Dark Horse Comics - Avatar: TLAB (Continuation)

[Mr Light]

Kid's movies always do horribly with the critics. Do you think they loved Alvin and the Chipmunks? I'm not defending the movie, it was bad, I'm just saying that the studio doesn't give a crap about its reception just about its bottom line. In spite of how bad the first one was, I still want to see the rest of the story in live-action no matter how maligned it is, just because it's my favorite animated series of all time.

They didn't make Katara action figures?

 

[Christopher]

It's long disturbed me how deeply entrenched sexism is in the toy industry. What kind of messages are we sending to our kids?

Then again, if we're talking about the Shyamalan version of Katara, I can understand the lack of an action figure, because I gather she didn't actually engage in much action beyond standing in the background, crying, and narrating. I read the recap of the film on The Agony Booth, and it sounds like Shyamalan stripped the female characters of all their strength and intelligence. Which makes the prospect of a Shyamalan adaptation of Books 2 and 3, where Azula emerges as the main villain, rather unnerving.

 

[bigdaddy]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=lastairbender.htm

It did $319 million and that's before home video or action figure money.

Still didn't make it's money back!

It cost 180 million to make and they spent 150 million on ads.

 

[Technobuilder]

I'm more interested in the new comics Dark Horse will be putting out in 2012 which will continuing the further adventures of Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, & Zuko, than the remote possibility of a second live-action movie.

Creator backed comics are the next best thing to the show itself.

 

[bigdaddy]

I'm more interested in the new comics Dark Horse will be putting out in 2012 which will continuing the further adventures of Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, & Zuko, than the remote possibility of a second live-action movie.

Creator backed comics are the next best thing to the show itself.

Was it ever explained why no one asked the creators of the show to make or help make the movie?

 

[Christopher]

Was it ever explained why no one asked the creators of the show to make or help make the movie?

They were credited as executive producers on the film, and it was reported that they were consulted on the script, although maybe those reports were exaggerated. Anyway, there's a lot of money at stake in a feature film, and studios are loath to entrust the responsibility to people who don't have prior experience in feature filmmaking. DiMartino and Konietzko have only television experience, and not a huge amount of that. We fans of the show know what a brilliant job they did in animation, but they don't have the reputation or experience necessary for a movie studio to entrust them with a 150 million dollar live-action feature film.

(The real question is why anyone at this point would entrust M. Night Shyamalan with a 150 million dollar feature film.)

 

[bigdaddy]

(The real question is why anyone at this point would entrust M. Night Shyamalan with a 150 million dollar feature film.)

Well exactly.

But the creators should have been around a lot more. Sure they don't know live action movies, but they made the characters that the movie destroyed.

 

[Christopher]

But the creators should have been around a lot more. Sure they don't know live action movies, but they made the characters that the movie destroyed.

Studios aren't concerned with that. Unless they're adapting something really huge and famous like Harry Potter, their priority is not to be faithful to the original work, but to make something that will work well as a movie and make them a profit, regardless of its origins. So they will hire people who have experience making profitable movies, people whose work and reputation they know.

Sometimes a really great movie can be made with no involvement of the creators of the work it's based on. It might be very different from the original work, but still quite a satisfying film in its own right. For instance, Akira Kurosawa had no input into the making of The Magnificent Seven (which was an adaptation of his The Seven Samurai), but it's still regarded as a fine Western in its own right.

The problem here isn't that Konietzko and DiMartino weren't involved. Sure, it would've been a good film if they had been allowed to make it, but the right filmmaker could've made it a good film even without their involvement, even if it had been changed a lot. The problem is that M. Night Shyamalan is a lousy filmmaker, or at least a lousy screenwriter.