite, thankfully:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080729-P...omics.html
