Ya know, I'm mainly a MARVEL-MAN but there are several DC characters
I like too! One of those that I REALLY enjoy is SWAMP THING! I like him
better than MAN-THING! To me he has always been more seriously scary
and cringe-ably creepy than MAN-THING, even tho' I do love MARVEL'S
grungy green giant VERY much!
Now I'm talking about the original drawn by the eerie artist, BERNIE
WRIGHTSON and written by the legendary LEN WEIN. It only ran 24
issues but man did it have a downright dark & dreary atmosphere!
It's first issue came out NOVEMBER, 1972:
But 'a' Swamp Thing was actually first introduced in JULY, 1971 , in a
comic by the name of “THE HOUSE OF SECRETS”, #92. I love those old HOUSE
OF SECRETS books. I happen to be fortunate enough to own an issue of
this very comic book. It was written by none other than LEN WEIN.
It's story goes:
“LINDA OLSON, recently remarried to her late husband ALEX'S lab
assistant, DAMIAN, is unaware DAMIAN is plotting to kill her. But
DAMIAN nor LINDA are aware that THEY are being watched-- by the
SWAMP THING!
(By the way-'COOL FACT'-- The model for LINDA OLSON pictured on the
cover was none other than LOUISE SIMONSON, WALT SIMONSON'S wife
and sometimes co-writer.)
Now the origin story for the ALEC HOLLAND “SWAMP THING” has
ALEC HOLLAND and his wife, LINDA, being set up in a secret lab of the
government's out in the LOUISIANA swamp, THE BAYOU, to do
experiments for a bio-restorative formula that would solve any nation's
food shortage. They finally are successful at inventing it but a shady
corporation owner & CEO, NATHAN ELLERY, gets wind of it. He comes
with thugs to try and steal the formula from the HOLLANDS and the
government and they set a bomb. Doused with the formula's chemicals in
the massive fire, ALEC runs on fire and falls into the waters of the muck-
filled swamp.
Some time later a huge plant-like humanoid creature appears. HOLLAND
has mutated into a massive muck-encrusted mockery of a man, SWAMP
THING!
My movie idea here starts similar but I compressed the first 10-issues into a
concise story.
In the original story, the head agent at the lab, MATTHEW CABLE,
manages to rescue LINDA HOLLAND from the burning facility and they
come back out days later to the destroyed lab to try and see if any of
the formula survived the flames. ELLERY is there for the same reason and his
thugs kill LINDA. SWAMP THING/ALEC bursts forth from the bog in a rage
and kills all of ELLERY'S thugs and ELLERY as well. CABLE thinks SWAMP THING
is the cause of LINDA'S death and vows to hunt him down and destroy him!
My story continues from there as SWAMPY wakes up in the night in the
swamp as an airplane screams across the full moon-lit night sky and crashes
into the bog a ways off from him. He rushes through the dark mire to the
wreckage and discovers the grisly remains of the passengers in the passenger
compartment. They have all been ripped to shreds like they were torn apart
by vicious animals. But the pilot's body is mysteriously missing from his seat.
The airplane's door has been ripped off it's hinges.
Cut to a man in a pilot's jacket in early morning coming from the swamp up
to an old creepy house, sitting there in the BAYOU. He knocks tentatively on
the door and a hand from behind him grabs his shoulder. He jumps away
from it, startled, and whirls around. It's an older man with long hair and
mustache and a shotgun. He asks “THE PILOT”, “Can I help you young
man?” The pilot replies, “My airplane crashed out in the bog and all my
passengers were killed but me.” The Old Bayou man tells his wife to come on
out and help him with the poor young man! The pilot tells them his name is
SEAN O'SHANEY (My play of words on the renowned werewolf/monster movie star,
LON CHANEY JR.--LOL).
The old Bayou man says he is going into town for their monthly supplies, the
next day, and the young pilot can stay with them till tomorrow when he will
take him into town.
The sun is going down when SWAMP THING/ALEC arrives at the Bayou
Couple's rustic house. He hides in the shadows concealing himself from the
occupants of the house as he spies on them. The young man and the couple
are eating together in the dining area. Suddenly the pilot says he doesn't feel
too well and heads to the their bathroom. He sits down on the pot and starts
to sweat profusely and shake! The couple are now in their living room when
suddenly a lot of loud noise erupts inside the bathroom, like someone is
tearing the place apart. Abruptly the bathroom door erupts from the
doorway and slams into the hall-wall. The couple turns to the sound when of-
a-sudden a big snarling werewolf appears in the entrance-way from the hall
to the living room. The woman screams and the man hollers, both cringing
in abject terror!
Wham! SWAMP THING explodes through the front door into the living room!
He slams into the WEREWOLF as they tumble across the floor, chunks of fur
& vegetation flying about. The old couple holler in abject fear again! SWAMP
THING hurls the werewolf out through where the front door used to be and
into the yard. They fight ferociously for quite some time until the
WEREWOLF whimpers and runs off, bleeding badly, into the night swamp!
SWAMPY looks back at the couple with eyes and facial expressions of caring
and concern for them yet abject sadness!
The lady says, who was that? The old man replies, You mean WHAT was
that? The lady states, no, WHO was that? His eyes were so sorrowful yet he
saved our very lives from whatever that other thing was!
The story continues with ANTON ARCANE coming to the swamp with his
monstrous UN-MEN (They're unsuccessful attempts of ARCANE trying to make a
better body for his soul to be transferred into.).
They take SWAMP THING captive and bring him to an old run-down
Mansion out in the Bayou. ARCANE says he's been looking for a sturdy body
to necromantically transfer his soul into from his old decrepit body.
ARCANE has also brought his niece, ABIGAIL ARCANE, with him. But he
keeps her virtually a prisoner. Thus SWAMPY must battle ARCANE and his
malformed monstrosities to save his life of-a-sorts and free the sad beautiful
maiden all-the-while as AGENT CABLE tries to vengefully hunt his poor misshapen
ass down!
WILL SWAMP THING FIND LOVE AMONGST ALL THE MAYHEM???
I think my story has everything a SWAMP THING movie should have...
his origin, an evil CORPORATE CEO, a vengeful government agent, a
damsel-in-distress, a Werewolf, Frankensteinian Monstrosities, and a
powerful Mad-Doctor/Sorcerer! It would be epic and I would dare say
way better than the one Joe Silver is doing! I don't TRUST Hollywood
and WARNERS/DC at ALL! Mine would be a deadly serious SWAMP
THING! NO CAMP!
It would be a moody, darkly-lit tribute to the UNIVERSAL Monsters
of that bygone time! Yet with complete realism.
MY SWAMP THING MOVIE FANCAST:
When I chose the eerily beautiful ANNA PAQUIN as ABBY ARCANE I
felt it was only natural to bring in her new husband and co-star of
cable TV'S “TRUE BLOOD”, the amazing British actor STEPHEN MOYER
as ALEC. He won't be in there very long.
ALEC HOLLAND: STEPHEN MOYER
You need a huge guy who is also an excellent actor to play the role of
SWAMP THING, who must use his body, eyes and face to express
SWAMPY'S feelings and thoughts. SWAMP THING can't talk.
SWAMP THING: KEVIN DURAND
To give a feeling of how big KEVIN really is, here is a photo of him with a
normal-sized actor. Oh, he's big!
ANNA PAQUIN has this weird feeling and eerie beauty on TRUE BLOOD,
thus she would just be perfection as the strange yet gorgeous ABIGAIL
ARCANE. It's not the first time she's had a role where a streak of some
other color was in her hair! LOL Plus this takes place in a southern swamp,
kind of like her TV show!
ABIGAIL “ABBY” ARCANE: ANNA PAQUIN
OH, MY!!! lol
I'm not trying to do a TRUE BLOOD” casting of SWAMP THING here, it's
just that these actors have all worked together so well for quite some time.
It just seems natural to me... uhmmm... maybe SUPERNATURAL is more accurate!
I tell you, their acting together seems very magical, that's for sure!
MATTHEW CABLE: RYAN KWANTEN
I simply think MALIN would be great as ALEC'S scientist wife, LINDA.
LINDA HOLLAND: MALIN AKERMAN
These two ol' character-actors are scary good! Scaaary!
OLDER BAYOU MAN & WIFE: BRAD DOURIF, AMY MADIGAN
VILLAINS:
Come on, look at the pictures! Bill 'IS' Anton Arcane!
ANTON ARCANE: BILL NIGHY
Another perfect fit, to me!
NATHAN ELLERY: ROBERT KNEPPER
JASON already played a WEREWOLF and this would be kind of a cool
in-joke. I thought he was great in SKINWALKERS!
SEAN O'SHANEY/WEREWOLF: JASON BEHR
DU-U-U-UH!!!
CRANIUS, PSYCHIC UN-MAN LEADER: CGI + JOHN HURT (VOICE)
I thought I would name these guys myself since the writers didn't.
I used Latin to go along with the Latin-- CRANIUS.
JONES, ANOTHER DU-U-U-UH!!!
VASTUS, GIGANTIC UN-MAN: NATHAN JONES
He is the little nebbish monster who acts as CRANIUS' body when they're
disguised in a trench coat and hat as 'one' person.
ANDY, LAST BUT NOT LEAST...DU-U-U-UH!!! lol
BREVUS, LITTLE UN-MAN: CGI + ANDY SERKIS