Re: RARA-AVIS: Trouble Is My Business & Total Chaos

From: Kevin Burton Smith ( kvnsmith@thrillingdetective.com)
Date: 24 Jun 2007


On Jun 22, 2007, at 9:20 AM, Robert Elkin wrote:

> Well, aside from his ability to turn a phrase neatly &
> brilliantly, Chandler himself is a bit comic-bookish &
> heavy-handed with the whole Marlovian "romantic hero"
> dodge, so maybe it won't be too bad a combo.

Well, there's comic books and then there's comic books.

Jim "Red Rain" Steranko, David "Stray Bullets" Lapham (Stray Bullets), Max Allan "Road to Perdition, Ms. Tree" Collins, Tim "Odd Jobs" Broderick, Ed "Almost anything he writes" Brubaker, Chris Mills and that "100 Bullets" guy all have writing chops even Chandler might begrudgingly accept as the real deal. They'd certainly all be better choices for adapting him.

But Frank Miller? His in-yer-face approach to comics and film is miles from anything Chandler ever wrote. Miller never met a subtlety he didn't cover with black ink and exclamation marks.

There's nothing in 300 or SIN CITY to even suggest he'd be suitable for adapting Chandler, except that, of course, those films made money. Which in Hollywood is all the excuse anyone needs.

Chandler would be glad to see that some things never change....

Kevin Burton Smith June 2007 Issue New fiction from Rogers, Abbott, Bracken, Bradley, Ergang and Spiegelman http://www.thrillingdetective.com

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