Sgt. Rock In Space?

[Howard Bagby]

It looks like the Sgt. Rock movie is back on, however it is now planned as a sci-fi movie. I'll pass.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Because a sci-fi setting worked, so, so well for Jonah Hex ...

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I'm pretty confident that this will never happen.

I don't know why I'm so confident -- Hollywood has put out some really misguided projects in the past. Maybe it's just Joel Silver's previous inability to work with DC properties -- Wonder Woman -- combined with Akiva Goldsman's awful track record with them (I don't care if he wrote A Beautiful Mind, he'll always be Batman & Robin to me.)

[ClarkKent_DC]

Y'know what? I'll just bet this version was written about when Transformers and G.I. Joe were either in the pipeline or out in theaters, and somebody said, "Yeah, that's the ticket!"

[The Baron]

Bah! Marvel did it first!

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I have to say, I've got nothing against outer-space war movies. But for god's sake, calling it Sgt Rock will just alienate much of the potential audience the movie has.

[Dagwan]

Potential audience?

You mean, all 20,000 people who would go see it based on their love of the old comics?

It's not like this is Batman, who has millions of people out there that grew up reading or watching him (that are still living) with pre-determined notions on how he should act or look.

To most people Sgt. Rock is a cipher, and won't even care that there were ever comics about him.

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[ClarkKent_DC]

Dagwan said:

Potential audience?

You mean, all 20,000 people who would go see it based on their love of the old comics?

It's not like this is Batman, who has millions of people out there that grew up reading or watching him (that are still living) with pre-determined notions on how he should act or look.

To most people Sgt. Rock is a cipher, and won't even care that there were ever comics about him.

Exactly. How many movie fans ever knew, or cared, that Men in Black was a comic book first?

[Doctor Hmmm?]

But then, why bother to reference Sgt. Rock at all?

[Figserello]

They should have Superman in it, except wearing an all-black suit and he could teleport everywhere instead of flying. Perhaps played by Nicholas Cage?

[Howard Bagby]

Doctor Hmmm? said:

But then, why bother to reference Sgt. Rock at all?

That was what I was thinking.

I am going to have to get that issue of What If? It looks like fun.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Howard Bagby said:

Doctor Hmmm? said:

But then, why bother to reference Sgt. Rock at all?

That was what I was thinking.

My theory for Why does Hollywood adapt a property from another medium and then change it so much that it isn't the same? is this: The name recognition of the property helps sell the property -- it helps it get past all the hurdles against getting it made as a movie, the hurdles that defeated other stories -- it gives whoever that somebody is in the position to say "yes" or "no" a reason to give it the green light.

But after that happens, there's a whole different set of considerations at play in actually making, and marketing, a movie. And slavish fidelity to the source material is, in many cases, a minor one -- or, at least, one that can be overtaken by other considerations (such as the budget, the stars, the director, the competition, etc.).

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Whether or not they've ever read a Sgt. Rock comic, the people who'll go to see a space war movie (SF fans, for the most part, unless it breaks really big, which I wouldn't expect it to), are the same people who are hyper-nitpicky about source material (not that you have to be hyper-nitpicky to see the problems with this). That's what I mean about alienating the potential audience -- not the Sgt. Rock fans, but the legions of anal-retentive SF fans who'll cry foul given any opportunity. And this here's a good one.

If this thing ever gets made -- which I doubt -- it'll tank.