Found this one thanks to the good folks over at CHUD …
Of all the comic book flicks in the works these days one of the most surprising to me personally and the one drawing hands down the most advance hate is the upcoming Constantine, an adaptation of Alan Moore’s Hellblazer. It’s surprising to me not just because Hellblazer is a fairly obscure title but because to make an adaptation even remotely close to the source material would pretty much guarantee a hard R rating in the US and I just can’t see anybody being willing to go there with a comic film just yet. The hate started – or at least I first started noticing it – with the announcement of Keanu Reeves as the title character and continued on with occassional script leaks and eventual stories of Alan Moore being so angry about what was being done to his book that he swore to never allow any of his properties to be adapted for film again.
And now we have a trailer to look at, so we can start to judge for ourselves … I’ve not read a ton of Hellblazer books but I’ve got enough history with the character – a very noir, morally shady mage in working class Britain who somehow gets drawn into a God vs Devil sort of contest – to form at least a mildly informed opinion … I say the visuals look amazing – Reeves legitimately looks the part of the character – but the dialog is pretty stilted. This thing is gonna fail or succeed purely on Reeves’ acting ability and if I was putting up the money for it that would make me more than a bit nervous …
Trailer’s online here.
