You know, I’ve been loving the current storyline on HBO’s “Entourage” which features rising movie star Vincent Chase starring in a James Cameron-directed Aquaman film. TV Guide (or maybe it was EW) claimed that the storyline dissed the sea king, but I completely disagree. Vincent’s initial hesitation to portray Aquaman never stemmed from feeling the character was stupid, but rather that he, Vince, didn’t have the right stuff to portray a superhero. The only laugh-out-loud sequence was when the Hollywood braintrust trotted out a ghastly garish Aquaman outfit, and by me that was more a comment on Hollywood’s ability to bûggër a costume rather than on Aquaman himself. Vince’s brother, Johnny Drama–ever on the lookout for his own fading acting career–correctly points out with optimism that, hey, y’know, Aquaman DOES have a brother.
And on tonight’s episode, wonder of wonders, Vincent is actually shown working out with Aquaman’s harpoon hand. No “water hand” here; this version of Aquaman is packing serious spear. They refer to it as a “claw hand,” granted, but it’s metal and it fires a harpoon, so that’s close enough for me.
Now all we need is for Cameron to REALLY make an Aquaman film and we’re good to go.
PAD
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1 first off let me say what a long time fan i am of your work for i still enjoy reading the comics. as for an aquaman movie being done for real warner brothers actully has one in early pre production. but james cameron isn’t interested in that type of film to direct except when he was onboard spiderman. but otherwise aquaman doesn’t need to be on the big screen for some characters are better left alone
Peter – Since the show first talked about Aquaman, I’ve been thinking if their was any justice in the world, your name would have been used at least once as the writer of the script. I know that wasn’t going to happen but so many of the concepts they are discussing (Including the harpoon hand)came on your watch.
Peter, there was a story on IMDB last week that said that while the Aquaman thing on Entourage started as a joke, that Cameron supposedly loved the idea and is now seriously considering it — and is trying to get Entourage producer Mark Wahlberg for the lead. Now, IMDB’s “news” section is often filled with rumor and gossip, so I’d take it to be not quite as accurate as the average Rich Johnston column, but still…
Much as I enjoy PAD’s work, I find it hard to get worked up about Aquaman. Then again, much as I also have enjoyed much of Byrne’s work, I couldn’t get into his Submariner.
Which may be odd, because one of my favourite shows when I was a kid was SEA HUNT. Go figure …
Much as I enjoy PAD’s work, I find it hard to get worked up about Aquaman.
Maybe it’s just me, but I find it hard to get worked up about pretty much any DC character.
Even a Kevin Smith-directed Green Arrow has me going ‘meh’.
Actually, to be honest, I watched some of the first season of the show and just couldn’t get into it. However, Jeremy Piven being nominated for an Emmy along with all these Aquaman references (who for some reason I have never been able to explain is a favorite character of mine) has made me decide to give this show another try.
I have been watching this show all along, and it blew me away that they started talking Aquaman. Seriously, I was blown away. A fake superhero, sure, but to use a REAL one? And Mandy Moore is now on the show? Wow. Cool stuff.
Should they make an AM movie? Nahh. Make it a regular HBO series, it would rock!
Me? I wouldn’t have minded being the Aint-it-cool style reporter in the comic-con episode…….
We don’t get HBO, but my wife and I were at a hotel a couple weekends ago and caught an episode. We both thought it was pretty good and I got a kick out of them actually being at San Diego Con.
I really wonder if their choice to use the ‘harpoon hand’ aquaman was at all influenced by the animated version in ‘Justice League Unlimited’. As you mentioned in a previous post, many ‘non-fanboys’ tend to get their image of super heroes from media other than comics, and the only non-comic version of aquaman has appeared in JLU (other than the old ‘Superfriends’ version, that is). I also wonder how many kids think that Earth’s one and only green lantern is John Stewart, and that Martian Manhunter has no particular weakness to fire (both as portrayed in JLU).
Maybe it’s just me, but I find it hard to get worked up about pretty much any DC character.
This always depends on how you look at things. There seem to be two thoughts… can’t stand em, or love em. I personally love the characters of the DCU… but most of the time I can’t stand the writing…
It always depends on the writing. But I’m never a big fan of the big three in the comics… movies, definitely… but Batman, Superman and WW just don’t do it for me.
Travis
I became a fan of Entourage last season (and remember, Johnny Drama’s claim to fame is in genre tv’s “classic” Viking Quest), but I have to say that the Aquaman plotline is pretty interesting, precisely because he’s an established character that adds even more reality to this pseudo-reality show. They do a masterful job of integrating big name cameos playing themselves (Jessica Alba, Brook Shields, Mandy Moore, James Cameron) with wonderful character actors doing what we love (that guy who plays Danny on West Wing as the HMOW director, Mandy Moore’s agent who I can’t remember her name, Malcolm McDowell as the “you don’t know if he’s a good guy (or at least a better guy than Ari)” agency owner), all in the same episodes. And the SDCC episode was pretty interesting stuff as well. But I stay a fan mostly for Jeremy Piven – “lhiob” is one of the funniest lines tv’s seen for a while.
As for the big DC three, Batman’s the most flexible to me to work with, and he seems to have more depth as a character to me. I suppose I fall into that category of readers who likes him because he can walk the anti-hero line from time to time, but I think the Elseworlds stuff (Red Rain comes to mind, and of course, Dark Knight Returns) is where he shines. As for an Aquaman movie, you really have to ask yourself if this is feasible as a big budget pic – the water tank time it would require alone would make it a $200+ million movie these days, and AM’s not big enough to pull down that kind of box office reliably. What would be intersting is to see how well the two or three water-themed genre shows this fall do, and if they make underwater look good on the small screen, I could see some push for a tv movie pilot, maybe. But it’s gonna have to make Seaquest DSV look like kid’s play to meet the expectations of today’s viewers.
I recently asked Ethan Van Sciver what DC character he’d like to do next and his response was a dark Aquaman, he just needed to find a writer with a similar vision. PAD and EVS on an Aquaman one-shot would be too sweet!!
Oh and it was EW that had the article on Aquaman on Entourage.
The biggest problem I have with them using Aquaman for their superhero film is that the guy playing Vinnie Chase isn’t blond. I mean I know it is one thing for Kingpin to be black… I didn’t care about that at all, but isn’t Aquaman’s infancy tied directly into him being a blond (a la Atlantis Chronicles)?
Man I am such a geek.
If it makes you feel better, I wondered about that, too. Wonder if having to get his hair bleached will become a subplot…
“Then Aquaman says ‘How about we call you Black Vulcan?’, so I said ‘How about we call you White Fish?'” – Black Vul… er, Vulcan, on Harvey Birdman, Attorney-At-Law
Darn… must stop trying to quote from memory… here’s the actual clip:
http://www.dailywav.com/0405/whitefish.wav
so papa pete, would you ever consider doing another comic variation of AQ?
as you well know, your reading public clamored to read what new ideas you would create for HULK… I’m sure they are all equally confident you would bring great w~a~v~e~s of enthusiasm and rebirth to the AQ storyline
I think the reason they chose Aquaman for the fictional movie is [Jim braces for all the hate comments] he could be the best known, most pathetic superhero out there. Most people have heard of Aquaman (as opposed to silly characters like Bouncing Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Flaming Carrot (who’d make a good movie character if they avoid what happened with MYSTERY MEN), etc.) , but they know him as a very weak hero. Before the harpoon hand (and, in JLA, ability to give just about anyone a seizure), his powers consisted of breathing underwater, talking to fish, swimming well, and maybe being a little strong. On land, these are not very impressive abilities. On land and next to folks like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern, these are extraordinarily unimpressive abilities. If you were trapped in a burning building, would you really want to hear “Don’t worry, Aquaman is on the way”? Heck, I’d be more confident with Robin coming to my rescue. So for ENTOURAGE, this is the “perfect” high-end doomed-to-failure project: It’s the chance to play the hero everyone knows but few like.
And for an abso-frickin’-lutely hilarious take on Aquaman back on the Challenge of the Super Friends, check out
http://www.seanbaby.com/superfriends/aquaman.htm
All the entries are great, but no one gets slammed quite as much as Aquaman (except maybe Hawkman).
“as you well know, your reading public clamored to read what new ideas you would create for HULK… I’m sure they are all equally confident you would bring great w~a~v~e~s of enthusiasm and rebirth to the AQ storyline”
Well, they certainly did a good job of clamoring insofar as “Hulk” is concerned. But when it came to actually showing support for the book, sales were no more impressive than the tail end of the much-complained-about Bruce Jones run. So I’ve learned to take public enthusiasm with a large bag of salt.
PAD
Well I just ordered my copy of Tempest Fugit TPB… And I’ll be ordering the House of M one too when it’s out.
I can guarantee that I’d buy Aquaman monthly if you were on it again (of course I buy it monthly now, so that’s not saying much, I guess).
“as you well know, your reading public clamored to read what new ideas you would create for HULK… I’m sure they are all equally confident you would bring great w~a~v~e~s of enthusiasm and rebirth to the AQ storyline”
Well, they certainly did a good job of clamoring insofar as “Hulk” is concerned. But when it came to actually showing support for the book, sales were no more impressive than the tail end of the much-complained-about Bruce Jones run. So I’ve learned to take public enthusiasm with a large bag of salt.
PAD
To borrow a old metaphor, if you’ve been shackled to a 200-pound weight for the past 7 years, you can’t just take off the chains and immediately win a marathon or a 100-yard dash. Moreover if you have a show that’s been mostly crap for 3 seasons, it can take time to turn it around during that 4th season–especially if the marketing is somewhat lackluster.
IOW, you’re only human, Peter, there’s only so much one person can do.
Any way, James Cameron presents AQUAMAN: THE MOVIE is something I think a great many people would like–and a “screenplay by Peter David” wouldn’t hurt. After all it helps to go to the source’s mouth from someone familiar with the source material AND can do adapt writing for tv and movies (kinda like what Dwayne McDuffie did for the Justice League Unlimited).
— Ken from Chicago
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.dc.universe/msg/4129d978df4cad45?hl=en&
well- peter, if you do choose to bring some life back to Aquaman, I’ll be the first standing in line with a truckload of popcorn and pool full of butter to go along with that salt.
=)
Peter, I have to agree with you on the storyline lampooning Hollywood and not Aquaman. The joke could have been better if the director was a parody of Joel Schumacher. Cameron is too good of a filmmaker to screw up a character. I’d rather see a “New Frontier” movie series though…
Cameron would be perfect for making an aquaman film. Not only can he direct great action sequences (as proven by every movie since Aliens) but his experience with undersea filming would add a whole new element to the superhero film.
what is johnny drammas character name on Viking Quest?
johnny’s name on viking quest is tarvolt(sp?)
Funny this thread should pop up. I just saw the following link over at Dave Barry’s blog:
Oops!