Dear Producers of Comic Book Based Movies,
As both a producer and fan of a lot of the source material that is out there, I do understand the task of trying to get decades worth of history/mythos narrowed down to a 2 hour film. It is overwhelming just thinking about it.
However to keep the genre alive I am asking (and my fellow CBM fans below) to keep in mind the following when making these films of characters that we love.
1) Please do not re-hase the orgin. I understand you are trying to include the mainstream audience who may have no clue who Batman or Spiderman are, but at this point, alot of these characters have become part of the culture zeitgiest. Even my grandmother, who at 80+ years old and from the "old country" knows the orgin of these characters. Stop it.
(The exception would be lesser known characters-a character that hasn't already been shown in a cartoon or previous film/tv show. Their orgin being brought to the big screen is alright!)
2) Can we have some new stuff? Please? Frankly I am tired of seeing some of the same villians used over and over and over again. You have DECADES of material to use. We don't need to see Joker or the Goblin AGAIN.
3)Please keep to the source material. I know in some cases this is extremely hard to ask, just from a production standpoint. However, taking the principle players out of the game and using characters that even some of us CB fans never heard of is just wrong. This also goes to inserting characters/effects just to have another cool VFX trick. We don't need "devil dogs" again.
4)When saying that a film is based off of X storyline or X book that is held in high regard to us CB fans, and is even popular in mainstream, ACTUALLY BASE THE MOVIE ON IT. Please do not call a move X and then NOT let us fans see the story that we know and love.
5) If you hire a director that is a fan of the industry- let him do what (s)he is suppose to do. Don't try to interject a love story just to gain a demographic or a character that has been used to much. These directors know the source material and know what us CB fans will like/hate and what would also work with the mainstream.
6)Think in other formats. Would this character work better on a tv show versus trying to make a film triology? Would this character even work in a format outside of comics? What about the storyline? Does it work better as serial in which you could keep building an audience over seasons of a television show?
7)To spin off of above- would the character/storyline not work with the mainstream? But us fans are demanding to see X or Y? Maybe instead of wasting millions of dollars on something that MAY NOT WORK why don't you test it as web series for mobile devices (cell phones, tablets etc)to see if there is an audience for it?
8)Marketing- don't limit! Make your marketing campgains for both Mac/PC or Iphone/Android users. Why eliminate a potential market and shoot yourself in the foot?
There are probably a million more ideas from us CB fans... just keep watching.
A loyal fan who understands.