James Mangold Has One-Eyed Monsters
James Mangold isn’t a guy to let himself be held down by genre. He’s directed some of the most acclaimed films of recent Oscar seasons-- 3:10 to Yuma, Girl Interrupted, Walk the Line-- but also the mob drama Cop Land, and the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold.
So that’s one reason that I can’t bemoan the fact that Mangold is the latest director to jump on the nonstop graphic novel adaptation train. The second reason is that the source material, for once, actually sounds like it would make a cool movie. Variety reports that Warner Bros. has secured the rights to Alexis Nolent’s French graphic novel Cyclopes, set in a dystopian future where soldiers wear cameras in their helmets and broadcast what they see in real time. One soldier realizes that what he’s fighting for isn’t justice, but commerce.
For some reason this reminds me of Fahrenheit 451, where the so-called protector of justice turns against the status quo. Nolent already has another of his graphic novels up for adaptation, The Killer, and seems to be a guy whose cult following still hasn’t arrived. Mangold described the story to Variety as “an electrifying package you find in the best sci-fi: great action sequences combined with themes that are eminently foreseeable.” Sounds a whole lot like Fahrenheit 451, actually.
Are there any Cyclops fans who can shed some light on this? Any Mangold fans pumped to see him do some sci-fi? Given what a competent, skilled job he’s done with all his films so far, in so many different genres, it’s hard to see him stumbling with such a promising story to work with.
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March 19th, 2008 at 14:29
Interesting post!